GIRUM + SOPHIA APARTMENTS

Ethiopia I met Girum, a man who
was in the middle of developing a
design for his envisioned private
residence and joined apartments.
He had already worked with
architects in the UK and Germany
to finalize the floor plans and the
basic form of the building. In hiring
me to give me a design critic he
ended up offering me to be the
lead architect in the DD phase.
I reworked the interior furniture
layout, proposed a new facade
design, produced a detailed landscape
design and reflected ceiling
plan with a detail lighting specification
and details of any ornamental
elements such as fire place, railing,
outdoor pergola etc... Moreover, I
coordinated the electrical, sanitary
and structural engineering team
until the commencement of the
construction.
The original facade had an unfriendly
horizontality and a drastic
shift of vertical massing, so by
using chamfers all around the
edges of the building I was able
to smooth out abrupt transitions.
Conceptually, I explored how to
create visual aesthetics by manipulating
geometrical proportions.
Specifically, I used the Golden Ratio
to divide the facade in to different
textures and colors.