Author: Nafela Naveed

M3B9: Meeting the world and Greeting the Sky, Nafela NaveedLeave a comment

A Journey’s End

Nafela Naveed

Within a few weeks time, my childhood home has evolved into an institute for the public. My institute is located in the neighbourhood of Al Qasimia in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. It is a place designed for teenagers where they can hang out after school or during the weekend. The building comprises a ground-floor cafe and a first-floor library.  I had lived in Al Qasimia for 18 years, and the neighbourhood had been extremely convenient in terms of the facilities that it provided. We had supermarkets, restaurants, cultural centres, etc. at our doorstep. Growing up, I loved escaping into my … Continue reading A Journey’s End

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Nearing the End

Nafela Naveed

Although I had almost five whole days to complete the deliverables for the pre-final review, the long list made me a bit nervous. After receiving the list of deliverables, I immediately sat down and made a schedule for myself, dividing all the work into four parts to be worked on each day and the final day for documenting everything and writing this blog. I had set aside half a day to work on the plans, a day to complete all the drawings, a day to construct the site model and the site plan, and the third day to construct the … Continue reading Nearing the End

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From Home to an Institution

Nafela Naveed

After designing a childhood home for my family, we moved forward by approximately ten years. My siblings and I have left home and my parents are currently the only occupants of the house. It is now necessary to convert the building on the ground floor into a public institution as the house is getting too big for just my parents.I thought about the different possible institutions that would suit my neighbourhood in Sharjah. I was not able to come up with anything at first because when I thought about something, I would recall that an institution was already present in … Continue reading From Home to an Institution

M2-B7: Shaping the Body of Memories, Nafela NaveedLeave a comment

Seeing In Different Ways – October 24, 2021

Nafela Naveed

After I arrived at a design for midterm, it was extremely difficult to change it. Since I was happy with what I had, I was unable to see anything different. I struggled for quite a while, but I was able to break out of my rut with feedback from my tutors and peers. Since my design had a very strong sense of symmetry, I thought disrupting it would result in chaos and completely shatter it. However, I had already reached this conclusion without having even attempted it. After introducing some changes, I found that I liked it more. I realized … Continue reading Seeing In Different Ways – October 24, 2021

M2-VSR4: Vegetation Studies, Nafela NaveedLeave a comment

Vegetation Sketches

Nafela Naveed

As part of the fourth VSR exercise, I made sketches of the vegetation around my childhood home. Even though I had lived all my life in the U.A.E., my mind was clouded by the notion that the only vegetation in my childhood home would have been date palms and cacti. That particular moment, I was unable to recall any of the other plants and trees I had seen. Following a conversation with my family, they told me the names of a few plants that grow in the U.A.E. I myself was surprised because when each name was being listed I … Continue reading Vegetation Sketches

M2-B5: Re-Membering A New Beginning, Nafela NaveedLeave a comment

Ups and Downs

Nafela Naveed

Designing a childhood home for myself and my family made me feel very excited. I knew this task was going to be different because, in addition to my likes and dislikes, I would also have to incorporate everything my family members wanted.After working on my autobigraphica for the past week, I went on to create an image and program of my childhood home. Since I spent my entire childhood in the UAE, I decided to place my childhood home there. It was not an easy decision since the UAE climate was not conducive to many of the things I wanted … Continue reading Ups and Downs

M2-VSR3: Models & Orthographic Drawings, Nafela NaveedLeave a comment

From Models to Drawings

Nafela Naveed

Unlike the VSRs I had done so far, this one was mostly technical. I was supposed to make models of four different prismatic configurations and then draft their orthographic projections.  Reading the brief of the exercise overwhelmed me. I read the description for the first configuration and while I could understand what each word in the description meant, I just wasn’t able to conjure an image in my head of what it would look like once all the words came together. I read and reread but to no avail. And this was the case with the other three configurations as … Continue reading From Models to Drawings

M2-B4: Childhood Autobiographica, Nafela NaveedLeave a comment

From a 10-Year-Old Me

Nafela Naveed

Making an autobiographica of my childhood home, like all other exercises, at first left me feeling lost. Since I didn’t know where to begin, I procrastinated a lot. After making a few sketches, I decided to tell the story of my everyday life as a ten-year-old. Throughout the day, I made sketches digitally and added colours to them. During the process, I missed out on following the brief and making use of my past works. As a result, a lot of time was lost. Thus, the first iteration only looked good, but did not contain anything that was needed. This … Continue reading From a 10-Year-Old Me

M2-B3: Re-Membering Experiences, Nafela NaveedLeave a comment

Ten Years Back….

Nafela Naveed

I was really excited when I had to sketch a cognitive map of my neighbourhood when I was nine or ten years old. It has been a long time since I moved from that neighbourhood, so revisiting the place where I grew up would be a wonderful experience.  I was really unsure of what to sketch at first since there were so many memories. I had no idea where to begin. Thus, I decided to start from my house and, in my mind, walk to the places I used to frequent. Although I was ten at the time, I was still … Continue reading Ten Years Back….

M1-B2: My Secret Place, Nafela NaveedLeave a comment

Into the Pit

Nafela Naveed

My secret place. Designing a place for myself, what I wanted, all on the basis of my likes and dislikes. Was that why it was so hard for me to begin? To add to my state of confusion, I had never made a model before. Little did I know that in the course of three weeks, I would end up making 8 different models.  It took me some time to understand what I wanted in my spaces of solitude, intimacy, and congregation. The sketches from the first week helped me in the process. My first model was something that I … Continue reading Into the Pit