descriptions
shirt project
location / Orchard Street, New York City, USA
program / clothing
NYP Columbia GSAPP
Rhythm is a series of marked compressions and decompressions over time. Drawing with chalk on the street, I measured the time intervals produced between pedestrians crossing a line to find the street’s rhythm. Using a plain oxford shirt, I constructed a prosthesis that can be compressed or decompressed at activation points so that the wearer can align his own rhythm to that of the street.
screen project
location / Flatiron Building, New York City, USA
program / screen
NYP Columbia GSAPP
New York’s Flatiron Building’s natural focal point lies outside its famous footprint. Grafting a right triangle on to the front of the façade and drawing the focal point on the sidewalk, I observed the changes in tourist behavior. The final intervention, a screen, projects the footprint into the façade with the full image only visible standing at the building’s natural focal point. Each of the screen’s baffles is a 2-dimensional permutation of the geometry between the footprint and the focal point.
dressing room project
location / Fashion Avenue, New York City
program / dressing room
NYP Columbia GSAPP
A retail dressing room is simultaneously a private and public space. Parallel rooms reveal the process of dressing through discreet apertures offering privileged views between each room and to the outside public. I used a language of woven planes, its geometry pulled from studying the process of changing into a shirt, to construct the rooms inside the frame of the Flatiron screen (see previous). Users of the rooms become more aware of both the private and public nature of dressing.
seating project
location / Bryant Park, New York City
program / Bleacher Seating
NYP Columbia GSAPP
Successful public spaces address, direct and organize multiple levels of movement. I documented corresponding planes of movement between the horizontal elevation of Bryant Park and the vertical elevation of the Pompidou Centre. Establishing a hierarchy, the seating intervention engages existing patterns of movement in Bryant Park and directs them as if they existed in front of the Pompidou Centre in Paris. The runway stage is at the subterranean level appropriating the existing storage space of the New York Public Library beneath the lawn of Bryant Park.
lincoln centre project
location / Metropolitan Opera House, New York City
program / fashion house
NYP Columbia GSAPP
The transparent façades of the theatres of Lincoln Centre create a theatrical experience for both plaza and operagoer. The intervention activates circulation and directs views to the southeast corner of the Metropolitan Opera House by offering the plazagoer the privileged view of the operagoer. The form is a single ribbon cantilevered from the side of the opera house creating both interior and exterior spaces. As plazagoers ascend from the exterior, the interior workings of the fashion house observe their movements. Internal circulation between the program of the fashion house is hidden within the exterior wall of the opera. The long ascent of the plazagoer creates a heightened sense of anticipation. Reaching the upper level, roles are reversed—the plazagoer again becomes a spectator but now of the fashion show inside.
palais garnier project
location / Palais Garnier, Paris
program / fashion house
NYP Columbia GSAPP
The Paris opera house is famously described as the stage on which Paris could gaze at itself. The climax of the procession from the exterior is reached at the grand staircase, where the operagoers are actors on view from the surrounding balconies. The thesis of this intervention is to reverse that relationship—the operagoers are now the spectators. The grand staircase is removed, replaced by a white void with ‘floating’ boxes. Using the existing side staircases, the operagoers view the inner workings of the fashion house as if they are scenes of an opera. The balconies act as prosceniums that frame the stages of fashion production up to a runway at the upper level.
reuilly project
location / Reuilly Barracks, Paris France
program / mixed-use public
NYP Columbia GSAPP
The site is approached from a fully contemporary position while keeping track of its historical load. The second part of the studio is an individual project. The concept of interaction between diverse programmatic elements (housing, sports centre, circus theatre, playground, skate park and urban farm) is explored. The street as public space can be an interaction zone between people. But, how can architectural intervention activate the public space while negotiating the existing? Through the cutting, pushing and pulling of program the public space in-between becomes an interaction zone for residence and community.
solid and void project
location / not applicable
program / center for the moving image
An exercise of solid and void -using a simple mass placed between two buildings, voiding operations establish the public connection between selected floors. The resulted mass is then occupied by private program accessed exclusively from the adjacent buildings. A hierachy of public and private spaces are established. Stairs are placed. The chosen program is a center for the moving image.
shelter project
location / not applicable
program / shelter
An exercise of folded form, developing a module and figure -using a simple support/span strategy a shelter is proposed. Four modules are grouped to form a figure simply by their grouping, a pinwheel. Vertical openings are proposed established a relationship between ground and sky. A parapet is added that masks the the roof upon approach.
plovdiv project
location / Plovdiv, Bulgaria
program / exhibition and cafe space, shelter for Roman ruin
A paradox of a Roman ruin within a ruined square. Two proposals take complimentary approaches developing the geometry, structural and formal ideas used in shelter project. First, the path of the Roman forum is reconstituted and provides the primary access to the building. Second, the shelter mechanism is treated as a mass that is lifted and itself occupied by the program. Third, program is proposed at the lower level of the ruin as a sheltered space from the active square.
adret project
location / Lancy, Switzerland
program / intergenerational and social housing
internship with PYO Arquitectos
The City of Geneva is in the process of aggressive urban renewal to the south to the city centre. This competition is located in City of Lancy. The program calls for mixed-use intergenerational (student and elderly housing) and social housing in three separate buildings that surrounding a public courtyard. The site acts a the filter between the park areas to the east and the new rail/transit hub directly to the west. The area was previously a disused industrial area adjacent to the rail line. Using the concept of dual personalities, we seek to set-up contrasting but complementary spatial conditions in each building that enhances the qualities of the compact program. While in Social House the exterior is extroverted engaging with the courtyard, in Intergeneration House the interior circulation spaces are enhanced to encourage interaction. As part of the team, I completed project research and the diagrams to explain and strengthen the conceptual ideas behind the project. I also modeled facade strategies and assisted in the final drawing of the competition submission.
ikebana project
location / Lancy, Switzerland
program / student housing
internship with PYO Arquitectos
The boundary condition of the site between the park-like Lancy and the industrial Carouge determines the character of the project. The program is a combination of social, student and market housing in six separate buildings on a former industrial site. Parallel to the competition, I developed and executed the concept, typology, and design of the student housing building. The concept negotiates the two strong urban conditions by treating the building itself as the convergence of the border condition. The program organization and facade treatment responds to the context which it faces. Active living spaces are orientated towards the train yard, sleeping towards the quiet courtyard. Communal and circulation spaces offer the transversal connection between both.
fire house project
location / Yverdon-Les-Bains, Switzerland
program / fire house
Internship with PYO Arquitectos
The city of Yverdon-Les-Bains is in the process of redeveloping its waterfront as a public park bordered by a new residence zone built on an existing industrial band. I was responsible for developing the fire house that shares a triangular site with a future secondary school and is opposite an existing station. While technical, the program includes functional components—offices, a fitness room, and a public entrance showcasing an antique fire engine. Against conventional typology, the approach splits technical and functional program, freeing the possibility of adding a slender block that can face the park directly.
ping pong project
location / Vernier, Switzerland
program / ping pong centre
internship with PYO Arquitectos
In the area of Vernier, Switzerland the competition calls for a mixed-use progam of housing, offices, a youth hostel, youth music centre and a regional ping pong centre. I was responsible to developing the latter. The site completes the plot that is dominated by the regional sports centre to the south and its sports field. The relationship between the new ping pong centre and the existing facilities is maintained. To the north and west lies busy regional roadways that service industrial chemical plants. Protection from noise and explosions are key parameters that determine the sequence of spaces in the new building.
europan13 geneve project
location / Onex-Bernex-Confignon, Switzerland
program / suburban transformation
collaboration with n’UNDO
Preserving and enhancing what already exists. A new scenario is not required, but instead using what we have from a new perspective. Intervening in Genève implies acting in a place with a balanced relationship between the city and nature, and a high quality of life. Therefore, a proposal that draws upon respect and deep reflection is required. The proposal favors the protection of the pre-existing, first maintenance of existing territory. The proposal demonstrates its existing value with a unique comprehensive strategy that is carried out with specific interventions adapted to each case in an ongoing interdisciplinary process. Building the city with a continuous path as a conceptual tool. Approaching permeability as the convergence of two criteria: connecting and porosity deloyed at different scales. Promoting slow traffic, recovery of historic roadways, increased soft mobility across the territory and accessibility to existing facilities on the periphery of the site. Dismantle and minimization of barriers, hierarchy and redefinition of roads, recovery and revitalization of urban spaces.
growop project
location / Toronto, ON
Program / Gallery Installation
collaboration with n’UNDO
Recovery and recognizing of territorial identity. Proposing a reframing of how we understand the boundaries between urban and wild, culture and nature begins with recognition and respect for the existing territory. The proposal moves against an additive approach —unnecessary and useless additions to the urban landscape that may mask and distort— but rather seeks to build a deeper understanding of the existing condition so that people are able to enjoy it. The proposal examines the local condition at the scale of 15 minute walk from the exhibition site at the Gladstone Hotel. The proposal is to map the historic tree species that are native to Toronto within a 15 minute walking radius of the Gladstone Hotel. The result is the production and exhibition of a visual catalogue at the Gladstone Hotel during Grow Op 2016 (April 21-24, 2016). The exhibition will encompass three major elements: a map of the vicinity, a visual botanical catalogue of the native tree species found, and action plan for future cultivation of native species by community stakeholders.
corrales y molezun project
location / Madrid, Spain
program / spatial intervention
collaboration with artist Oscar Valero Saez
The Spanish Pavilion of the Brussels Expo 1958 lies in ruins after the reconstruction of its modular hexagonal system in the Casa de Campo, Madrid. The temporary intervention uses the tool of drawn and physical line in relation to the strong geometry of the building. It goes inside the pavillon to recover and recognize the quality of space created in this absent architecture that is part of Spanish contemporary history.
muuratsalo huerta project
location / Muuratsalo, Finland
program / garden shelter
After a geometric and spatial investigation and research, a small winter garden shelter is proposed in the courtyard of Alvar Aalto's experimental summer house on the island of Muuratsalo. The winter garden provides a sheltered area for the courtyard level. Access to the second level is from the loft studio as a space of quiet contemplation, thinking and cultivation. Careful consideration is given to the geometric incorporation and wooden structure of the intervention.
reforma save project
location / Vallecas, Spain
program / day-care community services
collaboration with n’UNDOing
The project is approached with a time-based global approach. The non-profit organization, Save the Children, requires an extensive renovation of the existing building on a quiet pedestrian square. Priority is given to first establishing basic but good architectural qualities -warmth, comfort, light and air. Second, the building is seen as a place where things happen. The building process itself is a generator of activity for the community. Through an ongoing participatory process that focuses on local actors, community engagement is favoured.
algarrobico project
location / Cabo de Gata Nature Reserve / Spain
program / technical report for dismantilization
Approaching dismantilization as a generator of a socio-economic good. The project has an overall objective: the recovery of Algarrobico environment with a new socio-economic approach for the dismantling of the hotel, the management of the generated waste and the recovery of the beach, with priority of involvement by local agents: citizenship, institutions, companies and administrations. The n’UNDO technical report shows the positive nature of dismantling—not only to recover of an extremely valuable landscape but also create long-term local employment and skills training. A comprehensive analysis between traditional and selective demolition yields a similar cost but dissimilar qualitative and quantitative benefits. n’UNDO proposes a formula of selective demolition + waste management + environmental restoration (D + W + R) within a socio-economic framework (SE).
ceramic project
location / Madrid, Spain
program / material investigation
A pre-digital material and fabrication investigation is the starting point for the project. Through a series of material experiments, model-making, and drawing, I investigate the properties of a primative material—ceramic clay—and its application in architecture. Ceramic’s original soft nature, which is hardened in subsequent processes, is one of its most attractive qualities, as its technical and formal features can all be manipulated. The project develops into building structural systems where the heaviness of ceramic is juxtaposed with the lightness of its use. The need for architecture to meet current social, economic and environmental challenges opens a phase of reflection, where learning from tradition creates new opportunities.
house project
location / Madrid, Spain
program / studio extension
Investigation and research of an existing house in the center of Madrid for possible studio extension. Project consistent of amplifying an adjacent circulation space into a room of good proportions for working while maintain the relationship between house and terrace, privacy and escape. Collaboration with Óscar Valero Sáez.
library project
location / Brooklyn, New York
program / library
At a time when the library is questioned both as container of information and place of communal exchange, this project seeks to rid architecture of these responsibilities and to explore a new freedom. The project attempts to reassert the role of architecture through its most basic qualities -its volume, form, material and comfort. In other words, the project asserts that public architecture can define spatial capacities -the ability to frame and define specific physical experiences for civic life. Spatial literacy is an ability to imagine and interpret location, distance, direction, relationships, movement, and change through space. Spatial illiteracy is the inability to read and understand a space, its volume, and atmosphere. As public architecture retreats from its role to define both public and private life (less public institution, infrastructure, housing, washing, bathing etc. etc.) spatial illiteracy increases. The project suggests an architecture that operates on an elemental level. A library to be experienced slowly rather than seen quickly. Library as a proto-building, where the qualities of architecture (its material, texture, volume, and relation to sensation (light, sound, air) is pushed to the front of the agenda. A project that generates spatial awareness. Where architecture itself is the content. Where the reading of architecture drives the agenda.
housing project
location / Bronx, New York
program / housing
New York City has a history of typological experiment where each housing type is a reaction to a former —from 19th century tenement in fill, through 20th century towers in the park, to contemporary low-rise and mixed-use developments. Each type questions the limit of the street and delineation between the public and private. Existing tenement housing built to the edge maximizes lot coverage, towers pulls away creating an open space, and contemporary low-rise developments that favor the translation of the public (or shared goods) into a private amenities. The negotiation of the street in housing is complicated by a capitalistic framework where forces of privatization constantly attempt to undermine the public sphere. Both conditions of building to (or away from) the street are susceptible to forces of privatization. One type defines the street edge but transforms shared public space into private amenities within the building. Another type leaves the open public space so loosely defined that processes of enclosure implicitly start to impose with fences and barriers. The visible uselessness of the spaces make them susceptible to private development. The idea of ‘the public’ becomes one of ownership or collective responsibility. The question arises about how to intervene from a position of resistance.