AnaMariaNater_worksamples

REHAB CENTER

Ashford Presbyterian Community Hospital

Space, understood as the place we inhabit, affects the mood and mindset of its occupants. There is a discipline in the United States which has recently shown interest in understanding the correlation between human behavioral science and architecture, known as Neuro-Architecture. This is based on the premise that the environment in which we live affects physically and mentally the health of human beings. The field has raised concerns for space whose program is to direct attention to the individual, particularly hospitals and/or health centers. The design of these, particularly the areas of recovery and rehabilitation, must recognize the impact of the spatial quality created by the architecture in patients, visitors and faculty who manage them.

The goal is to design a REHAB CENTER which introduces a new concept of healing to post-hospitalized patients with a number of new challenges to confront, both physical and mental. The Center aims to eliminate the notion of the typical hospital clinic and in turn stimulate a patient’s well-being in the recovery process by questioning the existing proposal of the site while taking into account its location.

Location: Condado, Puerto Rico

ANA MARIA NATER LOPEZ | anamnater@gmail.com

WORK SAMPLES | 1

This project has the specific objective of creating a health care center which integrates the elements found in the surrounding landscape. The connection between outdoor and indoor spaces were the primary concerns in allocating the programs, in which the medical facilities were incorporated indoor and the spaces for therapy were strategically located in the exteriors to benefit from conditions of the natural context.

The central courtyard’s main purpose is an exterior space with therapeutical benefits that culminates in the ocean making its trajectory a sensorial and therapeutical experience based on the principles of reflexology. The courtyard was designed to be a public space which can be accessed either from the Ashford Presbyterian Community Hospital or the main street in order to give the community a healing space.

ANA MARIA NATER LOPEZ | anamnater@gmail.com

WORK SAMPLES | 2

RESEARCH CENTER Snake Laboratory

The Research Center is designed to be a sustainable response to the building’s unique context, the Chaco Canyon Desert in Arizona. The extreme climate makes sustainable design a particular challenge: hot, dry summers and cool, dry winters.

Therefore, the concept of the design was based on studying the climatological adaptations of a native animal and employ them as design guidelines. In this case, I chose the Sidewinder Snake, due to its distinct sideways movement for which it’s named after. This type of snake creates pressure points to help them raise most of their bodies, reducing its contact with the hot sand.

This phenomenon was incorporated into the design by creating mechanisms which allow the building to “breathe”, such as strategically located openings that function as outdoor patios/laboratories created around the existing snake habitats and by elevating strategic parts of the building that respond to sun and wind paths.

The building’s siting and orientation are the first strategic moves toward sustainability: the partially buried structure mitigates the extreme fluctuations in temperature, and its orientation optimizes passive solar performance. Earth Rammed Wall techniques were strategically used for the east, west and south façades in order for the temperature changes to feel more subtle.

Location: Arizona, United States

ANA MARIA NATER LOPEZ | anamnater@gmail.com

WORK SAMPLES | 3

COMMONWEALTH SPACE Caño Martin Peña

The third book of the trilogy by the duo Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri develops the concept of “Commonwealth” (2009) as the space to be occupied by the “Multitude” (2004). The “Multitude”, composed of heterogenous singularities, is played out in this new space now refocused on collective production and on the territory’s self-governance. It is by means of this new alternative to the private, separated simultaneously from the public control of the State, that the concept of “Commonwealth Space” is developed for the purposes of this project. With this in mind, we worked with the marginalized Caño Martín Peña Sector, in close collaboration with the ENLACE Group, in order to develop new spaces of the “common”.

This particular proposal set out to transform the residual areas around the realignment of the Barbosa Avenue into an area that promotes encounters through space and program. To name a few, new housing units for the relocated residents of “El Caño”, urban gardens, commercial spaces, a new bus terminal and a community center would now reinvigorate what was once considered an abandoned wasteland.

Location: San Juan, Puerto Rico

ANA MARIA NATER LOPEZ | anamnater@gmail.com

WORK SAMPLES | 4

ANA MARIA NATER LOPEZ | anamnater@gmail.com

WORK SAMPLES | 5

HOUSING COMPLEX Building Block Apartments

This Housing Complex masterplan was designed specifically for the design course by the Professor in order for the students to face common challenges in an ideal urban scenario. The building is located between two party walls making access to light crucial for the units and its distribution. As a first step, two separate buildings were created in order to maximize the natural light, creating an inner courtyard between them which serves as a communal space alongside the other two buildings in the block.

Location: N/A

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ANA MARIA NATER LOPEZ | anamnater@gmail.com

WORK SAMPLES | 6