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ZAIN KARSAN
Selected Work 2009-2013
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ZAIN KARSAN CONTENTS

Candidate for Bachelor of Architectural Studies
Honors REFERENCE LETTERS Page 4
Co-op Program RESUME Page 6
Faculty of Engineering, Waterloo
MOSS PARK MIXED USE Page 8
15 Snow Leopard Crt HOTEL Page 14
Brampton, ON L6R 1J4
Canada ZOO Page 18
DEEP FORMATIONS Page 22
Mobile: +1 646 515 9807
Home: +1 905 458 8675 CHENGDU RESIDENTIAL COMPLEX Page 26
Email: zainkarsan7@gmail.com JAIHUI INTERNATIONAL HOSPITAL Page 28
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September 10th, 2012

LETTER OF REFERENCE - ZAIN KARSAN

To whom it may concern;

This is a strong letter of recommendation for Zain Karsan.

After being selected from the top of his class in the co-op program at the University of Waterloo, Zain spent a
four month work term at Diamond Schmitt Architects, from May to August of 2012. During that time he worked
with me, directly and indirectly, on the Brock University School of Fine and Performing Arts. He joined the
project near the mid-point of construction drawings, and worked on a team of 8 to produce two cost estimates
and the tender package, for a $29 million academic building. The project was done using Revit software.

While on the Brock project, Zains responsibilities included design of a new entrance, supporting the use of
Revit on the team, developing furnishing plans, millwork drawings, interior elevations, and reflected ceiling
plans, under the supervision of the project architect.

Zain is a gifted, voracious learner. He applies his architectural sensibilities, design skills and computer
knowledge with precision and passion. He is a clear communicator and works well on a team. We very much
enjoyed having him on our team and in the office, and look forward to having him return in the future.

Regards,

Michael

Michael Leckman, Principal

DIAMOND SCHMITT ARCHITECTS
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RESUME
EDUCATION
September 2009 - Current
September 2005 - June 2009
WORK EXPERIENCE
January - August 2013
May - August 2012
September - December 2011
January - April 2011
July - August 2010
VOLUNTEERING AND LEADERSHIP
Candidate for University of Waterloo, February - June 2009 Private Tutoring
Faculty of Engineering, -Assistant Teacher, grades 5-11
Bachelor of Architectural Studies Honors,
September 2007 - August 2008 Ismaili Volunteer Corps
Co-op Program
-Youth Counsellor
Cambridge, Ontario, Canada
Turner Fenton Secondary School, AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS
International Baccalaureate Program Honors,
June 2010 Featured in LAGI Competition Publication and
Brampton, Ontario, Canada
at the DIFC Public Exhibit in Dubai for Infinity
November 2009 Ayn Rand Essay Competition
-Semi Finalist
Diamond and Schmitt Architects (Student Architect) Summer 2009 Duke of Edinburgh Young Adult Challenge
Brock School for the Performing Arts -Gold Award
-Project Coordination (Mechanical, Electrical and Structural) Fall 2009 University of Waterloo Entrance Scholarship
-Design Options and Production of Details
-Working Drawings Fall 2007 I-Star Award for Academic Excellence
Diamond and Schmitt Architects (Student Architect)
Brock School for the Performing Arts
-Project Coordination (Mechanical, Electrical and Structural) TECHNICAL SKILLS -Revit Architecture 2012, Autocad 2011, Rhinoceros 5, T-Splines, Sketchup, V-ray
-Design Options and Production of Details -Adobe Photoshop CS5, Adobe Illustrator CS5, Adobe InDesign CS5
-Working Drawings -Microsoft Office, iWorks
-Windows XP, Vista, Mac OS X
Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (Architecture Intern) -Laser Cutter
Hongqiao Lot -CNC Router
-Project Coordination (Mechanical and Structural) -3D Printer
-Design Options and Presentation Drawings
-Working Drawings TRADITIONAL SKILLS -Freehand sketching
-Hand Drafting
WZMH Architects (Design Assistant)
-Model Making
Project Borr
-Visual and Oral Presentation
-Working Drawings
-Project Coordination (Civil, Landscape, Mechanical, Structural)
-Issued sets for Progress, Tender, Addendums
JCI Architects (Architecture Intern)
Prince Charles House
-Digital Modelling
-Presentation Drawings
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MOSS PARK MIXED USE DEVELOPMENT

LANEWAY

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12

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SECOND FLOOR PLAN

GEORGE ST
JARVIS ST
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7 8

4 5

1 2

QUEEN ST

THIRD FLOOR PLAN

The premise of the project was to
introduce to Moss Park, an elementary
school, public library, retail, and a co-op
tower. The proposal replaces Moss
Park Armory at the corner of Queen and
Jarvis.
The project is organized about a central
courtyard, with the commercial program
located at the south such that it can be
connected to the main public artery,
Queen St, while the elementary school
is located at the north, with entrances
at Jarvis and George St. Two programs
bridge the divide between the commer-
cial and educational program, which are
the school auditorium, and the public
library. The library occupies the length
of the site, bookended by a rare book
archive, and a lecture theater.
The auditorium completes the courtyard, The ground floor offers the ability of the
such that it may be related to the adja- performance or event to extend beyond
cent park, commercial and educational the auditorium iself. The blackbox theater GROUND FLOOR PLAN
1 Restaurant 7 Courtyard
programs. The auditorium is designed as is designed as a counterpoint to the 2 Grocery Store 8 Auditorium
3 Library Entrance 9 School Atrium
an adaptive program that can service the overall project, clad in LED panels that 4 Residential Lobby 10 Loading
5 Art Gallery 11 Daycare
school as well as the community living and animate the volume or become part of the 6 Cafe 12 Gym
working in the condominum and live work performance itself.
units. The auditorium is concieved as a
blackbox theater that can achieve multiple
configurations and, being clad in operable
partitions, offers the ability of extending
the space towards the park and inwards
to the courtyard. The entire auditorium is
conceived as a flytower, both the audence
and performance areas of the theater can
be suspended and lowered according to
the performance or event hosted.
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3 7

2
4

1 Restaurant
2 Rare Book Archive
3 Library Stacks
4 Live Work Units
5 Grocery Store
5 6 Auditorium
7 Gym
8 Cafeteria
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SECTION THROUGH SCHOOL

1 PUBLIC LIBRARY
2 SCHOOL ENTRANCE
3 CAFETERIA STORAGE
4 SCHOOL LIBRARY
5 SCHOOL ATRIUM
6 LOCKER ROOM
7 CAFETERIA
8 CLASSROOM
9 GYM

COURTYARD

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1
5
3 7

2
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AUDITORIUM

SCHOOL ATRIUM

CAFETERIA
AUDITORIUM SECTION AUDITORIUM CONFIGURATIONSW
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HOTEL

The premise of the project was to de-

sign a hotel in Cambridge that might act
as a catalyst for urban development.
The hotel replaces a large parking lot,
occupying very little of its overall area
and converting the remainder into
a small park. The strategy involves
separating the site by a small boulevard
that increases permeability such that
the hotel occupies one half and the
park occupies the other. The idea that
the boulevard and the park create a
place of gathering for locals and visitors
became central to the project. The
hotel itself allows for several areas of
interaction on multiple levels, submerg-
ing the bar lounge program into the
ground, raising the restaurant to create
overall views of the park, and lifting
the spa and gym to the height of the
hotel creates views of the city and the
Grand River that divides it. The lobby
is itself a large atrium that connects all
programs of the project adding a level
of theatricity to the hotel. This strategy
of organization permeates to the rooms
which overlook the park and are framed
by slender columns that extend the full
height of the hotel to create vignettes
that can be seen from the boulevard.
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HOTEL CONTEXT
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RAIN FOREST ZOO

The premise for this project was to
develop a zoo in the Don Valley that
functioned as a self sustaining ecosys-
tem. Thus the primary preoccupation
of the design for the zoo became the
construction of an open natural habitat.
A list of 20 animals were selected from
the rainforests of Brazil that would
support a sustainable food web. The
environmental requirements of the
animals required a massive roaming
area and a density of specific trees.
The trees were organized by their
height in the rainforest, emergents
being the tallest at 60 m, canopy and
understory being the densest with
height of trees up to 30m. The strategy
began by maximizing the area that
can support trees in the emergent and
canopy habitats. A dome became the
initial massing, maximizing span and
height but by stretching the dome into
an ellipsoid, span is maintained but
the area of maximum height increases.
The footprint was divided into cellular
areas that became the habitats, and all
allowed for service alleys and changes
in elevation to mediate and control each
one. The rainforest zoo is concieved as
a foreign object that embeds itself in the
site, taking advantage of the change in
topography to minimize its height with
respect to its surroundings.
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ETFE CLAD ENVELOPE

INITIAL DESIGN: TYPICAL HABITAT CAFE PAVILION

UNDERSTOREY HABITAT
Awarra Tree
Shaving Brush Tree

WALKWAYS AND PAVILIONS

INITIAL DESIGN: TYPICAL PATHWAY ENCLOSURE PATHWAYS

HABITAT ORGANIZATION

CANOPY HABITAT
Cecropia Tree
Brazil Nut Tree

EXISTING TOPOGRAPHY AND

FOUNDATION

TYPICAL STAIR CORE PUBLIC PAVILION RESEARCH LAB

EMERGENT HABITAT
Kapok Tree
Dipterocarp Tree TYPICAL RAISED WALKWAY STEPPED RAISED WALKWAY ENCLOSED WALKWAY
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DEEP FORMATIONS
SIDE

FRONT

TOP

8 16 24 time lapsed photos

seconds

The project was an experiment in form finding ink injection

apparatus
and architectural design through a systematic
analysis of a morphology, to achieve inte-
grated building solutions. The project began
with an exploration of the diffusion of ink after
560mm

being injected into a tank of water. Cameras

were installed to capture the movements of
EQ

the ink, top, bottom, and side as it travelled

20mm

EQ

through the tank. The process continued

70mm

through an analysis of the aggregate trans- TIME LAPSED PHOTOS ASSEMBLED DENSITY LEVEL 1 DENSITY LEVEL 2
180mm

formations of the ink through the tank of

water in a morphology diagram, which was
then abstracted to reveal areas of density. A
series of silhouettes were drawn to map the
m
0m
30

350

transformations of the ink while the abstract

m

mm
0m
56

morphological studies were used to define

areas of density. The proximity of silhouettes
became proportional to the density of areas of
the morphology.
SILHOUETTE TRACING METHOD FRAGMENT OF MORPHOLOGY DENSITY DIAGRAM DENSITY LEVEL 3 DENSITY LEVEL 4
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level 2 density transition algorithm

level 3 density transition algorithm

facade algorithm

final branch algorimth iteration

completed fragment model
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CHENGDU RESIDENTIAL COMPLEX
NBBJ
From January to August of
2013, I was an architectural
intern at NBBJ in New York.
While at NBBJ, I worked on a
residential competition which
proposed a series of apartment
blocks in a developing area of
Chengdu.
My role was to explore and
study design options and
schemes to approach a target
GFA within a series of code
restrictions and design guide-
lines, under the supervision of
a senior designer. I developed
two schemes, and built 3D
models which were exported to
renderers and model makers.
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The construction of in house Study Model
study models was another Details
aspect of the design process, in
testing the spatial implications of
different tectonic languages.
Our team won the competition,
and the design enlarged in scale
and complexity in anticipation for
a concept verification signoff. My
responsibilities included devel-
oping different tectonic repre-
sentations based on the parti
presented in the competition.
A 1:250 basswood model was
constructed to study and finalize
a masterplan and landscape
approach.
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JAIHUI INTERNATIONAL HOSPITAL
NBBJ
Another project I worked on
while at NBBJ was the design
of a private hospital, the
Jaihui International Hospital,
a private endeavour meant to
afford centers of excellence in
health care to Shanghai. My
role was to develop quick parti
strategies that were meant
to engage clients in a series
of charrettes to speculate on
new approaches to estab-
lished health care models. A
number of different ideas were
expressed in physical models.
The design crystallized and a
model of health care organiza-
tion was chosen on which to
expand.
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1:250 Facade Study Model
At that point, my role shifted to Study Models
develop facade strategies with
grasshopper, that might reflect a
consideration to programmatic
and solar conditions across the
buildings. The strategy was one
of varying perforations, solid
bands that undulate about the
facade. These were based on
a grasshopper script making
adjustments to the overall facade
extremely quick.
Like the previous project, a
change in scale to a 1:250 model
was constructed to further de-
velop concepts. The model was
constructed such that floor plates
could be replaced to admit new
facade options.
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ZAIN KARSAN
Candidate for Bachelor of Architectural Studies
Honors
Co-op Program
Faculty of Engineering, Waterloo

15 Snow Leopard Crt

Brampton, ON L6R 1J4
Canada

Mobile: +1 646 515 9807

Home: +1 905 458 8675
Email: zainkarsan7@gmail.com