As Aboriginal culture in Australia continues to fade, the community of Mornington Island urgently needs a cultural and art centre to safeguard, express, and pass down its heritage. This project is to design a building for the Mirndiyan Gununa Arts Center. It places the identity at its core, exploring how architecture can support the preservation and transmission of Indigenous cultural values across generations.
“Ngurruwarra,” meaning “root” in the Lardil language, symbolizes architecture as the origin of culture—a deep connection between land and spirit. This building is conceived as something born from the land itself, a vessel that not only carries memory, but actively reanimates it through dance, art, language, and shared community practices.
Research revealed a lack of space for creative practice and cultural transmission on the island. This project envisions an art centre where Indigenous artists can create, learn, and share their heritage—while communicating cultural values to the public. Rooted in identity, the design unfolds across three scales: ritual mapping, spatial grounding, and cultural embedding.
Framework | Designing Identity Across Scales
Ritual Mapping
Grounding Actions in Space
Embedding Culture into Structure
Articulating the process of identity transformation—Separation, Liminality, and Reintegration— through a spatial framework that stages cultural transition.
Translating user behaviors and cultural practices into spatial character and atmospheric quality.
Reinterpreting indigenous values through material expression and tectonic detail to embed culture into the built form.
Scale 2 |Grounding Actions in Space
Rituals act as a means of reshaping identity. Users pass through three symbolic stages: separation from their roles, immersion in a liminal space of cultural creation, and reintegration into the community with renewed identity. Through spaces of separation, creation, and reintegration, the architecture guides users on a sensory journey—shifting from dark to light, rough to smooth, enclosed to open.
Transitional Corridor
Atelier Garden Workshop
Exhibition Hall
Entrance Hall
Workshop Yard Gallery
Womens’s Atelier
Exhibition
Hall
Garden & Water Reservoir
Transitional Corridor
Atrium
Program & Circulation
Program and circulation are directly shaped by scale 1 - rituals mapping. The circulation embodies ritual transitions — moving users through stages of separation, liminality, and reintegration. The spatial journey begins with a transitional corridor, inviting users to leave behind their everyday roles and enter a state of separation. Within the liminal zone—the painting studio and workshop—cultural identity is shaped through acts of creation. The journey culminates in the exhibition space, where these expressions are reintegrated and offered to the wider public.
Men’s Atelier
Learning Studio
Rehearsal Hall
Entracne
Workshop
Transitional Corridor
Scale 3 |Embedding Culture into Structure
Art-Integrated Structures
T-shaped Steel Bar welded to 45mm steel base plate and bolted to precast concrete slab and reinforced concrete framed
Art-Integrated Concrete Bricks Steel Frame
T-shaped Steel Plate
Unequal angle
Steel Rods
20mm Diameter steel rods welded to unequal steel angles to allow bricks to slot onto them and is hidden
Mortar Joint
Joints perforated concrete bricks slightly recessed to allow assemble
for Steel Rods
Precast Concrete Slab
Cover
Concrete Tile
Concrete Floor
Concrete Slab
When the Facade Begins to Move
Feburary 2025
Type: Public Condenser, Individual Work
Supervisor: Sang Lee, Ger Warries, Antonio Cantero Copenhagen, Denmark
The public condenser in Haraldsgade serves as a dynamic hub, promoting social interaction and physical well-being through the concept of fluidity. Adaptable design elements—such as movable walls, dynamic facades, and interactive features—create an environment where spontaneous social engagement and smooth transitions between indoor and outdoor spaces are encouraged. Rooted in biophilic principles, the design incorporates natural ventilation, daylighting, and green spaces to enhance both environmental and human health. This flexible framework dissolves barriers to interaction, fostering stronger community connections and cultivating a healthier, more cohesive urban experience.
Copenhagen| Air Ventilation & Pollution
Headache and anxiety (SO2) Impacts on the central nervou system (PM)
Cardiovascular diseases (PM, O3, SO2)
Irritation of eyes, nose and throat
Breathing problems (O3, PM, NO2, SO2, BaP)
Respiratory impacts: irritation & infections; asthma & reduced lung function; COPD (PM); lung cancer (PM, BaP) Impacts on liver, spleen and blood (NO2)
Pollutant From Indoor Environment
Haraldsgade | Hidden Communities
Site |Disjunction of Resident–Worker Trajectories
In Haraldsgade, air pollution, poor indoor environments, and social isolation threaten public health. Buildings lack fluidity and ventilation, while spaces like Bolsjefabrikken remain culturally potential yet socially detached. This calls for a new public architecture that improves air quality, enhances visibility, and fosters cultural exchange across social boundaries.
Bolsjefabrikken
Kinetic Facade Design| Bimmimetics Concept
Morphology
A smart motor regulates fin rotation, opening in response to inadequate airflow and closing to mitigate direct solar exposure.
Guard cells control stomatal aperture by altering turgor via osmotic pressure, opening at low CO2 or high humidity for gas exchange.
Design
The kinetic façade enhances daylight and ventilation through axis-rotating fins that modulate solar gain and airflow. Sensors track indoor and outdoor conditions, transmitting data to a central controller that synchronizes system performance.
Kinetic Façade Integrated with Mechanical Ventilation
Human Terrace
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
February 2024
Type: Mixed-Use Building, Group Work (with Jermo van Bijsterveldt)
Supervisor: Inara Nevskaya, Dick Baggerman
The primary objective of the project is to infuse the building with vibrancy and a human-scale perspective, fostering closer connections among residents. This goal is pursued by incorporating intertwined collective spaces into the design, providing opportunities for social interaction and community engagement. Key design principles, such as human scale and the inclusion of terraces, have been integrated to ensure a seamless and harmonious architectural composition. Through these thoughtful design elements, the project aims to create a living environment that is not only aesthetically pleasing but also promotes a sense of community and interconnectedness among its residents.
Create Openings
Private | Collective | Public
Program Distribution
Climate responsiveness and regenerative design
The master plan defines the building’s functions—parking, residential apartments, and commercial spaces—to meet diverse community needs. By integrating collective spaces and terraces, the design emphasizes human scale and fosters social interaction, aiming to create an environment that is both aesthetically harmonious and supportive of community cohesion.
Building Form Development
Original Mass
Hiding Parking Garage
Within the constraints of the limited site, the building is carefully organized into three primary functions: commercial spaces, residential apartments, and parking facilities. The commercial program is concentrated along the street frontage, activating the ground level and creating a lively edge for pedestrians. Residential units are positioned above, benefitting from privacy and natural light, while maintaining a strong connection to the urban context. The parking area, strategically set back from the street, ensures that it does not dominate the public realm, thereby allowing the ground floor to remain open, vibrant, and socially engaging.
Ground Floor Plan
7th Floor
Type 2: 10 units 56 m2 1 bedroom
Type 5: 20 units 63 m2 1.5 bedroom
Type 11: 38 units 66 m2 1 bedroom
Type 12: 17 units 96 m2 2.5 bedroom
Diagram
Balcony Strategy | Privacy and Human Scale
The tower design introduces balconies to every apartment, carefully arranged to preserve privacy while avoiding direct adjacency between neighboring units. The configuration maintains a sense of human scale by limiting continuous wall height to two storeys, creating a façade that reads as a staggered composition rather than a monolithic surface. The final arrangement emerged through a series of trials and adjustments, balancing individual resident needs with the coherence of the overall architectural expression.
Construction Process
The structure consist of clt beam, colum and concrete load-bearing wall.
Attaching cantilevers to the main structures
Building the exterior wall after the panel is placed
Repeating the previous steps until the whole building is completed
CLT panels are overlaid on the top of the beam and column
Lastly, installing the wood sliding panel and glass balustrades to the baclony
1. Structure
4. Exterior wall
2. Cantilever
5. Repeat
3. CLT panel
6. Balcony
Water
100 mm thermal insulation
50 mm thermal insulation
50 mm Chipping infill
Vapour barrier
200 mm cross laminated timber
Suspended ceiling
50mm Glaswol sound insulation
Sectional Perspective
20mm aluminium panel
Vertical batten
Sheating
Water proof membrane
150mm thermal insulation
Vapour barrier
Cross laminated timber beam
10mm plasterboard
Detail B
3. Floor structure
25mm concrete slab
25mm heating pipe
50mm thermal insulation
A
Vapour barrier
200 mm cross laminated timber
Suspended ceiling
50mm Glaswol sound insulation
1. Roof Structure
2. Beam structure
C
5. Balcony beam structure
20mm wood panel
Vertical batten
Sheating
Water proof membrane
150mm thermal insulation
Vapour barrier
Cross laminated timber beam
Detail Section
Detail
Green Hub
Delft, Netherlands
February 2024
Type: Mobile Community Folly, Demountable Structure
Collab: Ziyue Yu, Sterre Hoek van Dijke, Tsung Han Ou
Tutor: Arie Bergsma, Frank Schnater
This project presents a prefabricated modular system that combines timber frames, recycled lumber, polycarbonate panels, and aluminium profiles into ventilated walls, closed wall modules, and awning windows, ensuring natural ventilation, daylight, and thermal comfort. A photovoltaic glass roof integrates renewable energy while supporting climate control, making the structure both sustainable and adaptable.
Conceived as a neighbourhood green hub, the design functions as a greenhouse and gathering space that can be assembled, disassembled, and relocated, showcasing how prefabrication can foster resilience, ecological integration, and social interaction within the community.
Supervisor: F. Oikonomopoulou, T. Bristogianni, James O’Callaghan
The project envisions a glass-structured visitor center in a national park, inspired by the dinosaur fossils housed within. The roof design translates the form of dinosaur ribs into fragmented elements, creating a symbolic connection to the site while also making the glass panels easier to transport and assemble. To ensure both elegance and feasibility, the design process focused on developing precise glass joints, followed by structural verification and Karamba optimization to balance architectural expression with structural performance.
In order to determine the structural form, these components can be algorithmically rationalised in terms of their dimensions. According to the rule of thumbs for initial sizing of structural glass elements, the depth of the fins is between L/12 - L/15. Therefore, five different sizes of fins were derived starting from the largest span and arranged in combinations.
In our Karamba structural analysis, the large-span fin with two half panels showed far greater deflection than our manual calculations suggested, mainly because the shear walls that normally take most of the wind load were not yet included in the model.
By implementing two layers of fins to act as a shear wall in our model, we achieved significantly better outcomes in terms of both deflection and stress. This enhancement effectively increased the stiffness and stability of the structure, distributing the loads more evenly and reducing the stress concentrations.
