Employer: ROMSES ARCHIECTS
Team: Scott Romses & Ferdous Kazim
Phase: Concept Design
Year: 2018
Zhangjiang ‘Tech-Park”
This concept explores a multiple point tower and podium configuration that hovers above the existing terrain and bamboo vegetation, reveling the lush vegetated sloped bank areas in juxtaposition and contrast to the hard-edged orthogonal geometries of the podium and towers. Staggered south facing slab towers are sited on the podium to maximize views and create a dynamic figure-ground composition on the site. Social/public spaces are introduced vertically within the towers, powerfully expressed as bridging and view platforms between the buildings.
Design Strategies:
Organic / Orthogonal Contrast: To heighten the awareness of the ‘organic’ landscape contours and vegetation, a simple and bold orthogonal language of architectural massing is proposed, to enhance one’s awareness of both.
Retention of Bamboo Bank: The existing steep bank with timber bamboo is preserved, enhanced, and made experiential through the composition, siting, and spatial strategies of the project.
Healthy Work/Play: The psychological benefit of meaningful connections with nature in our work environment is well documented, and the intent is to create a rich and healthy environment where all spaces have a direct relationship to nature, light and fresh air, and roof gardens are incorporated into all roof planes.
“Social Connectors”: The towers program distribution is enriched by providing amenity and social spaces on upper floors expressed as bridge-like horizontal connectors, spanning between towers and integrating them into a collective whole.
“Floating Podium”: A 2 story podium ‘floats’ 10 m above the ground plane, and is intended to house the majority of cultural/public uses and amenities, such as: galleries, conference spaces, auditoriums, film/art/music facilities etc. Its roof is designed as a dynamic man-made green space for leisure and play.
Green/Sustainable Building Strategies: By virtue of the site plan composition, there is great potential for strong passive design green strategies to be employed in the design of the buildings, where all spaces have solar control, and natural light/ ventilation opportunities. Storm water retention, solar panels, and energy efficient design will be a priority.
Employer: ROMSES ARCHIECTS
Team: Scott Romses & Ferdous Kazim
Year: 2017-Ongoing
The predominantly underdeveloped surrounding industrial neighbourhood results in a context comprised, in large part, of 1-2 storey buildings. Our proposal maximizes the envelope vertically since the site is very narrow, resulting in a 7 storey form that reads as a ‘beacon’ within this low context. Furthermore, its vibrant rust patina colour, and cantilevered upper floors gives the impression of the building ‘floating above its context. The memory of the existing dilapidated boiler-room building, with its ad-hoc patinaed metal cladding, and position within the site, is reimagined in the new proposed building. The proposed rust patina cladding is inspired by the industrial vernacular of the existing boiler building and surrounding context. The simple expression of the building can be described as an open-ended ‘tube’ with large apertures at both the north and south ends. These apertures, along with their respective balconies, inflect towards the west, capturing the dramatic Vancouver skyline views. Industrial buildings are characterized by a clear logic in form and function, and we wanted our new building to complement this simplicity of form, yet, do so in bold and sculptural expression. The materiality of the building is rooted in the core concept of having the building read as a contemporary interpretation of industrial vernacular. Weathered /Corten steel is used as the primary material expression, and its vibrant rust-red patina will give the building an ambiguous timeless identity as to its inception.
UNION BAY, BC, CANADA
Concept Design Stage
Employer: ROMSES ARCHIECTS
Team: Ferdous Kazim
Year: 2020-Ongoing
The park amenity building is designed in such a way that it carves the land to give form to the building and sculpt the land. The landscape ramps up to form the roof of the building, this blurs the boundaries between the land and the building mass. The ramping green roof acts as a viewing platform to capture a glimpse of the sea beyond. The building also seamlessly stitches the sloping ground making an easy transition between the higher and the lower ground. Rainwater flowing over the gently sloping terrain begins to curve back and forth across the park landscape. It flows to the catchment pond under the belly of the building, which acts as a shallow reflecting pool before being discharged to the storm drainage system.
Employer: ROMSES ARCHIECTS
Team: Scott Romses & Ferdous Kazim
Year: 2020-Ongoing
The home is an inter-generational family project to allow the adult children to grow into an affordable homeownership option, and potentially also enable a down-scaling ‘aging-in-place’ option for the parents in the future. The home is a simple L-shaped configuration to enclose a private landscaped courtyard, which the home’s principal spaces orient towards. The uses on the 2 levels reflect a “reverse plan” where the bedrooms are located on the ground floor, and public spaces (kitchen, dining, living room) are on the second floor to take advantage of southwesterly distant views to the Vancouver skyline. The home will be designed under ‘passive design’ strategies to maximize fresh air, and natural light, minimizing solar heat gain on the south and west exposures, and capturing solar and rainwater harvesting opportunities. Its minimalist aesthetic is enriched with a material palette of black metal and cedar cladding, and a lathe-screen vertical garden stair tower.
North Vancouver BC, CANADA
Concept Design Stage
Employer: ROMSES ARCHIECTS
Team: Ferdous Kazim
Year: 2020-Ongoing
Vancouver BC, CANADA
Slab Plans
Employer: ROMSES ARCHIECTS
Team: Ferdous Kazim, Scott Romses, DK Landscape, Raaw Design
Year: 2015-2020
Located within the rapid transformation of the Cambie Corridor, our project seeks to provide a more bold and simple expression within the often overly ‘fussy’ and hyper-articulated context of this new construction. The building is a simple L-shaped configuration, binding the north and east sides of the site. The wing of the L shape that follows the lane is 2 storey to match the scale envisioned for the laneways. The L-shaped massing is reinforced by a T-shaped public realm pedestrian axis that starts at the King Ed facade manifest as a breezeway entry portal, which draws residents and pedestrians into the more private public realm of the courtyard mews within, and provides a strong arrival/connection into the project from King Ed and the nearby transit station. This breezeway entry portal and treatment of the streetscape elements are such that the building is broken down into a hierarchy of clear articulated smaller forms and massing components that break down the monotony of an otherwise continuous façade along King Ed. Its black & white colour scheme is manifest to ‘ground’ the building on a black masonry base, which ‘floats’ the upper white forms above the site.
White Rock, BC, CANADA
Working drawings / Shop Drawing Review/ Details
Employer: ROMSES ARCHIECTS
Year: 2015-2020
The site benefits from remarkable distant views to the ocean, and the design responds to capitalize on this feature from all the units. The design provides a bold contemporary solution for this prominent site. Large expanses of glass bring the outdoors inside as well as opening to ocean views from all principal rooms of the units. Bold ‘folded’ roofs protect this glazing from sun and rain and give the massing a striking silhouette and sculptural expression. A strong vertical rhythm of massing gives each unit its own identity and breaks down the massing and bulk into smaller more domestically scaled forms. Quality authentic materials in natural earth tones are employed to reinforce the Westcoast landscape beyond. The project is grounded to its site on a concrete plinth. Warmth and domesticity are provided in the use of wood siding, and metallic standing seam gun- metal grey clads the bold roof forms which wraps down vertically onto façade elements. Custom metal filigree accents are created with detailed elements, such as solar screens, canopies, and railings.
