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week 9

This is my final week in the office! These past two months have completely flown by. In some ways my time here has not been what I first expected but it was still really interesting and I have definitely learnt lots and have been surrounded by other inspiring, hard-working and lovely people daily.

(also can’t forget about the living wall behind my desk!)

This week I have been again in contact with the clients in Iraq. They requested that I change / remove the walls of the terrace with my (slightly modernised / simplified) take on the traditional arc-shaped holes in.

I suggested perhaps having a circle in the square part of the ‘wall’ as it’s a clean shape and a contrast to the lines of the rest of the façade.

This is the most recent update which I have sent the clients:

It’s a lot more square / angular but I like the kind of protectiveness provided by the beams which continue on in an ‘L’ shape and connect to the roof.

On Wednesday evening we got out the ping pong table in the basement of the office and played a few casual games, a good (and at first quite uncoordinated) change from sitting at a desk in front of a computer all day!

My last day at work was really sunny and lovely so we chose to walk down to eat in the grass by a canal near the office. This is what we sat on to eat. I’m not sure exactly what they’re meant to be, however they do appear to me like really big, long, colourful dog poos?

 (a cloud must have been blocking the sun when this was taken because the rest of the time it was surprisingly sunny and warm!)

I have really enjoyed my time in Rotterdam and I wouldn’t mind staying longer, yet I also can’t wait to go back to sunny Bournemouth and the beach and to see my friends back there before the rest of summer happens!

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Viva Afrika

On Sunday night, myself and a few friends went for dinner in a really nice African restaurant called Viva Afrika where your cutlery was an enjera! (basically a bread pancake) The food was amazing and the interior was also really nice, however I failed to actually take any photos of it.

We shared this massive (80cm diameter?) plate of food with all of our different dishes on:

(this is stolen from TripAdvisor)

the aftermath of the football match! pavements were completely covered in rubbish from everyone drinking; however in Rotterdam they have very efficient clean-up teams so it didn’t look like this for too long!

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Delft / 06-05-2017

This Saturday me and an intern friend from work went to Delft for the day, a city in The Netherlands which is slightly north of Rotterdam.

It was great weather and there were loooads of market stalls lining the streets along the canals in the centre and it was really fun and interesting to have a look at everything on display.

this is an old metal poffertjes-maker! (yum small Dutch pancakes)

this is an old (1950s/60s) traditional blue-and-white painted tile that I bought to add to my collection (ish, I have 3 in total now from different places that I have visited)

We also visited TU Delft, a large university of technology, as my friend (pictured below) is due to start her master´s degree there in a few months and wanted to have another look around and to see if we could go into the Architecture department.

eating the traditional Dutch raw herring

(we couldn’t go into the Architecture department, it was closed on a Saturday)

On Sunday a big match took place (Feyenoord vs Excelsior, both Rotterdam teams) and it was the first time in 15 years that two teams from Rotterdam have played each other and had gotten this far in the league so it was a big deal for everyone! And there was a massive crowd of people watching as this display was being let down as I was cycling to the station to go to Delft (this photo was taken afterwards, cycling home after Delft, when it was all done)

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week 8

The penultimate week here in the office! The past month and a half has seemed to have flown by, but it also still feels like a while because a lot has been done in the time I’ve been here in The Netherlands.

This week I have been working on the 6 houses for the site in the south of Holland, looking at slightly different variations in the floorplans and then how that affects the external façade.`

As the houses are all fairly close together there could have been a slight issue with privacy, as neighbours may have been able to see through their window(/s) into another house. To avoid this, a few ideas have been implemented. Firstly (slightly basic / obvious but still important) all of the houses are at different levels in the site so they may only ‘overlap’ each other slightly, where any ‘seeing-through’ may have happened. As well as this, one long length of wall of the building (the ~15m long wall) is almost completely made up of window to allow maximum light in while the opposite wall to that one is completely solid, allowing complete privacy for both neighbours.

Here are 2 of the initial ideas for the building:

And here is the more-or-less-decided-upon design:

This side of the buildings are all almost completely made up of windows to allow maximum light in, as well as a view onto the fields which are behind this site.

This is the solid wall at the back of each building, providing privacy for each neighbour. This will have some sort of a detailed, flowing pattern put all over its façade to give it more visual interest too.

As well is this I still had a little play around with the Erbil House again, changing the orientation of the beams on the terrace and figuring out what to do with the windows too. This project isn’t moving the fastest, but some of that is a result of the clients’ responsiveness which is just something to expect. I sent the updates to the client and awaited feedback (and for the previous idea as well).

(My boss was not the biggest fan of the horizontal beams)

There is a possibility that the detailed concrete bricks that we wish to use for the exterior wall will not be easily accessible / readily available in Erbil (or in Iraq or anywhere local), and if this is the case the design therefore may have to potentially change, so here is a proposal for that instance where the vertical stone beams have been used as the ground floor façade as well:

Even though the same detail is being used on both levels of the façade now, they are still at different projection levels and are broken up by the other concrete elements and garage doors, etc.

Another option for if the more detailed concrete bricks / blocks are not a possibility is to just arrange regular blocks in an interesting way. Here are examples of arrangements where bricks have been removed, leaving holes similar to the concrete blocks:

an example of how this design may look on the façade

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Tinariwen @ Maassilo

Last night (Wednesday 3rd May) my friend and I went to a concert of Tinariwen, a group of musicians from the desert part of Mali, in Maassilo, a venue in an old Rotterdam factory.

It was a great night; the music was not something that I would normally think to listen to but I loved it! Everyone around was dancing and enjoying themselves and it was also really interesting to listen to music that was new to me, it also gave somewhat more of an insight towards some of the culture in the desert.

Not to mention the venue as well! It was in an old factory by the water in Rotterdam (I think it was used as a mill?) so there were lots of interesting features to look at and colourful lighting was used to show them off.

explosive desert rock apparently!

the lighting throughout the set was amazing

terrible picture but the thing that kind of looks like a metal garage door / grid thingi is actually all made up of glass bottles!

the man on the right was great, he danced for the whole gig and it was amazing

[naomiingram-blog1]

week 7

This week I have put the apartment in Iraq project at rest a little bit as it’s just the façade which needs to be finished and I wanted to focus my attention towards the new project for the houses on a site in the south of Holland.

Last week we were told that the client wanted 3 houses on the plot, square (roughly 10x10m) with a large pitched roof and so I began drawing up ideas and also put some into 3D using Rhino in order to visualise them better -

However, early this week that changed as the client thought that perhaps the buildings could be longer and thinner as opposed to square as it would allow those on the road to look through and into the fields behind. Discovering that there is enough room for 6 houses to comfortably sit on the site now (pictured) instead of 3, the new proposal is for 6 houses of roughly 5x15m.

My boss also asked for the designs to be similar to that of a previous project:

These houses have 3 floors total, a terrace and one of the walls is completely solid to allow for privacy between neighbours while the walls on the other side are almost completely made up of windows.

Thursday 27th April was Koningsdag! (King’s Day) It’s the celebration of the king’s birthday and just a big party for everyone in The Netherlands and it meant no work! So me and some friends dressed in orange (the national colour) and went to a festival in Amsterdam, a nice bit of mid-week / pre-weekend fun!

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bits n bobs

a few (sometimes funny) details I came across around Rotterdam this weekend-

Koningsdag (Kingsday) is coming up on the 27th April, it is a national holiday which celebrates the king / queen’s (used to be called Koninginnedag when the queen reigned) birthday and the whole country dresses in orange, the country’s national colour, as well as red, white and blue which are the colours of the Dutch flag. Here is an example of how patriotic The Netherlands is on this day, this shop had arranged all the orange items for sale to make it easier for shoppers to find things to buy / wear.

cute lil sticker on a metal pole outside of a club (which name is Bar, somewhat confusing)

me and my friend looked around a couple of second hand shops and I found this gem - except it was €25 and at the moment I don’t really have that money to spend on a shirt </3

found a cute hostel which sold yummy soy lattes and homemade lemonades and offered comfy and interesting furniture, which was perfect for chatting away 

I had no idea that the park (a 10-15 minute jog from my house) was this beautiful! It did not feel at all like I was in the city and I crossed paths with lots of dogs and saw some lil goslings!

snuck into the Erasmus University Rotterdam to do a bit of work on my Work Experience Report while my friend was studying for her exams, and as well as the university buildings being really interesting, this view wasn’t bad either!

I title this: ‘Confusion’ - what is its purpose? Besides an odd aesthetic of course

my room is not the most decorated, however the girl who previously lived here left this flamingo print and I hung up my jackets to fill in the gaping white space. Interior Architecture and Design student? Yep that’s me!

[naomiingram-blog1]

week 6

At the end of last week (week 5) I sent off my designs for the apartment (a Rhino file of the building with the façade details, see below) to the client so this week I was awaiting a response regarding it.

sketches of the front and back of the building to help me figure out what I wanted to do with the façade

the Rhino model which I sent off for the client to look at

After receiving a slightly modified floorplan via email, being given feedback on the façade of the building (they liked it!) and having a video call with the client/‘middleman’ I am now continuing work on the façade. I was told that perhaps there should be a part where the wall of the terrace is not the full height, to allow for someone to look out more freely instead of through the panels or a window. As well as this I was previously informed that there are limited materials which can be used, as for example wood is not readily available, so the materials to be used are those such as concrete, brick and stone.

As well as this, there is a new project to make 3 houses on an existing (and empty) site, which is roughly 60mx35m, in Nieuwenhoorn in the south of Holland. The client has asked to have a pitched roof similar to the one in a previous project by NIO Architecten titled Paradise for Two, as pictured:

I chose to explore different ways of making the buildings work as a threesome, sometimes connecting them physically, through sketching and modelling in 3D using Rhino. However I am still yet to choose if they are better together, either closely or physically, or whether it is best for each house to be its own.

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a few hours in Amsterdam / 18-04-2017

This weekend I got to see my family in England, and then on Tuesday I went to meet up with an old friend from secondary school in Amsterdam before she flew home after visiting her brother here. It was a great sunny day and we spent it wandering the streets and drinking coffee / other treats.

tiny details in tiles, the balcony and other little nooks

if you look closely you can see a man feeding pigeons - he had two bags of something and didn’t mind them climbing all over him and his head and was there for about 15 minutes or more.. otherwise there are just a bunch of happy -looking people, tulips and a fair

at a cafe we went to they chose to fill in the holes in the floor with decorative tiles which I really liked; instead of just filling it in with something the same colour they chose to turn something ‘imperfect’ into a nice detail.

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week 5

I was ill this week, and enough so on Wednesday and Thursday that I had to take those days off work and spent them sleeping and watching ‘13 Reasons Why’ on Netflix. As well as this, the ‘middleman’ between the client and I has been on holiday which means that there hasn’t been any contact with them, so this week hasn’t been the most productive however I still managed to get some work done.

Pictured below is an example of what my desk has been looking like this week while trying to figure out what the front façade of the building should look like:

Here is a link to a document which has lots of images and information on the State Mosque Competition in Baghdad, Iraq which helped me with finding some more inspiration for the façades of the building.

https://archnet.org/system/publications/contents/10397/original/DTP102782.pdf?1443192978

On Tuesday I met an old friend of mine from Secondary School as he came down to Rotterdam from Groningen (where he studies art) for the day with his university course. Before we went for dinner with our other friend who is studying here in Rotterdam, we went to Markthal to have a walk around the different things which were being sold and did a lot of staring upwards at the graphic ceiling. It was also great to hear about the projects he has been doing at university as he studies Fine Art which is a lot different to my Interior Architecture and Design course.

the ceiling of Markthal

and on Saturday morning I’m flying back to England to see my family for the weekend! 

[naomiingram-blog1]

a day in Belgium / 08-04-2017

This past Saturday (8th April) myself and a friend from the office got on a coach at 07:30 headed to Brussels.

We started off by walking towards the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. They had multiple exhibitions, but the one I liked the most were the surrealism paintings and the Magritte museum.

The Fall of the Rebel Angels by Bruegel - we could stand here for ages just looking at all the different creatures and details

Magritte:

portrait of his wife

.

The Stream

one of Horta’s houses

The Manneken Pis was a slight disappointment, however lots of the chocolate shops nearby had little chocolate versions to buy as souvenirs:

and this waffle shop had its own version!

and then we took the train to Antwerp and spent a couple of hours there before our coach home -

golden detailing on the buildings in Antwerp’s centre

[naomiingram-blog1]

week 4

This week I have been continuing on with the design for the apartment in Iraq. Focusing on finishing the ground floor and getting the clients’ approval, and then working on the first floor plans.

On Monday I sent my finished proposal for the ground floor off to the client and began working on the first floor plans while waiting for their response.

This was the initial 3D realisation for the first floor / entire building. I found it too bland and wanted to change things around, creating different extrusions and heights to form more of an interesting façade:

On Monday night I went with my friend who studies here to another girl’s house for some drinks and they had these groovy cloud lights in their hallway. (student housing doesn’t seem to exist here in Rotterdam, at least from what I’ve seen, students just rent nice houses / apartments from ‘normal’ people and sometimes that means they have interesting furniture / features in them)

Here is the 3D model of the new 1st floor plans made in Rhino:

front entrance // back entrance

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand after this, the client changed their mind about both the ground floor and first floor, and decided that they no longer wanted a basement but to have more space upstairs instead. They sent me an email of the floor plan they would propose, which I then went on to modify slightly.

However, Tuesday’s lunch was spent on the grass in the sun by a canal and it was fab, I’m loving Rotterdam.

These are two Pinterest boards that I made to help with inspiration for the windows and front façade of the building:

https://www.pinterest.com/noms96/iraq/

https://www.pinterest.com/noms96/facade/

Searching on Pinterest has actually been very helpful. I used to associate it with typical mumsy / arts and craftsy -type people, but it is a great way to find inspiration when I get a bit stuck after being in the office for ages and my brain juices have gone dry, and it has a lot on there for architecture and design!

I drew out the 3D of the new floorplans that the client sent back to me and then on top I drew out some beginning ideas for reshaping it, in order to try and make it look more interesting. I made the terrace areas larger and made some ‘viewport’-type areas for the residents to be able to look out from the terrace area and to let light into it, while still being relatively shaded from the heat.

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windmills / 01-04-2017

On Saturday myself and two friends from work went to go and look at the windmills in Kinderdijk. Windmills are known as being a Dutch thing and we felt like such tourists there but it was really fun! - even though we walked so much throughout the day! (thankfully it didn’t rain on us, even if the skies were looking moody)

This dog is called Gypsy, she is one and a half years old and she is really sweet. I had shown my interest in her previously through mediums such as squealing and “omg dog!!” We asked a lady to take our photo for us, and it turned out that she and her husband were the owners of Gypsy, and so the husband happily handed her over to take a photo with us! She was lovely and I am very thankful for this moment in my life. (I really miss not having pets while at university / here)

To get there we had to get a Waterbus and walk just over 3km, but we were quite distracted as there was plenty to see on the boat and the walk there:

on the Waterbus we got to look at a few examples of some of the interesting architecture which can be found in Rotterdam

the water everywhere was beautiful

a weather-worn garage door, and in this shape it looks like some sort of time-warp portal

slight inspiration from De Stijl perhaps?

wilted metal flowers

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Wunderbar

I went for a wee on Friday night and it was not a typical trip to the loo. It was very colourful, quite boxy and apparently you could record a message in there too, but I missed out on that.

The sinks were also pretty cool, and the menu is another story.

Would definitely come back here again just to go for a wee and to have fun reading other descriptions for the drinks they sell.

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week 3

This week has focused on finalising the ground floor plans for the apartment to be sent off to the client in Iran (on Monday) and beginning work on the plans for the first floor.

Plans on ideas of how to arrange the staircase and shaft in the larger apartment (10m x 40m) to allow for a comfortable amount of living space and with minimal dead / wasted space (i.e. corridors).

Here you can see the two different plan layouts for the living area in the centre of the large apartment -

The plan on the left uses vertical voids in its design, and the one on the right uses horizontal ones like the other two smaller apartments. These differences in the orientation of the voids meant that the communal bathroom in each plan is rotated either to be horizontal or vertical in order to work with the voids.

The plans for the two smaller apartments (10m x 20m) are agreed by the client and therefore won’t be touched unless asked.

 the two different staircases put into 3D using Rhino

The weather has been great this week, so on Tuesday we decided to make the most of it in our hour-long lunch break and walk to a nearby park where sat to eat, talk and and soak in the rays. Dutch weather is (apparently) never normally this nice so it’s important to appreciate it while it’s good!

cute reminder on top of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen on our walk to the park

this is a tiny set of steps in the water which allow the ducks to climb out and onto the land, how cute!

an idea to open up a little section of the wall by the steps in order for there to be a peephole looking through to the shaft, as well as allowing a little bit more light into the room

working on the first floor:

The plans for the ground floor have been sent off to the client, and while waiting for feedback from the clients I have started work on designing the first floor plans. We don’t know exactly what is required on the first floor as the clients have not specified anything and we don’t know much about them, so it’s kind of a blind walk, but hopefully we will have further discussion with the client along the line to confirm certain ideas or at least in order to receive feedback.

rough floor plan ideas to start out with for the first floor

It’s both liberating and a bit confusing to be working with no idea what is needed; I don’t know much at all about the people I am designing for, what they do or what they want from the building, so I’m basically making up a story for them and designing something for them to say yes or no to. Which isn’t a big issue really, I guess I’m just used to having some sort of basis to start off with.

However, this also means that I’ll have to think more in-depth about the façade of the building! Because having a first floor on top can change the whole appearance of it.

a quick doodle of an idea for the first floor / façade

It was one of our coworker’s last day on Thursday. She had finished her 6-month internship and was going back home, so to see her off we watched a movie that she chose in the basement of the office. We ate burritos, had some wine and it watched the film, which was a Romanian one called Filantropica. 

[naomiingram-blog1]

week 2

This is my second week at my work placement in Rotterdam.

Thought I’d start this post off with some pretty pictures of a metallic gold surfaced table, green plant and a pretty latte with little biscuit beans -

Here is a quick sketch of a 3D realisation of the floorplan to help me understand how the space worked -

Another 3D realisation, this time done on the computer using Rhinoceros 5 -

But I then received feedback from the client who requested changes to the floorplan and layout, so I made their proposal in 3D as well -

This 3D realisation was mainly to understand the layout of the apartments better to help with further modifications. However I believe that soon we should come to a final design idea.

snapped this quickly when cycling home on Friday, not often that we´ve had clear blue skies here and I loved the colours of the buildings against the colour of the sky! 

The weather has been kind over the weekend - nice warm sunshine, not too much wind, so when I haven’t been out I’ve spent some time appreciating / taking advantage of it. - and also now that the clocks have changed it be lighter later on in the day!

[naomiingram-blog1]

18 / 03 / 2017

Along with other girls from NIO Architecten I went to Den Haag for the day this Saturday. We spent the day at 2 museums, Mauritshaus and Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, eating and going to the seaside (even if the sky was a complete blanket of grey).

We started off at Mauritshuis which is known for holding the ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ by Johannes Vermeer - 

it was also home to a multitude of other stunning classical paintings and artefacts.

 ‘Vase of Flowers’, Jan Davidsz de Heem

We were then off to Gemeentemuseum Den Haag (after a little break for frites /chips), which had an exhibition for De Stijl / Piet Mondriaan, as well as one for Givenchy, Audrey Hepburn and other things fashion-related, and others.

‘Victory Boogie Woogie’, Piet Mondriaan

a peek inside of a 3D scale model of a room - look at the little pair of glasses!

  a 3D scale model of the Rietveld Schröder House

me and my future kitchen - one day! (also one of a few perhaps, I need variety and probably won’t live in one house my whole life)

a 3D scale model of Frank Lloyd Wright’s ‘Fallingwater’

‘Evolution’, Piet Mondriaan

By the time we had finished walking round the Gemeentemuseum we were all exhausted but forced ourselves to get to the seaside in Scheveningen and have an early-ish dinner before going back to Rotterdam.

 - and by doing so we came across more artwork on the seafront:

this is a sculpture of someone eating the traditional Dutch herring - it is cured in brine and eaten raw by one cocking their head back and dunking the fish in their mouth, taking one big, slimy bite. there were a bunch of other cute and quirky statues along with this, little and large.

Probably not the most amazing weather but still a great day out and I loved exploring more of Holland and looking at art - especially as I lived in Den Haag when I was younger so it was nice to recognise things that I used to know. I hope to continue to have days out like this and see more things during my time here, I just hope my budget can handle it!