PortfolioArchitectural explorations

Hana Nihill

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I have recently commenced my postgraduate studies in architecture at the University of

Melbourne. My undergraduate years, also at Melbourne, saw me complete my Bachelor of

Environments degree majoring in Architecture. Throughout my time as an undergraduate I

spent two years living at Ormond college, a residential college affiliated with the university,

where I held various leadership positions including editor of the college’s annual academic

journal and faculty representative. Living at college meant that during college breaks I was

able to return to my family in London whereI have been living intermittently for the past

three years. My main architectural interests centre themselves around the concept of agency

in architecture and how it can be parcelled out to the architect or users respectively. I am

particularly interested in the way the transition from design to fabrication can mediate this

process and assist in creating systems rather than spaces.

The projects that follow represent some of the key moments from my architectural education

so far, be they representations of skill acquirement or a step forward in the way my design

process works. I hope they are as illuminating for you as they were for me.

About///Hana Nihill

+61 407 730 145hnihill@student.unimelb.edu.au

225 Flemington Road, North Melbourne, 3051

EducationBEnvs (H2A -78%- average) Unimelb

MArch Unimelb (Commencing 03.03.2015)

Previous Work ExperienceCommunity service trip to Borneo where

a group of students and I helped to

design and build a school in a remote

village.

Urbis Consulting Company

Worked as an intern in International

Property Economics, Urban Planning and

Landscape architecture divisions.

Tutoring For Excellence maths and

english tutor

Private Tutor in high school maths

Architectural Visualisation Consultant

Leadership Positions School Prefect

Designer of and contributor to Ormond

Papers

Environments Faculty Representative

20142015

2012

2013

2013

2013-2014

20112013

2014

2015

ReferencesDomenic Trimboli /// Proffessional

Architecture Tutor at Ormond College and

University of Melbourne

E: dtrimboli@ormond.unimelb.edu.au

P: +61 439 963 574

John Harris /// Personal

History and English tutor

PhD candidate University of Melbourne

E: jharris@ormond.unimelb.edu.au

P: +61 432 097 475

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Paper Lanterns

This wearable lantern represents one of the first

architecture projects I attempted at university. I soon came

to realise that it falls into a longstanding architectural

tradition that concerns itself with the way architecture

reacts with the human body but at the time, trying to get

the previously untried software (Rhino) to produce a model

that would somehow fit around my neck felt like impossible

alchemy. Regardless, the design process took me through

an exploration of the natural errosive process -that reccurs

throughout nature- and introduced a series of digital

fabrication techniques that eventually produced the latern

to the left. Intended to create an immersive experience, the

lantern is worn around the neck so the light falls directly

onto the face and becomes the definitive component of the

wearers immediate context.

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1 /// Sketched design development

2 /// Digital itterations

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3 /// Model Experimentation

This proposal was developed in response to the L(and)A(rt)G(enerator)I(nitiave) in 2014 when the

competition was based in Copenhagen. The design was pursued through an itterative process

that began with concept sketches and developed into grasshopper models and physical models.

One of the key factors influencing the design was its efficiency in generating electricity. This

then had to be weighed against the amenity being provided to the residents of Copenhagen

and the design’s potential for re-vitalising the greenfeilds site it was situated on. Using this

workflow allowed for a rigorous assessment of each of these paramaters, as seen below in step

four where the energy efficiency for several different itterations is explored to find the most

efficient outcome.

4 /// Digital design justification

Generating Change

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3 /// Model Experimentation

This proposal was developed in response to the L(and)A(rt)G(enerator)I(nitiave) in 2014 when the

competition was based in Copenhagen. The design was pursued through an itterative process

that began with concept sketches and developed into grasshopper models and physical models.

One of the key factors influencing the design was its efficiency in generating electricity. This

then had to be weighed against the amenity being provided to the residents of Copenhagen

and the design’s potential for re-vitalising the greenfeilds site it was situated on. Using this

workflow allowed for a rigorous assessment of each of these paramaters, as seen below in step

four where the energy efficiency for several different itterations is explored to find the most

efficient outcome.

4 /// Digital design justification

Generating Change

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First Floor

Ground Floor

Basement

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The New Normal

The New Normal is a proposal for a new achives building

at the University of Melbourne. The building references

a cloister to induce a meditative quality in the centre of

the space. The walls facing brunswick in Melbourne are

solid, moving into a much more porous, glazed area in

the interior. Throughout the building there is a constant

visual connection to the archives, or to archival

activities, reinforcing the importance of the buildings

central function to the whole program.

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Coffee Craze

The combination of a gallery, cafe and bookstore made for a challenging

brief. The solution in this proposal was to design furniture for the space

that was moveable and modular so that each of the spaces could be

reconfigured to suit the needs of each program. The central bench, as

seen above, serves as a coffee station, a seating area and a space for

book and 3D art display. This idea permeated the rest of the store with

the shelving above able to become seating towards the base and then art

space above. The

1_ Designing the joint 2_ Assembling the planar system 3_ Designing the gallery

Ben Quilty_ Gallery This project was one in a series of art galleries designed for “Gift to the City”, a studio loosely based

around Dostoyevsky’s Notes from Underground. This model proposed a ‘wicked space’ that challenged

the autonomy of the architecture and the agency of the architect in an attempt to create a more liberal

space for the art to express itself. Instead of designing a traditional gallery space with prescriptive

ciculation, patterns of opening and the like, a system was designed whereby the subject could arrange

the model themselves and create a ‘mindscape’ of sorts. Drawing heavily on Derrida’s critique of Plato’s

pharmakon, the space was intended as a language that engendered an imaginative process that would

create an internal architecture that would be more subjectively meaningful than any more defined

space.