Miami,
lahoudana@gmail.com
+1 (305) 713-6662
Masters of Architecture
2021 - 2023
Florida International University [USA]
Bachelors in Architecture
2012 - 2018
Universidad Simón Bolívar [Venezuela]
Junior Year Program in English
2016 - 2017
Tohoku University [Japan]
Dedicated and collaborative designer with a passion for practical learning. Eager to contribute my skills in space planning, design visualization, and project management to a dynamic architectural team.
Spanish - Native English - Fluent
Arabic - Intermediate Japanese, French - Basic
Designer III
FHL Design / Hernan Arriaga Design Studio
Aug 2019 - Present (4y)
Led and coordinated communication with contractors, consultants, vendors, clients, and colleagues to ensure project success.
Collaborated with senior interior designers to develop conceptual design ideas for various projects, including residential and commercial spaces.
Designed custom millwork, such as cabinetry and built-ins, to meet project-specific requirements.
Assisted in space planning, material selection, and color schemes to create cohesive and aesthetically pleasing interiors.
Oversaw construction document production for permits with a keen eye for detail.
Managed vendor estimates and maintained continuous communication from project initiation to punch-list completion.
Conducted site visits to assess existing conditions and worked closely with contractors to ensure design intent was realized during construction.
Produced comprehensive interior design plans, including floor plans, elevations, furniture layouts, FF&E specifications and mood boards for client presentations.
Designer I
Ba-Haus BHKNF
Aug 2019 - Nov 2020 (1 5y)
Produced Hospitality interior design plans. Designed custom millwork, including cabinetry and wall units. Created furniture specification documents.
AIA Student Merit Award, Spring 2023
SketchUp
[Enscape, V-ray] Rendering
[Word, Excel, PowerPoint] Microsoft O
[Revit, Autocad] Autodesk [Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign] Adobe S.
Honorable Mention [Miami Floating Housing Competition], 2022
Open architecture competition organized by ArchOutLoud, where the purpose was to propose ideas for floating housing in Miami’s Biscayne Bay
Graduated with Honors [Cum Laude], Dec 2018
Honorable Mention [Undergraduate Thesis], Sep 2018
[Walking / Biking around the city]
[Meeting people from different backgrounds]
[Learning languages]
[Teamwork] [Fashion]
Titled “Ciudad entre tiempos: San Bernardino as an Urban Palimpsest or oportunities for future development scenarios”
JASSO Scholarship, 2016 - 2017
Awarded by the Japanese Government to international students.
Master Thesis | Instructor: Arch. Nick Gelpi
200 N. Cooper St. Arlington TX
Keywords: Transportation, Pavement, Pavers, Flow, Circulation.
As a city in development, Arlington is facing challenges when it comes to public transportation, which is non-existent. As a solution, the private company VIA, with the municipality’s support, provides microtransit services to fill-in the need for transportation as required throughout the city.
This thesis project was sponsored by VIA with the intent of promoting the development of ideas that could propose how the world’s “first micro transit hub” would look like.
As a basis for this project, the Master Plan created by the City of Arlington has been taken into account, from which four key-points have informed the project:
• Lower the amount of surface parking.
• Providing more tree canopy for pedestrians.
• Attract more people to downtown.
• Generate a sense of identity.
In this sense, the proposal aims to achieve these guidelines by:
• Number 1: Creating a cluster completely dedicated to vehicles, lowering this way the access of the cars to the rest of the proposal and increasing the amount of public space dedicated to pedestrians and bikers.
• Number 2: Using trees as part of the overall structure planning of the proposal, which is seen in one example by the slab adaptation to the inclusion of the trees and in a second example, by marking one of the access points to the site.
• Number 3: Using permeable pavements to lower the impact on the soil, as well as preventing heat absorption and higher temperatures for users.
• And finally, Number 4: Creating an internal public space that is focused on the historically meaningful railroad that borders the city, which is what originated the city of Arlington.
Regarding the massing development of the site:
The volumes are located in the western side of the site, bordering the Oasis Motel and W Division street with two structures that create a gap between them, dedicated to an in-n-out driveway, which is the only space that would be car accessible, achieving this way, a continuous sidewalk that connects to the rest of the public spaces.
On the other side, bordering N Cooper St, which is heavier in traffic and where a preexisting building is already setting the tone, the proposal creates the access axis with lined trees that additionally, provide shading for a space that can potentially be used for food truck festivals, farmers markets and other events that could be benefited by this natural sun protection.
Finally, the project interacts with the pre-existing building by creating a podium that goes up 2 feet, which is the original level of said structure, taking advantage of this slight change of level to shape the landscape into a series of public spaces that go up and down depending on the relation to the program. Additionally, the solar panels canopy appear once again in the northern façade of this preexisting building, trying to extend the interior space of said building towards the proposed public space, providing a shaded outdoor space that could benefit the Taste Project Community Restaurant that will be located in that building.
Comprehensive Design Studio | Instructor: Arch. Mark Marine Cotton Club, West Harlem NYC
Keywords: Freedom, Tolerance, Clandestine, Hidden, Passage, Resistance
When thinking about West Harlem, themes that come to mind are instantly related to African American culture and history, and indeed, the area took an important role during the Jim Crow and Prohibition Era, with its multiple speakeasies and the renowned Harlem Renaissance. However, when researching further and going below the surface, events like the Underground Railroad and the importance of West Harlem in this route up-north that the escaped enslaved had to take when running away to freedom, are highlighted.
Due to West Harlem being an important transitional “station” in this network of people that used to secretly support the abolitionist cause, and the fact that the area still is a notorious mecca -due to its affordabilityfor students and young professionals that are trying to start their lives and climb the social ladder, the project is centered in the concept of transition, passage and articulation. A portal that propels people to their destiny, celebrating a path full of resilience, struggles, but with a sweet and worthy end. Freedom.
Design Studio 10 | Instructor: Arch. Thomas Spiegelhalter
Teammates: Francis Castro ; Darlene Gonzalez | Legion Park, Miami FL
Keywords: Resiliency, Sustainability, Sea Level Rise, Connection, Community
How will humans adapt their cities to water in the future?
This proposal displays a step-by-step approach to said question, taking into consideration the specific attributes of the site from the year 2022 to 2100.
Environmental factors and the existing cultural, social-economical, and urban context, shape the design into three main components:
1. [THE LAND - CULTURAL CENTER]: Proposed as the first keystone, it connects today’s land to an elevated adaptive structure on water, through a boardwalk, including a public parking lot which will eventually be covered by water in 2040, symbolizing the transition from the personal-use automobile to the transportation systems of the future.
2. [THE RESIDENTIAL ARCS]: Considering affordable construction on water, three clusters comprise the totality of 52 live-work, which allow for higher density and shared service cores.
3. [THE WATER – COMMUNITY CENTER]: Presented as the final phase of the community’s composition, the structure aims to connect the complex to water-focused activities and different amenities offered to the residents of the community.
Tying these components, an elevated floating [PUBLIC PIER] is proposed, allowing both horizontal and vertical connection and one day’s capability to expand the community.
Water Management and Treatment
Urban Palimpsest: Discover the past, Analize the present and Propose for the future
Bachelor’s Thesis Project | Instructor: Arch. Aliz Mena & Arch. Franco Micucci
Institution: Simon Bolivar University [Venezuela] | San Bernardino Urbanization, Caracas VE
Keywords: Footprints, memory, palimpsest, city, time
From it’s begginings, the city has been a place which, through the impact of its citizens, has been able to develop and evolve. These generations, have been leaving its marks imprinted in the urban fabric through time, creating this way a group of “urban imprints”. It’s from this premise that the concept of Urban Palimpsest1 is born.
The Place. San Bernardino was the first neighborhood that created a rupture in the old colonial grid used to organize Caracas’ downtown. This rupture of paradigms, as well as the rich vegetation, water streams and the social and cultural dynamics of this particular area, marked the neighborhood.
Although, even with it’s important background, today many of the aforementioned imprints have been forgotten, or they are only known and kept in the memory of the oldest members of San Bernardino. However, there is a small number of them which are still found in the urban fabric.
Through this work, San Bernardino and its footprints are studied in three times: past, present and future; last which will propose subsequent development scenarios, that result from the understanding of the evolution process of the neighborhood, and leaving this way a glimpse of what our generation could imprint on today’s San Bernadino.
CURRENT MOBILITY
HISTORIC PRECEDENT
Due to the poor decisions made regarding mobility and public space, as well as the lack of legislation that promotes and maintains the cultural heritage that represents the architectural typology of San Bernardino for the city of Caracas, currently the urbanization is in a deplorable and deteriorated state, where disorder and congestion characterizes its most important access points.
MOBILITY PROPOSAL _ EAST/WEST INTEGRATION
PUBLIC SPACE PROPOSAL _ ARTICULATIONS
ENVIRONMENTAL PROPOSAL _ NORTH/SOUTH INTEGRATION
Propose for The Future: Based on the previously mentioned problems, and showing that most of the found imprints and the situations to be addressed occur in six of the most important access points to San Bernardino, it’s decided to work on these points and the connectivity of the urbanization, to later propose scenarios for its future development, addressing the current situation and taking into account what previously existed there.
CHARACTERIZATION OF URBAN CORNERS
ENVIRONMENTAL MEMORY
URBAN ARTICULATORS
TRAFFIC REDISTRIBUTION
Proposed Strategies Summary: San Bernardino as an Urban Palimpsest of Opportunities for Future Development Scenarios. Interventions are proposed that promote the use of existing and proposed public spaces, in order to revalue the architectural and environmental memory of San Bernardino, and have a beneficial impact on the improvement of the dynamics of the public spaces of the urbanization.
