Joshua A Dawson

RV College of Architecture

Portfolio
Bamboo Habitat 3

Housing 5

Hyper Threads 7

Furniture Design 9
 Bamboo Habitat

View of Kaveri river from the deck

Form Iterations Generated from Thermocol- imitating abstract forms of birds.

Flooring Grid Detail Ceiling Grid Detail

Plan
Elevation Rear Elevation

The brief was to design a habitat for two or more people at Bheemeshwari, about 100km south of
Bengaluru. The form of the structure was designed to compliment the 200 odd species of birds in
Bheemeshwari. The deck at the back, which is separated from the main structure by blinds, is supposed
to overlook that of the Kaveri river. The entire structure was raised on 2 ½ feet high stilts to protect it
from water when the river swells.
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 Construction Images
This project was one of the four out of the forty projects which were chosen for construction of a full scale
prototype. The class was split into four groups of 10 students each to aid in construction and funding.
*This project has received 2 national publications- Inside Outside and Architect and Interiors India. The
latter has done an exclusive Case Study on the project in their first anniversary issue called “Aces Of
Space”.
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 Housing

Process Models

Section A-A’

Plan

Section B-B’

Typical Unit Plan

Parking below the units

The studio involved the design of a housing complex at JP Nagar. The site was in between Brigade Millennium
and Elita Promenade. It was also facing the Puttenahalli Main road. There were no restrictions on the design of
the building except for a minimum of a 5m setback and an approximate of 35-40 units.

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Block Model

Cluster Model

The design revolves around the presence of a prominent street along which the units are flanked. The housing
complex consists of studio units only. This was the missing piece of the puzzle in the site due to the presence of
the other two buildings whose units start from 2-bhk. These studio units, which are typical , are primarily
supposed to cater to the IT parks located in JP Nagar.
*The project secured the first position in the studio and is chosen to be featured at the 2011 annual exhibition
in March. 6
 Hyper Threads
Family 1 Family 2 Explorations

Family 3 Family 4

Structure
Sectional Reference The goal is to achieve easy fabrication at low cost. The structure is
tested in ALGOR. The images are the result. Of the test.

Strain Von Mises Stress Maximum Principle Direction

Options Shortlisted from the iterations.

Displacement magnitude Nodal Rotation Magnitude

This was the product of a 10 day design workshop conducted at BMS college by the Architectural Association,
London and Zaha Hadid Associates. It was a group design project of four students.

The design brief was to design a shell structure for the Bengaluru Metro Railway Station using the Physics Model
in Autodesk’s “MAYA” software and testing for structural stability in “ALGOR”.
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Blow Up- Material Specification

Secondary steel
members to support the
braces

Top View
Steel bracing
to support the
openings

PTFE Fabric,
High Strength
expectancy of
30 years Rear Elevation

Main Steel
support

Platform

We were also involved in the construction of one full scale prototype. This taught us the complexity involved in
converting our shells into prototypes which involves running a series of scripts in “RHINO”. The process involves
three stages- design, script running and construction. Although time did not permit us to learn how each script
was utilized, we did involve ourselves in last stage.

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Furniture Design

Laundry Basket

Line Diagram of the verb EXPLODE 3D Model of the diagram Conversion of model to furniture Principe of shaft
and runner

Design 1 Design 2 Design 3

The intent was to generate a set of verbs and convert them into line and point diagrams. From the given set of
converted verbs transform the image into a model and then into a piece of furniture.
The verb I had chosen was explode. I had converted the image of explosion into an open able laundry basket.
The motion of opening the laundry basket would also imitate the idea of explosion.

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 A- Detail at the base

B- Locking mechanism
at tip of shaft inactive

C- Locking mechanism
at the tip of shaft
released

Skeletal frame of the basket Cloth covering around the frame

The 1:1 scale prototype of the piece of furniture was to be made. The process involved three major design
changes until the closing mechanism worked. The Mechanism worked on the principle of a shaft and a runner.

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Joshua A Dawson
38, 8th ‘A’ Main, 4th ‘C’ Block,
Koramangala,
Bangalore- 560034

080-25631656
91-9035602304

dawson.josh@gmail.com