The document outlines the architectural portfolio of Rana Mahran, featuring various design projects including a minimalist house for YouTuber Vincent Cyr, a contemporary office, and a community-focused commercial and residential tower. It also details Mahran's senior project exploring smart, kinetic architecture aimed at enhancing interactions within urban spaces, alongside designing a research film studio for YouTuber Rob Dyke. The portfolio highlights influences from modern design principles and integrates innovative usage of space and technology tailored to each client's personality and needs.

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PORTFOLIO
2015-2016
Rana Mahran
Bachelor of Architecture,
American University in Dubai
May 2015

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Contents
Vincent Cyr Nordstar Design
Inspired
NSD Archidentity
Inspired
Workshop and Minimalist House
Page 4
Design Office for Five
Page 16 Page 22 Page 28
Residential+
Commercial Tower Personal Villa

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Rob Dyke Ethan and Hila
Klein
MBTI GridSENIOR PROJECT
Page 34 Page 46 Page 50 Page 58
Research Office and Studio
for Ten People
Law Office and Tiny House Architecture and
AI Home Systems

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Vincent Cyr
Workshop and Minimalist House

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The Client: Vincent Cyr
Vincent Cyr is a YouTuber with a unique personality; a contrast from Ethan
and Hila Klein, his aesthetic style is minimalist, neutral and elegant. He does
a variety of styles of videos, from ASMR, to skits, to comment responses. His
minimalist styles, austere and intense, lend a great deal of flexibility and
versatility to his content and range.
About The Client
Interests and Signatures
Fashion
Monochrome
Dark Coffee,
Hot Chocolate
Hard Liquor

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The Project
Reception
Bathroom
Pantry
Mood Boards
Studio Tables
Meeting Room
Mannequins
Open Plan Living, Dining and Kitchen
Master Bathroom
Master Bedroom
Stage
Fashion Design Workshop
Vincent Cyr Annex House House Concept
Fashion Design Workshop Section
Fashion Design Workshop Abstract
House Floor Plan
Platforms
Props
Studio Lighting
Wings and Changing Room

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Research: Los Angeles
California Climate and Meteorology
Site Map 1:5000
Site Map 1:3000
Griffith Observatory Solar Path
Winter-Summer Wind Rose:
KSFO, San Francisco Airport
Average Direction: WeatherSpark
Jan-Dec: WeatherSpark
Daylight Hours: WeatherSpark
Angle Diagram: SolarRoofs.com
196635.3402
287740.0443

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Research: Los Angeles
Site Street Views
1
1
2
2
3
3
Mass Blocks: 1:2500

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Mass and Space Planning
Form 1
Form 2

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Mass and Space Planning
Form 3
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KITCHEN DUCT
KITCHEN DUCT
TOILET DUCT
TOILET DUCT
TOILET DUCT
TOILET DUCT
TOILET DUCT
TOILET DUCT
HOME ELECTRIC
CIRCUIT
HOME ELECTRIC
CIRCUIT
STUDIO ELECTRIC
CIRCUIT
STUDIO ELECTRIC
CIRCUIT

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Inspiration

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Materials and Theme

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Renders

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Presentation

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NordStar-Inspired
Design Office for Five

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This is a project for a contemporary
office flat, with a podcast space
on the far left. There’s a space on
the right for exhibiting models and
previous work, as well as meeting
clients. Inspired by the Nordstar De-
sign office, right at the back, there’s
a lounge, complete with a TV/vid-
eogames sitting room behind the
curtain wall. This office is designed
for a 5 people who have a busi-
ness-friendly relationship with one
another.
NordStar-Inspired Workplace
The Inspiration
The Project
With this project, I wanted to com-
memorate the experience with
working with talented people in an
office space that reflects not only
their talents, but their business-casu-
al spirits.

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Color Scheme
While I used bright,
blocky,contemporary col-
ors, the actual renders on
Revit have a cool, earthy
color scheme; splashes
of color will be added to
complement the neutral
color scheme.

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NordStar Design
Commercial and Residential
Tower

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During my time in NordStar Design, I was asked to do some conceptual de-
signs for a commercial and residential tower. The head designer’s concept
for this one was ‘dead tree’ and form of the building is an extruded penta-
gon that twists a total of 90 degrees from base to summit.
My contribution is the idea of every fifth floor having a courtyard, to create
social spaces and have it feel more like a close community than a separat-
ed, compartmentalized tower.
About the Project
NordStar Tower

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Site Plan
1:500
East-West Section
1:1000
South Elevation
1:1000
• -5-storey community: Unique and allows social interaction. Labeled Alphanumerical From 1-8, and a-d for levels per commu-
nity. (Eg. 1(courtyard and social level), 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, 2, 2a, etc.)
• Fountain, community spaces, etc. To reflect the concept AND create a space that has an organic, down-to-earth feel.
• Structure: Helixical columns and braces around the OUTSIDE of the structure. Major elevators between numerical levels, smaller
elevators between alphabetical.
• Spaces facing east and turning north to take advantage of light w/o solar glare.

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Archidentity-Inspired
Dream Villa

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Inspired by my time working in Archidentity designing villas, I wanted to create one of my own.
A calming, ideal space for relaxation, work and entertaining guests, this house is oriented around a swimming pool
and extends out towards the beach, with iridescent and neutral materials to reflect the feeling of the sea AND be
flexible with brighter and warmer color schemes.
About the Project
Dream Villa

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Senior Project
American University in
Dubai, May 2015

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My senior project for the bachelor of architecture
degree, situated around the Dubai Creek, is a futur-
istic experiment in exploring building materials and
technology as lifelike, smart ‘organisms’ adapting to
an established and active community.
Following from human vertebraic evolution, smart
technology and construction aiming higher and
higher, the project is an urban network of smart, ki-
netic pavilions, with the parts moving and respond-
ing around a central ‘spinal’ column to environ-
mental conditions, human interaction, and other
surrounding activity. The function of these pavilions
are to provide upper pedestrian pathways, calming
recreational spaces, and experimental educational
and ‘living pod’ spaces, all scheduled and interac-
tive with a smartphone app interface.
My Senior Project
2015
Core Thesis

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Senior Project Revised:
1.2: Pole Dance Kinetics
MAJOR PRINCIPLES:
• Kinetic Architecture
• Responds to environment,
online and real-life.
• Response is determined at
two levels:
• MIT self-assembling materi-
als; preprogrammable and
capable of responsing to
certain stimuli.
1.2: 4D Pole Dancing and
Architecture Elevation Sketches; Typology
Pole Poses Reference
Front Splits Front SplitsSeat Invert Splits

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Pedestrian speaks to the social and interactive nature of the urban network.
Non-commercial recreation speaks to the spatial and material qualities and potential to provide
social and relaxing spaces.
Education speaks to the futuristic and ambitious nature of the project, and its use as an example
to what scientific and engineering innovation and cutting-edge technology can be applied to
in our everyday life.
Living pods speak to the experimental nature of the project and how well it can interact with
context, with respect to both the urban scale and the personal scale.

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As well as cooperating on the user scale with urban
needs, this network also establishes a synergetic rela-
tionship with the RTA network by directing users towards
the stations, rather than competing with them. This
should set up a synergetic relationship to use the RTA
ferry to connect the project with a space elevator 22.2
km offshore (according to the 1967 Open Space Trea-
ty). This not only affirms Dubai’s reputation of world-re-
cord breaking for towers and development, as well as
broadening the tourist scene in Dubai, it also provides
opportunities and establishes international relationships
with aspiring and professional astronomers. Most impor-
tantly, it brings the exploration of evolution, technology
and ambition full-circle as the concept of ‘life-form’ ar-
chitecture is connected with man’s desire to build to-
wards and explore the universe that created us.

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Rob Dyke
Research and Film Studio
for Ten

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With the growth and popularization of internet culture, and the job and networking opportunities that it pro-
vides, many artists take to the internet as their platform, taking commissions, building a network within the art-
ist community, gaining publicity, and adding to their resume and portfolio with subsequent opportunities.
While many artists and graphic designers create their own, original content, a very efficient method of gain-
ing added exposure would be to create fanart for a prominent figure, so that they gain exposure from fans
browsing the tags. (If they’re lucky, they might get a shoutout from the celebrity themselves!)
One way I’d like to work on my portfolio is to find an artist or public figure I genuinely admire and use my ar-
chitectural skills and education to design a space for them, depending on their personality and their needs.
Fanarchitecture Notable
examples
Rob Dyke is a YouTuber whose content focuses on
‘dark topics’, ranging from crimes to the supernatural.
Prior to starting his YouTube career, he has an educa-
tional and career background in criminal behaviour
and law enforcement, which is where his fascination
with criminal behaviour comes from.
This is a research-film studio for Rob
Dyke and his team of ten, includ-
ing recreational areas such as a
kick-boxing gym and Ruger, his pet
German Shepherd, to accomodate
his busy schedule and personal
wellness goals.
About the Client: Rob
Dyke and Team
About the Project

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Sketches and Progress
Gothic Architecture
Law and Order
The style of Rob Dyke’s production, aes-
thetic and gothic architecture both
have mysterious, intimidating under-
tones, yet they ‘cast’ light on that which
is hidden in the dark.
I combine the gothic architectural fea-
tures with the organizational logic of the
space, and create voids between levels
to create a sense of verticity while main-
taining flexibility and clarity.
In this series of sketches, I look at con-
temporary designs of police station de-
signs, how maximum visibility and clarity
is achieved, how there are community
spaces that reconcile the relationship
between the civilian and a public build-
ing. Aside from integrating gothic archi-
tecture into the logic of spatial planning,
this aims to reconcile social and recre-
ational aspects of the members of Rob
Dyke and Co.’s daily lives with their busy
production schedules and individual ca-
reers of some members.

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2D Drawings
Elevations
Sections
Ground Level- Recreation
1:200
South Elevation
1:200
South Section
1:200
West Elevation
1:200
West Section
1:200
Level 1- Research
1:200
Level 2- Recording and Broadcasting
1:200

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Renders

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Ethan and Hila Klein
Law Office + Tiny House

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H3H3Productions is the YouTube channel run by the mar-
ried couple Ethan and Hila Klein. Uploading their first vid-
eo in March 2013, they’ve moved from editting videos
to commentating videos; their work was so influential,
they’ve started a boom in the YouTube commentary
genre, most of whom look up to Ethan and Hila Klein as
their inspiration, for their lighthearted comedic style and
their ‘down-to-earth’ demeanour.
Hila Klein has her own career as
an artist, and sells her art online.
Her medium is color pencils and
markers, which gives her artwork
a bright, contemporary color
scheme and style.
They’re most notably recognized for being involved with
lawsuits and corruption in the YouTube community; con-
tent theft and lawsuit threats from Antonio ‘SoFlo’ Lievano,
and Matt ‘Bold Guy’ Hosseinzadeh.
Their most recent contribution to the YouTube community
is to use the funds (originally donated to them to combat
Matt Hoss’s lawsuit) to open up the Fair Use Protection Ac-
count to help YouTubers counter unfair lawsuit claims.
The Client: H3H3Productions
Hila Klein

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Inspiration and Examples

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Materials and Theme

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Sketches

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MBTI Personality Grid
Architecture + A.I. Home Systems

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Sensory Type
Introvert-Oriented
Intuitive Type
Extrovert-Oriented
Thinking Type
Binary-Judging Scheme
Feeling Type
Perceiving Type
External-Stimuli Response
• Uses energy resources from ex-
ternal surroundings
• Uses sensory triggers from exter-
nal environment
• Space organization relies on
external surroundings
Contained Resting Spaces:
• Controlled, clustered spaces
• Uses natural surroundings as en-
velope
• Inviting qualities: cozy, minimal
distance from space to space,
calming
External-Stimuli Response
• Creates and synthesizes activ-
ity from inside environment
• Creates and uses internal trig-
gers for own environment
• Simple and clear with an un-
derlying pattern open to inter-
pretation
Spacious, Dynamic
• Spaces are part of the land-
scape, integrate with sur-
roundings
• Inviting qualities: Stimulates
movement, dissolves barriers
and shares spaces with sur-
roundings
Logic-Based Decisions
• Linear Plan: Uniform layout
• Visual cues determine func-
tion
• Follows a binary logic from
getting from start to end
Step-By-Step Layout
• Sequential, Organized
• Clean, visible, clear layout
• Spaces have set, clear uses
and purposes
Empathy based Decisions
• Fluid scheme with movement in
mind, drastic space changes
• Resourceful and integrational
with surroundings
• Allows for movement and vol-
ume-combinind (Adolf Loos)
Multiple Choices
• Dynamic, Freeform
• More than one step, branches
and loops and tangles
• Spaces can be multifunctional,
flexible and moved through in
many ways

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Fin