Vanda Hajizadeh

I am an Interior designer with a passion for creating anything from small objects to bigger scales. This variety of design disciplines (namely furniture design, jewellery design, fashion and food) works parallel with my major interest in Architecture and Interior design. All of these interests originated from an architectural perspective. Alongside architecture and interior design, I am working on my own brand ‘Viech’ which I managed to launch after my graduation this summer. ‘Viech’ means creature and is another side of me, a side that helps relieve my thirst for creating something other than space.

EDUCATIONS:

- MA of Interior Design at Royal College of Arts (2019-2021)

- London Biennale 2021, Japan Pavilion

- An exhibition in Kortrijk Creativity Week (2019)

- BA of Interior Architecture at University of Westminster (2016-2019)

- Body Shop competition in Retail Design (2019)

- A jewellery design short course in Central Saint Martins (2019)

- A short course called Summer DLAB in Architecture Association (2018)

- An exhibition in Battersea Art Centre (2018)

- A competition in the University of Women’s club (2018)

Coming from a Persian background, I have a great understanding of how people think about spaces and habitation in various countries with different cultures. Iran is a diverse country that is perpetually trying to strike a balance between tradition and modernity. I enjoy making unusual spaces that respond to life situation issues from a social and cultural perspective. The Re-use Platform has helped me develop the idea of creating gold out of anything. Existing means more than what you see. It is full of meaning, history and philosophy. My design language originated from ‘Nature’, a kind that exists for all of its habitations. Nature has to change during the time parallel with people’s demand. However, the power is to get advantages of what is there and use it efficiently.

The Domestic Imaginary is a project which questions ‘what makes a home, ‘HOME’? Home is where people bring their belongings, identities, intimacy and protection to feel safe. Home is not just a physical space but is also something we imagine. We can imagine an unusual place that responds to our current demand of living and condition while keeping the identity of the space that illustrates the spirit of that place. Therefore, home is where we need to relieve ourselves from the external world and leave everything behind to renew ourselves the next day and start fresh. This house aims to appease our feelings and ensure our well being through different layers of frames, formed by functions and makes a boundary for an activity.

THE DOMESTIC IMAGINARY COLLAGE

What makes a place, 'HOME'?

Nowadays, we are living in a stressful environment with an unstable situation, facing tensions and rapid change in our daily life. The definition of words adopts their meaning by the situation we are experiencing. Home is not anymore the same as it was in the 15th or 19th century. Home changes its definition over time. So, home in a modern world has more responsibility to respond to human wellbeing. It’s something more than a place to eat, sleep and bathe.

The concept of the layered frames, also perceived as an enfilade, is to make a home a sequence of various hygiene layers.

Hygiene is most important, as it will cleanse our body and soul from everything (that might deteriorate from your lifestyle) that’s external. It can be physical elements such as dirt, infections and food, or psychological feelings such as stress, anxiety and other negative states of mind that might occur during the day.

Medium:

Painting, Digital, Collage

SITE — The site is called 'The Ghost Façade', a Georgian House located at Leinster Gardens in London. The ghost façade transferred to a home that focused on filtration and well-being.

PROPOSAL — Understanding cities as dynamic and ever-evolving eco-systems can help us to formulate strategies for a sustainable urban future. This house is going to filter natural resources like rain, air, light and organic waste. Is a challenge between what is kept out and what is let in.

CONCEPT — I used the site to house three apartments and a communal space plus utilize water, utilize air and utilize plants to enhance this environment.

SPACE INTO FURNITURE — Look at the project from a different scale. I made a collage to design a piece of furniture that simplify the whole project by designing an unusual bath and bringing in nature in a room full of filtration treatment.

Medium:

Digital Drawing, Painting, Collage, Sketches

INSPIRATIONS — My design work started with the inspiration of vernacular elements such as 'Wind Catcher' from my country Iran vs 'Water Towers'. Therefore, this is how I got my initial idea of my phases in design work. This language is coming to my mind from all of these different sources of how cultures have infiltrated or filtrated rather water and air, stored and distributed stored.

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT — Vernacular filtration system and traditions used to design a space. Then, dividing space into public, semi-private and private areas. However, there is a contrast between a machinist industrial system within a Georgian house and a warm domestic space that is a challenge of this project.

DETAIL SKETCH — Different wall cladding designed for each frame regarding space's function and responds to human well-being through filtering the air, diffusing scent and brings a sense of nature inside.

Medium:

Collage, Sketches

BASEMENT PLAN - SOCIAL ZONE

FIRST FLOOR PLAN - PRIVATE ZONE

SECOND FLOOR PLAN - PRIVATE ZONE

THIRD FLOOR PLAN - PRIVATE ZONE

LONG SECTION

SHORT SECTION

WATER POSITIONS — There is a structural element under the basement filled with water for two reasons, first is to filter the railway noise and the second is to circulate with air and create moisture that helps plants stay fresh and diffusing scent to the atmosphere.

FRAMES — Private: Spirit Frames | Semi-Private: Intimate Frames | Social: Living Frames

MATERIALS

Medium:

Digital Drawing

The beginning of journey into the house — As the journey from outside to the courtyard, there is a glass box connecting the front façade to the back façade filled with water and use as an open pool.

Sharing Frame — The garden is a threshold between outside and inside use as a collective area which people can socialize and spend time together. The idea for the kitchen area is to communicate and have another form of arrangements through eating.

Apartment I — Left: Spirit Frame, First floor | Right: Living Frame, Second Floor

Apartment II — Left: Intimate Frame, First floor | Right: Spirit Frame, First Floor

Apartment III — Intimate Frame - Second floor | Looking from bath toward the indoor garden

Apartment III — Intimate Frame - Second floor

Apartment III — Living Frame - Third floor

Apartment III — Algae filtration system - Third floor | As a greater connection to nature, users can cultivating their own algae. Algae can consume more carbon dioxide than trees and this could purify the air.

Public Experience — Filter House using steam distillers to produce botanical infused water according to traditional method from my country Iran through using both the herbs and filter water to serve the extracting water to users and the public who passed the house. Accordingly, this is a part of the well-being scheme of the house.

Vanda Hajizadeh

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Social

About

Royal College of Art