Design Manifesto

I don’t ask what a building is for. I ask what it wants to say. In an age obsessed with optimization, with performance and metrics and speed, architecture has been reduced to function, to shape, to silence. But we don’t live in function. We live in memory. We live in joy and fracture, in quiet rituals and unanswered questions.

I believe architecture is not a solution—it is a language. Space does not decorate the story. It is the story. A beam can be a sentence. A window, a breath. A corridor, a line between selves.

This book is not a portfolio. It is a narrative experiment. Each project is a chapter in my search for a way of building that can carry emotion, memory, conflict, healing, and meaning. I do not design to impress. I design to speak. And more importantly, I design to listen.

If architecture is to matter again, it must do more than perform. It must feel. It must remember. It must ask. And sometimes, it must answer with silence.

This project was nominated by faculty from the Pratt Institute School of Architecture for submission to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat’s publication Vertical Urbanism. The selection reflects the project's exploration of high-rise typologies, vertical density, and its innovative contribution to contemporary urban discourse.
It was reviewed by professors Kathleen Dunne and Michael Trencher, under whose guidance the project was developed.

The Contemporary Arabesque: A New Agha Khan Museum of Islamic Art
The New Agha Khan Museum of Islamic Art in Tokyo transforms Islamic arabesque
geometry into folded architectural forms. Flat patterns are reinterpreted as angular
planes that shape structure, sequence, light, and circulation.
Visitors move upward through a sequence of folded spaces. Each level reveals shifting
shadows cast by perforated arabesque screens, guiding a continuous ascent that ends
in a rooftop courtyard. This vertical path gives spiritual elevation, echoing the layered
symbolism of Islamic architecture. Materiality supports this logic: marble conveys
permanence, while local wood replaces cedar, allowing sharp, folded surfaces to express
both tradition and precision. Light enters through controlled apertures, animating walls
and floors with geometric shadows that change over time. The fold is both structural
and symbolic—compressing and expanding space, referencing the infinite within the
finite.
Here, Islamic geometry is not decoration but a spatial system. The museum becomes
a manuscript—read by walking, interpreted through form.

Harmony Haven reimagines architecture as a catalyst for collective healing and socio-spatial renewal. Set in Baltimore’s Old Town Mall—a site marked by decades of decline—this project proposes a phased redevelopment strategy: Healing, Attraction, and Restoration. Each phase introduces spaces that empower community participation: a healing center for trauma care, a church for gathering and trust, a marketplace for local exchange, and a greenhouse as a symbol of growth.

Architecture here is not static—it flexes. Movable, foldable modules adapt to demographic shifts, while rooflines and columns choreograph collective movement. Harmony Haven blurs the boundaries between design and narrative, shaping a space that evolves with its people. By embedding education, dignity, and flexibility into built form, the project builds a resilient foundation for shared future-making.

The design engages the paradox of transparency. Through the use of glass and interwoven public-private space, it critiques how visibility can both humanize and control. Borrowing from Freudian psychoanalysis, the architecture becomes a journey from the subconscious (id) through the self-aware (ego) toward moral agency (superego), reflected in spatial transitions from isolation to social integration.

Parity Arcadia is not merely a facility—it’s a statement. It suggests architecture can be a compassionate tool of justice, shaping not only space but also social narratives and human dignity.

Aurora Vitae Igloo envisions a Martian sanctuary where architecture, biology, and psychology converge to sustain life—both physically and spiritually. Designed as a botanical habitat, it rethinks survival on Mars through therapeutic ecosystems, self-sufficient systems, and symbolic geometries inspired by Earth’s first lifeform: the cell.

Inside the inflatable shell reinforced with aerogel and Martian ice, zones of healing unfold: a spa greenhouse, a meditation area with herbal plants, and closed-loop water recycling powered by in-situ resource use. Beyond survival, the project nurtures emotional resilience through rituals of rest, reflection, and regeneration.

Aurora Vitae Igloo is a vessel of post-human hope. It transforms Mars from a barren host into a stage for ecological rebirth, tracing the first spark of life and imagining humanity’s spiritual continuation beyond Earth.

Hemparch: Revealing the possibility of Hempcrete

Resonance Atrium is a music school concept. Attempting to embody the fusion of architecture and art creates a relationship between the sensual and the rational. The project delves into the resonance between physical space, the nature of art, and human sensibility through a narrative led by arts education.

At the heart of the school is the concept of ‘architectural harmony’ - how architecture reflects and enhances human emotions and interactions. The spaces included are designed not only for musical performances but also for monumentality as a symbol of outreach to the community. A relationship between solid and void is constructed by utilizing the pure, minimalist geometry of the exterior to the views and interactions of the interior ramps.

Resonance Atrium explores the architectural embodiment of music—where emotion, structure, and art converge. As a conceptual music school, it redefines architectural harmony not as a static order, but as a dynamic relationship between form, sensation, and interaction.

At its core lies a spatial symphony: minimalist exteriors set the stage for internal ramps that orchestrate movement and view, echoing the layered experience of musical performance. The design is monumental yet intimate—an invitation to listen, reflect, and belong. Beyond function, Resonance Atrium is a meditation on how architecture, like music, can stir the soul, counter design alienation, and restore the emotional integrity of space.

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Design Manifesto

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