Austin Otieno
Portfolio
Architectural Designer & Hyper-realism artist
LATEST PROJECTS
Project | 01
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Project | BUS TERMINAL
It is today widely known that the world stands in front of the great task to reduce our energy usage. Their dynamic designs seek to inherently enhance existing infrastructure, boost Kenya's Economy and serve the growing transportation market. The proposal will accommodate up to 45 million passengers per year, improve boarding efficiency, and establish a unique terminal experience with plentiful mixed-use retail and commercial facilities. The fluidity of the architecture will allow for easy adaption of future terminal functions without compromising the passenger experience or the building integrity. The proposal remains simple in its concept. The design references Kenya's natural landscapes, and its rhythms of nature and life to create a series of unique interior places protected beneath a hard shell roof. Inside the soft inner surface is malleable, forming the ever-changing spaces below. Adjustable scaling will give passengers spatial clarity in all areas; large, small, busy or quiet, to reduce stress and improve well-being and comfort.
Taking the “people-oriented” principle, the building shape is adjusted according to human’s need, two clearance streamlines are combined into one, two departure halls are both set on the 2nd floor. A low-scope path leads passengers to the arrival hall and avoids people from different directions can have a visual intersection and get full of abundance and enrichment image of the passenger terminal building.
Project | 1.1
Project | MODERN FIRM SERIES
SURREAL VISUALIZATION
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My new series of simple, modern home plans draws inspiration from the classic farmstead. Linked outbuildings were common in farms which were added to overtime as the needs of the farm changed. Main houses were connected to barns with structures termed ‘little houses’ and ‘back houses’. The buildings were each carefully positioned in the landscape and near each other so as to shelter against the local prevailing winds, to collect sunlight, and temper the climate surrounding their everyday chores.
Each pod in this series has a distinct function: living, sleeping, specialty and service pods. Each is connected with a flat-roofed hallway element. Every pod is further subdivided using a basic set of cabinetry elements, some fixed and some are movable. The advantage this separation offers is two-fold. First, it promotes privacy and the feeling of a much larger footprint than the small structure actually consumes. Second, it allows each pod to be carefully sited and moved to adapt to different sites. Smaller modules allow for a more granular site response.
Project | 1.2
Project | FLOATING SHELL MARKET
The project is based on the reuse and recycling of local materials and the roof (carpet) is fitted with photovoltaics which will be used as the main source of renewable energy and can be used to illuminate the spaces at night and preserve the commodities within the hydraulic sub-structure. The open-air form ensures natural ventilation which ensures a pleasant climate within the square and its immediate surroundings.
The market has three main entrances that lead you directly into the market square from the adjacent streets and two secondary entrances which lead you through the café volume. By creating a pedestrianized passage on the south which is able to circulate around all two facades. The market square is given a presidency on the site. A 42.5M x 52.8M rectangular form of a flying carpet placed on the site and angled so that the corners create a controlled entry point to the north, south, and west.
Transformability is a dormant part of functional aspects. All the facilities such as café, restrooms, are at the back of the location to leave open recreational roof levels and other spaces oriented to the main streets. The market place is designed with removable stalls that can be transformed into an auditorium to support different kinds of day and night events.
When the market square is not in use, the stalls can also be used for workshops, table games or put in order to create an auditorium for different types of social and cultural happenings.
Depending on the seasonal goods being sold, specific market days, the traditional holidays-the market can be accordingly redesigned. The plaza can be transformed into almost any unimaginable shape and form. "your wish -is my shape". It can turn either to a playground for kids or a meeting place for debates, offering cover from the sun, rain, and noise.
By moving the pixel-boxes the roof can be used as a traditional cultural tent used for Aid after Ramadan. Resemblance with carpet will add more sacredness to the place. The roof carpet fabric shaped into a dome creates a space with a very high ceiling thus enabling major city events to be carried out.
With pixel-boxes lined up as a tribune, the plaza cab be used as an open air cinema o theatre with the extended façade used for projections.It will enforce the irresistible charm of Kenyan markets.
Project | 02
Project | THE RUBBICS VILLA
In this design, the owner wanted to have a new classic villa, yet all the villas near were already very modern. So I came up with this design as I was brainstorming to open up to new, modern – more contemporary ideas and to provide him with a look outside the box and since the design was quite complicated. I wanted to keep it simple and use light color – mainly white and used the wooden cladding to give the villa a warm residential look. Carefully positioned to take advantage of the rich variety of views and sloping topography, the forms have integral terraces and retaining walls to negotiate the undulating land-form. One arrives at the high point of the site and the long barn axis and navigates between the open glass space to the main entrance. Once inside, the home deliberately reveals unique views to the ocean and surrounding colorful spruce trees and shrubs.
Project | 03
Project | TRINITY ARROWED L.C HOUSING
Trinity in transformability is an important part of functional aspects within a MIXED URBAN DEVELOPMENT structure. All the facilities such as lobbies, living rooms are at the front of the location leaving the recreational roof level and other spaces oriented to the main streets. The structure is placed and designed with removable decks ( sliding doors to offer that indoor-outdoor experience between levels/floors ) that can be transformed into an auditorium to support different kinds of day and night events within a block.
The building seeks to consolidate residential, commercial and recreational activities in one single building while maintaining their autonomous nature in order to maintain their privacy functions.
The orientation of the building respects the local context acknowledging the importance of the junction and taking advantage of this orientation to ensure the privacy of residents while still maintaining the need for views and lighting. The integration of sustainable technology for ventilation and thermal control ensures a comfortable space with little reliance on electrical and mechanical means; thus the building is energy efficient.
The use of stonework, timber, and concrete both on the interiors and exteriors ensures a balance of materials to contrast the glass facades ensuring a cooler street-level encouraging walkability. The use of outdoor terraces and bridges to connect the various masses that compose the building is an important aspect that encourages outdoor living, particularly for the residents.
The entire composition of the building is shaped by contextual elements and the principles of New Urbanism to encourage users to live, work, interact and play in close proximity. Minimal environmental impact of development and its operations. Eco- friendly technologies, respect for ecology and value of natural systems.
- Energy efficiency
- Less use of infinite fuels
- More local productions
- More walking, less driving
Project | 3.1
Project | SAILING AQUATIC CENTRE
In architectural design, water has become no more than the "element that circulates through indoor plumbing," and has essentially lost its role as a poetic element of Landscape architecture and urban connection in which water has diminished and become lost under its shimmering surface.
This idea proposes that the waterfront of Mombasa needs to be developed in a way that brings a natural source of water back to inhabitants allowing for interaction with it. The proposed design for the Centre for Aquatics will reconnect the water with the city and its population by creating an inhabitable space that links land to water via the craft of architecture. The architecture of the Centre for Aquatics directs a focus on the fundamental role that landscape architecture has in showing the importance of water to our society while giving individuals a place to experience and enjoy it.
This project relies upon the definition used by landscape architects to define outdoor spaces as geometrically extending well beyond the bounds of the small body of water in which social outdoor spaces lie. It includes the waters outside the social circle, the waters within ocean landscapes, and the landside programming existing along the coastal shoreline.
Goals and objectives for this project are centered on the implementation of outdoor social spaces within ocean landscapes and the associated programming, coupled with resilient design strategies and guiding principles common within the discipline of landscape architecture, in an attempt to provided not only a green infrastructure that protects the existing coastal community residence but also establish integrated systems that promote:
(a) connections and access to the water;
(b)a thriving commercial opportunities; and
(c) aides the revitalization of strained ecological systems in an anthropogenic urban environment.
Large areas of ocean landscapes within the coastal region became part of The National Recreation Area, established around 1972. The intent was to bring National Park Services closer to the major parts of the country and share the ethics of preserving and protecting outstanding natural and cultural resources, and using them in a sustainable manor for educational and recreational purposes. In addition Mombasa city welcomes almost 20 million visitors annually.
The awareness of water can become more prevalent if it possesses an importance. This architectural project should be able to give back something that is greater than its financial value.