OMAR ABUNNAJA
FULBRIGHT SCHOLAR
M.ARCH CANDIDATE
THE ILLINOIS SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
Omar Abunnaja, a Fulbright scholar pursuing an M.Arch at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, brings a distinguished background to the field of architecture. With a Bachelor’s degree earned with the highest honors, four years of professional experience, and pivotal internships at renowned firms such as the Rome-based Sartorettoverna and HDR in Chicago, Omar is deeply committed to the transformative role of architecture in societies. He is eager to further expand his expertise through global opportunities, focusing on making significant contributions to the field.
THE RIV
1st Place - Graduate Design Excellence Awards
The Illinois School of Architecture
High-Rise & Habitat Studio ARCH573
Team Members: Jasbir Bhamra - Omar Abunnaja
The RIV is a mixed-use skyscraper in Chicago›s Loop, prominently positioned along the Riverwalk. This high-rise blends retail and commercial spaces, a luxury hotel, and high-end condominiums, establishing a dynamic, multifaceted urban center. The development not only enhances its riverside location but also integrates seamlessly with the bustling cityscape, reshaping its site into a vibrant junction of urban life and leisure.
Inspired by the abstract patterns of the river and its bridges, our design for The RIV in Chicago›s heart focuses on revitalizing a quieter section of the Riverwalk. The tower, conceived as an extension of the Riverwalk, aims to enhance pedestrian flow and interaction with the riverfront. The building›s chamfered lines reflect the dynamic forms of the river and its bridges, creating a visual connection that draws both the eye and the foot. This design strategy transforms the structure into a striking architectural landmark that embodies the flow and vitality of the river ascending towards the sky.
FORM DEVELOPMENT
The RIV, rising elegantly along Chicago›s Riverwalk, features a bold chamfered design that merges aesthetics with functionality, optimizing wind resistance. A spacious atrium at the base enhances pedestrian connectivity, leading to a curved observatory for panoramic city and river views. Stepped landscapes integrate with the urban environment, while the tower’s sharp lines and contrasting top curve create a striking visual landmark, redefining the convergence of river, city, and sky.
PHYSICAL MODELS
Physical models are essential for transforming architectural visions into tangible realities. Throughout the studio, my teammate and I extensively used study models to refine our design. For our final review, we created two detailed physical models: a smaller one to visualize the building within its urban context and a larger one to explore additional design details, allowing us to demonstrate the project›s intricacies and spatial relationships effectively.
The landscape design of The RIV aligns seamlessly with the tower’s chamfered geometry, extending the landscape within the tower’s boundaries to merge the interior and exterior into a vibrant, unified open space. Large public steps are designed to integrate smoothly with the structure, effectively blending the Riverwalk into the plaza level. This integration creates a fluid transition, allowing the energy of the Riverwalk to permeate the tower and connect all elements harmoniously within the design.
The tower encompasses a variety of amenities including a hotel, residential spaces, penthouses, restaurants, public spaces, and a grand ballroom. At its pinnacle, an observatory offers sweeping views of Lake Michigan and the Chicago skyline. Structurally, The RIV employs a combination of steel framing and a reinforced concrete core, featuring mega columns and a strategic belt truss system. This is supported by a deep foundation of piles essential for stability in Chicago›s moist soil. Lateral loads are resisted by the robust RC core and supplementary steel supports, ensuring structural integrity against the city’s formidable winds.
Although the design of The RIV is distinguished and bold, it was meticulously crafted to harmonize with Chicago›s skyline. The choice of glass and color was carefully considered to ensure it complements rather than contrasts with the surrounding architecture. Chicago is renowned for its historical and elegant buildings, and our goal was for The RIV to be a worthy addition to this esteemed urban fabric. While the building›s geometry departs from the traditional International Style, its thoughtful integration into the cityscape ensures it is both a fitting and welcome presence.
The RIV embodies a vision that intertwines architectural innovation with community engagement, emphasizing the creation of vibrant public spaces. This project not only enhances the riverfront but also invites the public into its fold through various open areas and a crowning observatory that offers expansive views in multiple directions. At its core, The RIV is about channeling the dynamic energy and patterns of people, integrating them seamlessly with the river, the Riverwalk, and the city itself. It stands as a testament to the power of design in bringing communities together, making it a pulsating part of Chicago’s urban fabric.
WEBSTER MEMORY GROVE
1st Place - Graduate Design Excellence Awards
The Illinois School of Architecture
HDR Health & Well-being Studio ARCH572
Team Members: Jacob Daugherty - Omar Abunnaja
The Webster Memory Grove project transforms a former bookstore into a state-of-the-art healthcare facility, focusing on Alzheimer’s care. Located in Chicago, this adaptive reuse initiative blends modern design with the existing urban fabric, emphasizing open spaces and natural light. The design fosters a connection between indoor and outdoor environments, creating a therapeutic landscape that enhances patient care and community interaction.
SITE CONDITIONS
The site is situated at a bustling urban corner in Chicago, occupying a prominent but underutilized location previously hosting a Barnes and Noble bookstore. It faces unique challenges, such as limited daylight access due to existing building orientations and minimal green coverage. Its proximity to various urban amenities and the absence of significant vehicular congestion, however, provide an advantageous setting for a medical facility, necessitating innovative design solutions to fully utilize the potential of the surrounding area.
CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
From Books to Bonds:
Building a Legacy of Compassionate Care
The concept focuses on revitalizing an underutilized urban space by transforming it into a healthcare facility dedicated to Alzheimer›s care. The design emphasizes biophilic elements, integrating extensive greenery and maximizing natural light to create a healing environment that blends seamlessly with the community and enhances patient and visitor well-being.
SPATIAL PLANNING
The ground floor houses primary care adjacent to essential support services like imaging and labs. Alzheimer›s care facilities, including therapy spaces, are centralized on the second floor, while public amenities like the bookstore and café are thoughtfully placed on the top floor to maximize community interaction.
The interior is crafted to ensure a seamless connection with the exterior, enhancing interaction with natural elements. Extensive use of glass and strategic openings facilitate a continuous visual and physical link to outdoor gardens, reinforcing the facility’s biophilic design approach. Interior spaces are adorned with natural materials like wood and stone, providing warmth and a homelike atmosphere. The thoughtful interior layout promotes easy navigation, making each area accessible and conducive to healing and community engagement.
The aesthetics are deliberately designed to break the monotony of the existing strucutre. The facade features a dynamic double skin that incorporates exposed structural elements and vertical screens, varying in height to create a rhythmic yet cohesive exterior. This architectural approach not only enhances the buildings visual appeal but also integrates seamlessly with the urban context, embodying a modern yet inviting presence that redefines the aesthetic and functional expectations of healthcare architecture.
KYOTO ART HIROBA
Honorable Mention - Graduate Design Excellence Awards
The Illinois School of Architecture
Kyoto Design Studio ARCH574
Team Members: Jasbir Bhamra - Omar Abunnaja
It is a project of a 5-start boutique hotel positioned at the very heart of Kyoto, Japan. The project site is an approximate area of 6000 sqm, holding a prime location that offers easy access to the city vibrant surroundings and cultural landmarks, also, it presents an entirely open expanse, boasting four fully exposed elevations facing the streets. The project design aims to redefine the traditional concept of luxury hospitality.
CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
The Art Hiroba: Gather, Share, Belong
We believe that the essence of Kyoto lies in its vibrant crowds, the murmur of shared stories, and the intersection of lives, both local and global. This spired us to design an inviting public hub, right within the confines of our property. The expansive atrium (The Art Hiroba) is more than just a space; it is an open invitation to everyone, or all art lovers be it a hotel guest or a curious passerby, all are welcome. Here, luxury is not just an experience, but a harmonious blend of local community and solitude.
Strategically positioned northwest, our building maximizes southeastern space for a tranquil garden. This garden›s design integrates seamlessly with the atrium, creating an accessible, organic extension. Extensive glass openings in most areas ensure excellent daylighting and diverse experiences. Balconies and terraces are adorned with plants, enhancing the ambiance. Additionally, northern rooms incorporate pocket gardens, further harmonizing with nature. This thoughtful design philosophy not only optimizes space but also fosters a harmonious balance between the built environment and natural elements.
Our building design seamlessly blends with its surroundings, evident in the sectional view. The atrium›s soft ramps and organic staircases integrate the building into the surrounding gardens. Architectural elements like wide, flat, simple steel roofs create a definitive end, emphasizing a horizontal aesthetic, and establishing a unique, harmonious presence within the landscape.
The atrium, envisioned as an extension of street level, connects via ramps and a staircase, enhancing accessibility. Its curved geometry facilitates smooth people circulation flow, adding spatial flexibility. Light-wells in the atrium illuminate lower levels, creating a naturally lit environment. This space doubles as an art display area (an Art Hiroba), with every corner adaptable for showcasing different types of fine art.
THE BLOOMING CAUSEWAY
The Icelandic Bridge Towards a Circular Community
The Lake Myvatn Community House competition
Team Members: Marwa Mishkal - Omar Abunnaja
Role: Group leader, main designer, landscape architect, 3D modeling
The project represents a conceptual scheme of a community center located in the new municipality of in the Midwest of Iceland in the thinly populated region of Myvatn. The center provides a CO2-neutral area and a sustainable center that hosts the locals needs, creates a point of attraction for tourists, and illustrates how the circular economy Operates demonstrating some of its positive impacts on the Myvatn region, Iceland, and worldwide. The design inspiration came from the long association of agriculture with Icelandic history.
CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
A thousand years ago, Vikings, seeking a peaceful, fertile land, ventured north. The Icelandic saga of Queen Alfador speaks of a mystical bridge in Myvatn, linking our world to an elven realm. This symbolizes the harmony between humans and elves, united in their farming traditions, pivotal to Icelandic culture. A community project, inspired by this legacy, transformed an organic garden into a public farm using recycled waste. This circular economy not only regenerated the land but also fulfilled the Vikings› dreams of sustainable agriculture, ensuring the continuity of their farming heritage for future generations.
The structural system is created utilizing recycled materials to produce lightweight buildings that can be easily and quickly assembled, changed, or disassembled and recycled again. It is comprised of a steel frame system integrated with concrete slabs. Roofs are constructed using a steel grid shell structure.
THE RISING COLONY
The Tripolian Gate into a Sustainable Future
The UIA-HYP CUP International competition 2020
Team Members: Marwa Mishkal - Ahmed ALjellah - Omar Abunnaja
Role: Group leader, main Architect & planner, landscape architect
The project presents a conceptual schematic design of a self-sufficient city that hosts 20000 inhabits sharing a vertical urban core which rises up to about 300m. It is intended to be located near to the coast of Tripoli. The design was inspired by the aims of the old city of Tripoli, and it aims to perform a new vision of a high tech sustainable city that preserves the old city senses in a new modern way. Moreover, creating a full life supporting system that allow it to operate independently.
The design concept was based on the architecture of the old city which was designed for humans, starting from using human scale as the main measurement unit, providing a connected continuous circulation for the users, and finally through emphasizing reachability between all its components. The idea was simply in creating a connected city, were all the buildings are truly accessible and suitable for primary human usage. The best way to achieve our goal was by expanding the site in the vertical direction to generate areas that host target population without any large buildings.
Public spaces are placed at corners and transitional zones, allowing pedestrians to smoothly continue without noticing edges. The pattern features irregular geometrical lines to soften the sense of rotation. The architecture is designed to accommodate functional units based on sunlight movement. Buildings are arranged hierarchically with limited heights, ensuring sunlight reaches all corners. The city is divided into four main zones, each defined by its primary function: Residential, Commercial, Cultural, and Agricultural/Industrial.
THE REDDISH LIGHT DYNAMICS
Massing & Daylighting in Architectural Design Optimization
The International VELUX Award for students of architecture
Team Members: Marwa Mishkal - Ahmed Aljellah - Omar Abunnaja
Role: Team leader, Research, Massing development, Documentation
The project is a futuristic concept based on an analytical research to develop the optimal geometrical formations in order to create sustainable urban settlements over the Red Planet; Mars! It was submitted to the “International VELUX award” which simply challenges the students to present innovative ideas for a better use of sunlight and daylight, in order to insure the humans’ health and well-being.
Pressure studies suggest that Mars shelters must be limited on using curved geometries, to withstand pressure and prevent failure. We analyzed the four primary pressure holder shapes: (cone- tours - sphere- cylinder) determining their light-harvesting capabilities through simulation tests, comparing their surface areas to assess sunlight collection. The goal was to enhance their light-harvesting performance for better efficiency on Mars.
Working toward the goal of living on Mars gave us more appreciation of what we usually take for granted in living on earth, made us think about spending some effort trying to save our home planet, and try to apply those simple aims here in earth, to make the daylight our main forming material. Hoping for a healthy future, where the buildings of the Mother Earth and mars are both designed to move with the sun, reduce polluted power usage, and extract as much as possible of the sun, in lighting and energy aspects.
TRANSFORMABLE STRUCTURE
POLYHEDRAL TRANSFORMABLE STRUCTURE PHYSICAL MODEL
The Illinois School of Architecture
Bridget Benge - Jasbir Bhamra - Manushi Dayani - Omar Abunnaja
Planning & Design of Structural Systems course ARCH536
It involved building a Polyhedral Transformable Structure model, beginning with analyzing its geometry and performing necessary calculations. We then drafted detailed drawings, leading to the creation of laser-cut HDF sheets for construction. This process ended by creating the model, aiming to enhance our understanding of the mechanics of transformable structures, marrying conceptual knowledge with tangible application.
