Daniel Zeleznik-Pina

Bachelor of Design (Architecture)

My name is Daniel, and I am in my final year of the Bachelor of Design in Architecture at Swinburne. In 2020 I completed Swinburne’s Advanced Diploma of Building Design, studying during the lock-down was not ideal, so I delayed full time study to the second half of 2022.

I always had an appreciation for what good design can do for people. I want to design buildings that bring people together, strengthen our connections and increase our happiness. I have an interest in how design motifs and ornamentation from different cultures and traditions can reflect the diversity of a place’s identity. This is influenced by my multi-ethnic background, as I know personally how important it is to have familiarity and connection to where you live.

I participated in two Study Abroad tours through Swinburne last summer. "Sustainable Architecture Design in India" In November and December 2023, and "Design Centred Vietnam" in January 2024. Sponsored by the New Colombo Plan, these two trips were unforgettable experiences that really broadened my outlook on the ways that architecture and urban design can be improved to help communities, and the realities of these diverse projects around the world. From exploring rural elephant villages in Rajasthan, seeing the how the planned city of Chandigarh tackles India’s dense population, to working with local Vietnamese students to design a project proposal that can bring more life to the historic Old Quarter of Hanoi while being sensitive and responsive to the local context.

Studio 5 Museum of X - Physical Models

Nothing But Green's Museum model, at 1:250 scale, showing realistic materiality and detailed floor plans, and the 1:750 scale model showing city-context massing and wetland park design. The museum tells the story of Newport through both its exhibits and architecture. Our design draws from Newport’s industrial past through its role in Melbourne's development, driven by its extensive railway yards. It also reflects Newport's recent transformations of old industrial sites into community spaces, like the Newport Lakes Reserve (formerly a blue-stone quarry) and the Substation (once a power station, now an art gallery). The museum’s exhibits, workshops, and botanical programs mirror this narrative, while the building combines industrial materials with renewable timber. The 1:250 scale model of the museum demonstrates this materiality and highlights the form's aspects of open-ness, inter-connected-ness and tectonics. The sawtooth Corten steel rooves, made from spray-painted corrugated card, reflect the railway yards. The repeating, rhythmic rows of timber columns suggest a gum tree forest and are planted into the base with exact tolerances, requiring no glue for the main model forms.

Architectural Design Studio 4 - Design Process - Form Finding, with Natarin Jamsai (103993747) and Ding Khoo (103176878)

Design Studio 4 explored form finding techniques as innovative methods to creating unique building designs that were feasible in reality. My group project explored the combination of two techniques: The catenary chain arch and the sand pit voronoi. chains suspended on a grid automatically assume the optimal arch or column support as they fall into place. The sand pit voronoi creates patterns based on where holes are made in the grid. The voronoi cells show how arch domes would intersect to create pathways. We used this emerging cave-like form generation to sculpt the concrete forms of our waterfront intervention project: a student residence and market hub for the Docklands area of Melbourne.

Architectural Design Studio 4 - Physical Model

Vaulted village, at 1:500 scale. The model was created through a mix of 3D-printed sculptures, laser cut card, wood, acrylic, and baby's breath for the trees. A section cut-through was added to the model to highlight the sculpted interiors of the building and both pieces can be removed from the base for easy viewing. The model is conceptual, highlighting the forms of the building rather than showcase realism or detailed floor plans. However, the the hollow dome models being comprised of self-supporting arches, and for the most part successfully 3D-printing while in upright orientation, demonstrates the soundness of its tectonic system.

Architectural Design Studio 2 - Tectonics, with Simone Cooke (103997943)

Architectural Studio 2 revolved around a design competition for a Yoga House in a forested site in Latvia. My group's response to the brief was a combination of vernacular Latvian farmhouse design with Indian temple design. Our site analysis found that Latvians were feeling disconnected from each other and reporting a high rate of depression. We wanted to help address this issue by connecting Latvians to their shared historic identity and the spirituality of yoga. Our project achieves this by first appearing as a typical Latvian farmhouse or peat moss hut, but as they enter they discover the interiors to be like an Indian temple carved into a cave. Connecting the spirituality of their yoga retreat with the nostalgia of their collective memory.

Architectural Design Studio 2 - Physical Model

As the project consisted of a singular material, peat moss, that had the feature of growing grass all over its exterior, the conceptual physical model was constructed purely out of plywood. The contoured base connecting to the building in the same materiality suggests that the earthy greenery continues, and the contrast of the plywood with its burned edges even highlights the stepped ziggurat forms the peat bricks create in the project. the floors of the building are cut out so the ceiling interiors can be observed from underneath the model.