A. SALDARRIAGA Selected works 2013-2020
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*Awarded Platonic Naturalism
*Awarded
ACCESS
Peace Pavillion
22 18 25 Into the Wall Veil over CUAN
Table of contents
Brexit Monuments *Awarded
Platonic Naturalism is an exercise that investigates the different emerging properties an architectural design can adopt by using its immediate landscape as a process and material in its construction and how these properties are able to blur the line that exists between landscape and architecture. To address said investigation, the project had to exist in a context where landscape was central in the material expression of the local architecture, such as the traditional Native American settlements of New Mexico. Being the first in America, the Pueblo settlements use their immediate site as matter and space in their architectural composition, an invaluable reference of what the exercise should be.
PLATONIC NATURALISM Academic Project
Feb 2019
As a specific site, the project is placed along a significant mountain range in the outskirts of the Santa Clara Pueblo. This specific town has a long-standing tradition of pueblo pottery making, a process that introduces local sand (temper) into the mixture. Accordingly, the program of the project would become a Santa Clara pottery center to respond to its cultural site and would hold a process that seamlessly integrates the natural in the creation of the artificial.
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The pottery center would be held inside a platonic a cube, one of the platonic geometries. This would prove that even a highly artificial geometry could merge into the disordered landscape of New Mexico. Said cube reaches its limit of abstraction by introcudung itself into the landscape as an act of respect towards its surroundings. Still maintaining its platonic properties by revealing the equal spans of its length with and height. The project focused on physical experiments through means of model making to address the investigation. This physical studies lead to think about the buildings construction process and longevity and conclude that the building itself should be constructed exclusively with the landscape on its immediate site. Responding promptly to the investigation and its cultural context. The building is defined by placing formwork around the existing landscape and filling it with layers of rammed earth. The unique site topography is used as a negative of the interior space, which later is required to be removed to reveal the pottery center. This led to a successful naturalist expression the investigation asked for, blurring the lines between landscape and architecture.
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The experiments also questioned the buildings longevity. Understanding that natural landscapes are dynamic systems subject to raw decomposition processes led to think that the building should also be subject of said inevitable processes to merge architecture with landscape. By proposing a faรงade or layered rammed earth that increased porosity by each increasing layer, a vertical erosion of the building is proposed. Rendering a building that is born from the mountain and with time deceases into the natural landscape.
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The interior atmosphere of the center was so successful at achieving a natural expression that led to the un-foreseen challenge of how to make the existing space more architectural. Though a very precise placement of handrails, light fixtures, and furniture with contrasting materialities the artificial natural landscape is inhabited.
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The main concept of the proposal derives from the idea that true peace can only be achieved through the involvement of the affected community of Sedhiou. Thus, the Pavilion is a frame. In its built form it will be left unfinished, and only with the community´s intervention will it change and physically grow though time. Therefore, within the frame lives a garden.
Peace Pavillion *Awarded Honorable Mention chosen by Kengo Kuma in the Kaira Loroo Peace Pavillion International competition. Fourth place out of over 600 proposals. *Exhibited at the Sedhiou region in Senegal. *Published in Replanteo magazine XVIII Colombian Annual for Architecture Students edition. Pg 10-11
Co- desing with Bachir Benikrane Personal Project
Feb 2019
Said space is designed for those affected by the violent African conflicts, giving these survivors the opportunity to plant a seed in memory of those lost and to mourn by creating life. Thus, reverting the graveyard methodology. Sorrow tends to overwhelm one´s mind and soul; to give one the capability to physically represent this is a step closer in finding tranquility. The garden will become a space where affected communities from different African regions come to intervene and mourn. The garden is also a dynamic and changing organism which requires consistent care from the community, giving Sedhiou a sense of ownership and pride over the pavilion. This space also serves as a contemplative space to honor the lives of those affected by the historic violence, spreading awareness to younger gene9 rations so that all may understand the value of peace.
Plant a seed To be freed Of what we lost In soul and trust A plant is born We shall mourn To be at ease And find peace....
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The use of materials in the proposal can be summarized using and ease of workability, making it the optimal construction one word - contextualization. The material expression comes material for a durable affordable wooden structure. from four locally sustainable materials. Corrugated metal sheets: This material has a history within Larite earth: This is an abundant and renewable local material African architecture due to its flexibility and affordability.Used that, through a simple process of pressing thin layers of ear- in the right way it co bines elegant expression with economic th, can adopt load bearing capabilities. This material also has sustainability. great bioclimatic capabilities for having high thermal inertia and also serves as an acoustic insulator. Fabrics: This material is tied to the culture and economy of Sedhiou. It can be locally manufactured and can be easily rePalm wood: Also a local renewable and abundant material. placed, proving its social and economic sustainability. This type of wood proves to have high resistance to salinity
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ACCESS
Bachelor´s Graduation project *Awarded 3rd place in the XVIII Colombian Annual for Architecture Students. *Exhibited at the Colombian Society of Architects (SCA). *Published in “Replanteo” magazine XVIII Colombian Annual for Architecture Students edition. Pg 10-11 *Awarded Honorable mention in the XXVI Colombian Biennal for Architectrue Students 18. *Publication in “XXVI Biennal Colombiana de Arquitectura y Urbanismo 18” pg. 396. *Longlisted in the Tamayouz International Graduation Projects Award 2018. Top 50 out of 587 submissions.
Academic project
Feb-Jun 2018
Bogotá city has a unique characteristic in its landscape where rainwater is channelized into rivers due to its eastern mountain range, rendering the city´s natural hydric system. Unfortunately this system has been severely deteriorated in the past decades. For example; most of the natural river basins in the city were replaced with concrete basins in the 1950´s to resolve urban development needs. Concrete basins disrupt the natural water cycle which generate severe environmental problematics. Additionally, the artificial river basins are urban spaces that lack wholesomeness and therefore are rejected by city and are appropriated by the homeless community in Bogotá. In this current scenario, water is a negative quality of space, whereas it should be a positive quality that heals its context. By placing architectural interventions in the most social and environmental sensitive nodes of the Fucha River *channelized river in Bogotá, an urban acupuncture strategy that mitigates the problematics caused by channelization is achieved. Each of these intervention nodes are foreseen as Homeless Reintegration Centers that attract the homeless community residing along the river basin. Furthermore each center is equipped with artificial wetlands dedicated to cleansing the waters emerging from the east. The allusion of the water cycle in the proposal *rain to wetland to river was central in the design of moving atmospheres that encourage rehabilitation. Therefore the architecture explores ways that introduce water into its public spaces. By also taking into account features as scale and materiality the technical and structural resolution played an essential part in the design. Rendering temples of social and environmental rehabilitation.
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Physical model 1:200
Relocation of exsisting site program
Maintain neighborhood height with larger sidewalks
Tower extrusion
Platform habitability
Water & light into project
Public first floor
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Wetland level plan *n-10m with relation to street level
1. Art gallery 2. Flexible use rehabilitation space. 3. Fine arts classroom. 4. Music room. 5. Medical atention. 6. Barber/hair cutting space. 7. Class room. 8. Flexible class room.
9. Dining hall. 10. Administrative offices. 11. Kitchen. 12. Storage/ tecnical areas. 13. Female/ family changing rooms. 14. Female/ family bathrooms. 15. Industrial clothe washing room.
16. Male changing rooms. 17. Male bathrooms. 18. ENTRANCE HALL 19. Black Box storage 20. Black Box tecnical areas. 21. Black box.
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Tower plans Tower floorplans
1. Comunal dormitories for transitory homeless community. 2. Private dormitories for homeless in an advanced rehabilitation stage. 3. Flexible library space
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Floodable first floor during rain season
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The Urban Center Antonio Nariño (CUAN) is a social housing project designed by the architectural firm Néstor C. Gutiérrez y Esguerra Sáenz. The design, having a clear influence by the CIAM movement (International Congresses of Modern Architecture), featured rationalist housing inside an immense city block that had strict boundaries between private a public space. In contemporary times, projects like these weaken urban life due to their size in relationship with the human scale. Veil over CUAN is an exercise that seeks to resolve the urban problematics of rationalist & modernist design by exploring the possibility of vertical public space within some of the housing blocks of the project. Said public space holds a gentle relationship with the human scale and brakes the strict boundaries between public and private spaces of the housing blocks. Rendering communal areas where new social interactions may happen which could bring urban life into the CUAN. The vertical public space is enclosed by a ceramic veil that testifies the intervention but maintains the original project´s volume proportions and disposition of the buildings inside the city block, its modernist essence. Said veil outfits the proposal with a diverse façade by the design of a ceramic piece that through a simple 90 degree rotation allows different relationships with the exterior depending on its use. A gradient that oscillates between the open dispositions of the piece in the residential uses, to the closed disposition of the piece in the communal uses.
Physical model 1:200
Veil over CUAN is a project that questions the conclusions about urbanity made by the Modernist Movement in Bogota in the 1950’s decade, though the proposal of vertical public space testified by a ceramic veil.
Veil over CUAN Co- desing with Juan Diego Vargas Academic
Oct 2017
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Luis Carlos Colรณn Llamas. Patrimonio urbano de Bogotรก: ciudad y arquitectura. Bogotรก: El Ancora Editores, 1973. Pg 136.
CUAN
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Site plan
South facade
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Exsisting modernist building
Overlaping the apartments to generate comunal spaces inside exsisting structure.
Removal of some apartments to connect comunal spaces with a vertical public circulation.
Veil that creates diverse relationships with the exterior.
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Ceramic piece ensamble
Facade sub structure + ceramic piece union
Facade openings assembly
Comunal spaces
2017
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conceptual model
Cartagena is one of the oldest cities in Colombia due to the fact that it served as a Spanish port during colonial times. This port held most of the riches that the colonists took from Latin America to Spain so naturally it became a fort. Today, the Fortress wall of Cartagena is one of the most important historical landmarks of Colombia. “Into the wall� is an exercise that questions and experiments on what is the most appropriate way to intervene in a historical landmark. Should it be an intervention placed on top of the structure? Buried within? Disposed separately from the landmark it’s trying to intervene? The proposal concludes that the best way to make a minimalist but significant intervention is from within the landmark itself. This way the design can break the original use of the Cartagena fortress wall, an aggressive limit.
Into the wall Co- desing with Ka Yan Stephanie NG Academic
Jul 2017
The user encounters six walls and a ramp that lead inside the wall, though a play with light and sensory effects the user is seductively lead into the sea.
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*The Brief asked for the design and construction of one (or two) Brexit monuments placed in the one (or both) of the entrances of the Eurotunnel (UK-FR). The aim was to generate discussion about the departure of the UK from the EU. The Arch. The Romans developed it out of constructive necessity, where it evolved as gateway, a symbol of communication and cooperation. Said imagery was used for monuments, immortalizing important moments in history as Napoleon did in 1806. The Brexit marked an important moment in history. The proposal recognizes it. Its design derives from the concept of the antithesis of an arch. A closed gateway, uncooperative, a wall. Four arches were designed, representing the remaining 1973 European Union. Placed in line demonstrating cooperation between countries at contrast with the separated closed arch, the UK.
Brexit Monuments Competition 3rd Place submission in a competition organized by the Paris School of Architecture.
Personal
Feb 2018
The arches are placed in a wheat plantation at the crossroads between the Eurostar service and the Route de Estuaries. The landscape around the site consists of small constructions and vegetation, giving the proposal legibility at speed from two high traffic routes. Steel was the most suitable material for the proposal due to its durability, ease to build in height, and elegance. The proposal has a classical monumentality with a contemporary touch that recites a setback in recent history. It stands out in the landscape by taking in account its buildability, rendering a modest yet moving design.
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D1 D2
construction process
details
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