FOURTH YEAR UNDERGRADUATE
Samiha Ali —The Pella Travel Award
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Samiha Ali —The Pella Travel Award
About the Award
The Pella Travel Award:
Pella Corporation designs and manufactures windows and doors for both residential homes and commercial applications. Since our founding in 1925 by Pete Kuyper, we have been proud to support the communities where we live and work.
Coves
Designed with Mei Li
As The Bentway’s skate trail attracts a growing number of visitors each year, its existing site conditions have become a barrier to both comfort and quality of experience. Harsh winds from the west create cold and uncomfortable conditions on the site, making it difficult for users to skate during the wintertime. To address this issue, the project presents a solution which combines wind-blocking mechanisms with renewable wind energy to offer a versatile and sustainable solution for shelter and interactive seating needs.
The modules combine passive and active design strategies to enhance the thermal comfort of skate trail users during winter, while also considering their benefits across all seasons. The tent-like structure creates a shelter for skaters that blocks wind through its tensile fabric. It takes the form of an octagonal hut, a shape that is highly versatile in terms of its collapse and reconfiguration. The frame allows for tensile wind-blocking opportunities as well as interchangeable installations that could be replaced depending on the time of year and community needs. On top of the shelter is a wind energy harvester which collects the westward wind and converts it into heat through mini generators.
Travel Statement
While studying architecture at DAS over the past four years, I have been drawn to the study of resilient architecture and its impact on local communities. My long-term professional goal is to work with underprivileged communities across the globe, particularly in my home country in Pakistan, which suffers from extreme flooding. Designing and improving built environments that can withstand ecological and social challenges is what draws me to travel and learn about innovative cities.
I will use the Pela Travel Award to participate in Will Galloway’s Studio Abroad in Tokyo, Japan, to explore resilience, urbanism, and infrastructure in one of the world’s most dynamic and innovative cities. Having never studied architecture outside Toronto, this experience will broaden my understanding of urban planning principles and push me beyond my familiar understanding of how cities should be designed. By studying both the macro and the micro implications of infrastructure and community life, I look to expand my knowledge of contemporary problems in architecture and planning. I hope to bring this perspective into my master’s research, which I plan to focus on resilient architecture for vulnerable communities. By engaging with a city that constantly reinvents itself, I will gain insight into how architecture can both protect and empower communities.
The Pella Travel Award:
Pella Corporation designs and manufactures windows and doors for both residential homes and commercial applications. Since our founding in 1925 by Pete Kuyper, we have been proud to support the communities where we live and work.
Coves
Designed with Mei Li
As The Bentway’s skate trail attracts a growing number of visitors each year, its existing site conditions have become a barrier to both comfort and quality of experience. Harsh winds from the west create cold and uncomfortable conditions on the site, making it difficult for users to skate during the wintertime. To address this issue, the project presents a solution which combines wind-blocking mechanisms with renewable wind energy to offer a versatile and sustainable solution for shelter and interactive seating needs.
The modules combine passive and active design strategies to enhance the thermal comfort of skate trail users during winter, while also considering their benefits across all seasons. The tent-like structure creates a shelter for skaters that blocks wind through its tensile fabric. It takes the form of an octagonal hut, a shape that is highly versatile in terms of its collapse and reconfiguration. The frame allows for tensile wind-blocking opportunities as well as interchangeable installations that could be replaced depending on the time of year and community needs. On top of the shelter is a wind energy harvester which collects the westward wind and converts it into heat through mini generators.
Travel Statement
While studying architecture at DAS over the past four years, I have been drawn to the study of resilient architecture and its impact on local communities. My long-term professional goal is to work with underprivileged communities across the globe, particularly in my home country in Pakistan, which suffers from extreme flooding. Designing and improving built environments that can withstand ecological and social challenges is what draws me to travel and learn about innovative cities.
I will use the Pela Travel Award to participate in Will Galloway’s Studio Abroad in Tokyo, Japan, to explore resilience, urbanism, and infrastructure in one of the world’s most dynamic and innovative cities. Having never studied architecture outside Toronto, this experience will broaden my understanding of urban planning principles and push me beyond my familiar understanding of how cities should be designed. By studying both the macro and the micro implications of infrastructure and community life, I look to expand my knowledge of contemporary problems in architecture and planning. I hope to bring this perspective into my master’s research, which I plan to focus on resilient architecture for vulnerable communities. By engaging with a city that constantly reinvents itself, I will gain insight into how architecture can both protect and empower communities.
