PORTFOLIO
C A M I L A G U T I É R R E Z P L A TA
ARchitect
urban designer photographer
Public Spine as Urban Framework Redesigning Hudson Yards Project NYC
- Option Studio: The Highline as Urban Spine Spring 2017 MAUD - Semester 2
The project of the core option studio The Highline as Urban Spine, had a first stage in which by groups we designed the general plan for the Hudson Yards site and the guidelines for the architecture projects. In the second stage, each student was in charge of designing one of the towers from the proposal; I chose the design of the public spine between the buildings that was part of the general proposal, because the chosen proposal was the one from team I worked in. The spine was a continuation of the Highline but as a set of different complementary elements that connected the city at various levels and with the buildings in order to create an active spine as a truly public space. The main idea of the central spine was to create an open space in the middle of the Manhattan blocks that would provide new truly public (not owned by privates like the POPS) space for the inhabitants of the surrounding buildings but also at a scale and connected in such a way that it could be enjoyed by all New Yorkers. The first step was to understand what aspects of the Highline, our main precedent, are positive and which are not, in order to replicate or adapt them into the new spine. The key feature from the Highline is that it reveals the inside of the Manhattan block, which is otherwise impenetrable in the rest of the city. This became the guiding concept for the spine: an urban framework that would reveal different and varied urban experiences. What this means is that the spine works as an element that celebrates urbanity by uncovering and framing different aspects of the city. To achieve the goal of revealing different urban experiences, the spine consisted of three main elements: 1) a continuous elevated pedestrian and bike path at +7.2 m (continuation of the Highline); 2) through topography, a level changing continuous park that connects to the elevated path at +7.2, comes down to a pedestrian street a level 0 and than flows bellow two streets at -7.2m; and, 3) the continuous flow of cars through the Manhattan street network. What this three main elements achieve are uninterrupted pedestrian, bike, and car flows in a way that all can appreciate the other. The change in topography of the park in comparison to the elevated path, creates a series of opportunities for commerce at different levels that activates the spine itself; these, complemented by commerce on the adjoining towers, and the now revealed entrance to the metro, guarantee permanent flows in the different levels of the spine. From the three elements you can observe the other two and the dynamics that happen in them: from elevated path, to street, to park. Finally, the part where the park is at its highest, it also provides a space for a cultural public building, in this case a library. Since the proposed Spine is meant to work as an urban framework that can be replicated, it was important to set guidelines for the adjoining buildings such that they could take advantage of spine (i.e. have lobbies or commercial uses at +7.2m level) but also to ensure that both the streets and the avenues are kept as an active network of the city for both cars but also for pedestrians.
Public Spine as Urban Framework Redesigning Hudson Yards Project NYC
- Option Studio: The Highline as Urban Spine Spring 2017 MAUD - Semester 2 Spine Elements
Public Spine as Urban Framework Redesigning Hudson Yards Project NYC
- Option Studio: The Highline as Urban Spine Spring 2017 MAUD - Semester 2
Public Spine as Urban Framework Redesigning Hudson Yards Project NYC
- Option Studio: The Highline as Urban Spine Spring 2017 MAUD - Semester 2
Reactivating the City Trough the Void Manufacturing/Housing Project Sunset Park NYC Co-author: Foteini Bouliari
- Elements of Urban Design Fall 2016 MAUD - Semester 1
The project of the core studio for the Masters of Architecture in Urban Design, Elements of Urban Design, was to make a proposal for Sunset Park, NYC, that included housing and manufacturing, taking into account that the fashion district might move to this site. The project had a specific site, but we were allowed to change the range and scale of the proposal outside this site. We decided to design a smaller scale intervention that could be deployed in different sites and start reactivating the area by creating voids inside the city. After having analyzed New York City and the site through various lenses and scales, we realized that the interventions that have really improved the quality of the city and the experience of citizens, are the ones that have a more local/neighborhood scale. The site that had been given as part of the brief, was a very big piece of land on the waterfront, which used to be part of a railway system that served the different industries that happened the previous century. As industry moved to New Jersey and other cities, the area got left behind and infrastructural projects started to segregate the residential areas from the waterfront and from the small and few public spaces that exist in the neighborhood. We decided that the project needed to create new nodes of activity that would reactivate the area through public open space, retail and the introduction of industry as part of the daily urban life, not segregated and hidden like it is at present. The first strategy was to create a grid of 9 public spaces, 6 of which were conformed by joining the plots of land facing each other of two blocks, and making the street between them a pedestrian pathway. What this first step meant to do, was to create voids inside the city fabric, that would augment the amount of addresses that faced the new public space; the other 3 public spaces were located in the site on the waterfront, which we designed as a park that gave back the waterfront to the citizens, and became not voids but nodes with particular activities inside the park. Each of these 9 new public spaces, which could then be replicated in other parts of the city to reactivate them, had a specific identity that responded to its direct surroundings (3 in a more residential area, 3 in an industry area, and 3 in the park). To activate the voids, we planned for the first floor facing the public spaces to be either retail, a community amenity, or an industrial space that related with the open space; these first floor were design to be visually penetrable to create a connection between the pedestrians walking on the streets surrounding the newly defined doubleblocks, the new open space, and the activities on the first floor. By making this connection, the city, through its different activities, can become part of the everyday life of citizens. The housing was projected to be on taller buildings on top of the more public floors, generating a visual connection with the waterfront and responding to sun light access. The project’s intention was to create new nodes of activity within the city fabric that could create relationships between the different uses that happen in the city and connecting citizens through a system of new open public spaces.
Reactivating the City Trough the Void Manufacturing/Housing Project Sunset Park NYC Co-Author: Foteini Bouliari
- Elements of Urban Design December 2016 MAUD - Semester 1
1
Existing Condition - Two Blocks
2 Transfer Development Rights - One Block
4 Promote Development in Surroundings
3 Projects by Different Architects
Reactivating the City Trough the Void Manufacturing/Housing Project Sunset Park NYC Co-author: Foteini Bouliari
Sections - Housing, Industrial, Park
- Elements of Urban Design Fall 2016 MAUD - Semester 1
Reactivating the City Trough the Void Manufacturing/Housing Project Sunset Park NYC Co-Author: Foteini Bouliari
- Elements of Urban Design December 2016 MAUD - Semester 1
Social Cohesion Through Public Space Minuto de Dios Civic and Cultural Center, Bogota, Colombia Co-author: Luisa Donado
- Undergraduate Architecture Thesis Spring 2013 Bachelor in Architecture
For my Bachelor of Architecture Thesis, after having designed the master plan for the Minuto de Dios neighborhood, we had to choose a public building to make the final design. We chose the Civic and Cultural center because we concluded after analyzing the neighborhood that it lacked an identity and thus the inhabitants did not feel any appropriation for the public space. The project poses to achieve social cohesion through the design of different public and semipublic spaces with different characteristics that promote varied relations between citizens. By projecting extroverted and introverted public spaces, citizens can feel appropriation for these when they are able to identify themselves with the spaces. When we asked ourselves about the necessities of a community whose identity was based on religion, we realized that the project must pose two opposite public spaces that complement each other and that promote congregation and relations between people inside the community. Through public space people relate and start to recognize the other participants of the community, thus losing anonymity. This is why the ideal public facility to supply these needs is a Civic and Cultural Center for the Minuto de Dios neighborhood. Congregation is the main approach of the project, this is why it is located in the center of the neighborhood where the tensions coming from the other public buildings proposed in the master plan, converge. Both main public spaces proposed generate a contrast that permits diverse forms of inhabiting public space such that people can feel identified with them. An open ascending space is posed, conformed by a grand stand that creates internal introverted spaces and leads towards a walkable roof that can also be reached by the internal spaces. On the other extreme of the building, an intimate sunken public space is accompanied by a communal area spread throughout the building, which is a little more extroverted. Complementing these spaces, we propose inside the building spaces that generate learning environments where knowledge can be shared. These different training workshops and the theater allow the individuals to contribute and make part of the whole community. The project seeks to create horizontal relations that promote democracy and equity through empowerment by the act of talk and other socio-cultural relations. The different spaces promote different types of interactions between citizens: in the stands and the theatre the relationships are more hierarchical, there is someone that expresses their opinions and others that listen. In the case of the sunken public space protected by the cantilevered building, and the rooms for workshops, the interactions between people are horizontal, all have a voice and can express their opinions in a receiving environment. By allowing people to express themselves in different types of environments, we propose to increase the sense of belonging and social cohesion of the citizens of the neighborhood and the city.
Social Cohesion Through Public Space Minuto de Dios Civic and Cultural Center, Bogota, Colombia Co-Author: Luisa Donado Minuto de Dios Master Plan
- Undergraduate Architecture Thesis Spring 2013 Bachelor in Architecture
Social Cohesion Through Public Space Minuto de Dios Civic and Cultural Center, Bogota, Colombia Co-author: Luisa Donado
- Undergraduate Architecture Thesis Spring 2013 Bachelor in Architecture
Social Cohesion Through Public Space Minuto de Dios Civic and Cultural Center, Bogota, Colombia Co-Author: Luisa Donado
- Undergraduate Architecture Thesis Spring 2013 Bachelor in Architecture
Housing Social Interactions Mixed-Income Housing Project, London
- Option Studio: Rethinking Haussmann Fall 2017 MAUD - Semester 3
The project for the option studio Rethinking Haussmann: The Function of a 21st Century MultiStory Residential Building, consisted of the design of a housing project which had as a main goal to produce units of varied incomes and that responded to the different lifestyles of the families of the 21st century. The site is located in front of the Burgess Park in London, has an area of 3.06 hectares and we were meant to produce around 1200 units. A crucial aspect of the project was to define the block and how the buildings in it would generate new dynamics in the city. My proposal is based on the interactions that both the organization of the blocks and the buildings themselves can foster to create social cohesion. It’s been proven by many academics, both from sociology and design disciplines, like Jan Gehl, that social interactions between strangers increase the sense of community, generate social cohesion, and build tolerance. This project seeks to address the question of how to encourage and foster different types of interactions between different residents and citizens. The main concept is to take Alexandra Road as a precedent which, through its terracing and the main road, which has created a good sense of community, and not only increase density but also the types of interactions there are in the project. The massing, through its five bars, creates four public pedestrian streets that connect the rest of the city to the park but also foster passive contact between citizens and the residents of the project (passive contact means being in presence of others). By mirroring Alexandra Road, I create a second space of interaction that has a more private character than that of the street. The interiors of the two tall bars area accessible to the residents but also to those who come to the work spaces or commercial shops that face the inside space. In these two spaces, there are interactions that range from passive contact to contact with familiar strangers, those you recognize but don’t necessarily know their name. This happens because both residents and other citizens walk through the space meeting with the shop owner or the other entrepreneur whom you are sharing an office space with. Finally, the lower buildings conform several courtyards that are shared by a small number of units and that are only accessible to them. These spaces of interaction are the most private, but they foster interactions between neighboring friends who then have a great sense of belonging to the communal open space.
Housing Social Interactions Mixed-Income Housing Project, London
- Option Studio: Rethinking Haussmann Fall 2017 MAUD - Semester 3
Housing Social Interactions Mixed-Income Housing Project, London
- Option Studio: Rethinking Haussmann Fall 2017 MAUD - Semester 3
Housing Social Interactions Mixed-Income Housing Project, London
- Option Studio: Rethinking Haussmann Fall 2017 MAUD - Semester 3
Sharing and Eating: Public Space Appropriation through Furniture Furniture Design for a Square in Bogotรก, Colombia
- Undergraduate Design Thesis Spring 2014 Bachelor in Design
For my Design Major thesis I proposed to find a way for a square in Bogotรก city to be revitalized through the design of urban furniture. The square is located in a very active area but everyone goes around it and it is not being used by citizens. It was interesting to find solutions to urban problems from a smaller scale and without changing the urban design of the space. For this project many referents were studied and the area was analyzed thoroughly during different times of the day to profoundly understand the reasons why it is not used. The proposal is that it can become a square for eating and sharing and thus giving a new identity to the square. Bogotรก is a very active city in which inhabits a great amount of people, but it is a city in which the majority of its public space is not used and has deteriorated due to a lack of appropriation from its citizens. This project seeks to revitalize a space inside the city so that it can become an example of what can be done in the public space of the city. These particular and striking places generate a tie between people and the city that augments the feeling of appropriation by the citizens. The project will be located in the Calle 96 with Carrera 15 Square and it seeks to give meaning through sharing inside the square. In response to the context in which it is located, the square is proposed as a space where sharing happens mainly through food, a square that will be recognized in the area and the entire city as the place to share food. The main element of the project is a piece of urban furniture that promotes sharing when eating. This is a result of the design of semicircles, the most suitable organization for sharing, and different situations. The result must be striking and out of the ordinary, of interest for the inhabitants and that can become an iconic space inside the city. Even though the piece is small compared to the square, it is projected to be used at the same time by approximately 50 people. Although it was designed specifically for eating, it is contemplated for other activities that happen between meals: sharing by resting, or even sleeping. Activities are not limited by the design because it is important that citizens appropriate the furniture by making use in however way they find necessary. Even though this is a proposal for this specific square and it responds to the needs of the space, this concept and idea can be used in other public spaces that are also in need of revitalization. The design allows redesigns, through a module, so it can adapt to other spaces. The revitalization of public spaces in Bogotรก is important because it is the main reason why inhabitants do not feel the city as their own. What this intervention seeks is to give meaning to the square; by giving a new identity to the space, it will become an iconic square in the city that through the particular experiences of the citizens, will become a memorable space.
Sharing and Eating: Public Space Appropriation through Furniture Furniture Design for a Square in Bogotรก, Colombia
- Undergraduate Design Thesis Spring 2014 Bachelor in Design
House with the Style of Paulo Mendes da Rocha Final Project for a House in the 50’S in Bogotá Co-author: Luisa Donado
- Undergraduate Studio: Form Fall 2012 Bachelor in Design
For the final project of the workshop called Project: Form, we had to study an architect, his designs, but mainly his style when it came to designing any type of building. We had to understand how he proceeded when he received a project and how he developed it. Our architect was Paulo Mendes da Rocha and after analyzing him we had to design a house in a neighborhood in Bogotá as if it were 1950, taking into account the context and the different ways of living of the society of the time. We had to design the house as though we were him and thus applying his aesthetic and other elements like structure and illumination. For the first part we analyzed Paulo Mendes da Rocha’s style and recognized 6 important steps he seemed to make in order to make his designs: the first floor was always an open plan to allow different activities to happen; a block is supported by the minimum structure; he analyzed natural light and designed from it; design private and communal or public spaces very differently; understand emptiness and design without filling it; and search for elements to create a feeling of levity. We concluded that the elements and resources he used to achieve all these were: the least amount of structure possible, taking advantage of natural light, continuous windows from floor to roof, the use of crude materials, levity, open plans, designing private spaces as cells and public or communal spaces as salons. After this we had to study the society of Bogotá in the 1950’s and how families used to live. We were given a plot of land in which we placed a house in the center that could be surrounded by grass and trees, a common design tool Mendes da Rocha used. At level zero the house touched the ground with only four structural supports, a little bigger than those designed by Mendes da Rocha but that respond to Bogotá’s high chance of earthquakes. The only thing that was on designed at level cero was a workshop for an artist as it was part of the program and it had to be separated from the main house; as Mendes da Rocha rarely designed separate blocks in the same project, we decided that the best location was on this first floor. Another element that was very important to Mendes da Rocha was the use of water in all his projects and thus we created water mirrors that could reflect light into the ceiling of this open plan. Like Mendes da Rocha we designed private areas (rooms and a study area) as separate cells which all had their own bathroom. Each also had a private study area next to a continuous window in order to design spaces similar to those designed by him in his residential projects. All the common areas (living room and dining area) were designed as a great salon and divided by furniture and not by walls. Both the kitchen and the room for the maids, as in 1950 in Bogotá families were used to having at least two permanent maids, were given an area on one of the facades that received the least amount of natural light. The overall plan was a rectangle directed in such a way that the longest sides faced east and west and thus receive the greatest amount of natural light during the year. We developed the entire program in one plan as Mendes da Rocha did with almost all his residential projects, allowing us to use the roof as a source of natural light for many of the spaces through skylights similar to those used by him.
House with the Style of Paulo Mendes da Rocha Final Project for a House in the 50’S in Bogotå Co-Author: Luisa Donado
Level Zero Floor Plan
Second Floor Plan
- Undergraduate Studio: Form Fall 2012 Bachelor in Design
House with the Style of Paulo Mendes da Rocha Final Project for a House in the 50’S in Bogotå Co-author: Luisa Donado
Longitudinal Cross-sections and Facades
Transversal Cross-sections and Facades
- Undergraduate Studio: Form Fall 2012 Bachelor in Design
House with the Style of Paulo Mendes da Rocha Final Project for a House in the 50’S in Bogotå Co-Author: Luisa Donado
- Undergraduate Studio: Form Fall 2012 Bachelor in Design
Housing Typologies to Ensure Income Diversity Urban Morphologies Across Scales Co-Authors: Robert Meyerson and Rose Florian
- Elements of Urban Design Fall 2016 MAUD - Semester 1
As the third exercise from the core studio of MAUD, we were meant to create analytical drawings in different scales of a category, in our case: income distribution. The result would be a graphical hypothesis that would end in a fast proposal for an area in Brooklyn. We approached this exercise by analyzing housing typologies and how they have allowed or not for income to change. Can design contribute to the re-distribution of income? Certain typologies over time, have allowed for more income change (either increasing or decreasing) than others. The Row House (the brownstone), data analyzed shows, has been the most resilient type in allowing for income change, while Towers and Towers in the Park have very little income change through time. We propose a neighborhood that accommodates hybrid blocks of typologies of varying income change. It suggests an ‘income diverse’ area that can be resilient to different market dynamics. Therefore we propose hybrid blocks, guaranteeing income diversity, but also certain types that are resistant to change, also guaranteeing variety through time.
Paraná River as Land Making Machine Investigation and Representation of a River
- The Idea of Environment Fall 2017 MAUD - Semester 3
Co-Authors: Jannet Arevalo and Cari Alcombright
The project of The Idea of Environment was to investigate a river and to construct and represent an environment by drawing its design language. We were meant to pick a river in the world and to inquire into it through a different perspective as that of a river represented by lines. We decided to look at the Paraná river in South America, particularly at its delta and all the countries where the sediment comes from. Our representation displays the inequity of river carrying water versus land. All water that flows through the delta will eventually end up elsewhere through evaporation, while the land that ends in the delta will keep growing. We started with the river as border between different countries in South America and the delta ending near Buenos Aires, Argentina’s capital city. In the past 200 years it has increased 200 km2, and is viewed as valuable Argentinian land for building luxurious coastal homes. The river is building up land for Argentina, but this land is coming from five countries. We view the river not as a border, but as a non-geopolitical land creating machine: the delta can be seen as a neutral zone. This way of thinking allows Bolivia and Paraguay, inland countries, to have direct access to the coasts. A
A
E
B
A| Paraguay River
E
B
C
F C
G
E| Paraiba River
B| Pilcomayo River
F|
F| Grande River C| Bermejo River
G
H
G| Tiete River
H
I
H| Paranapanema River
I
D
I| Iguazu River
D
D| Salado River
J
J
K
J| Canoas River
K
L
K| Pelotas River
L M
L| Ibicui River M
M| Negro River
F
F E
M B
E
M
B
G C
L
F E
M A
A
B
G C
L
D
D
A
G C
L
D H
H
H
K J
K J
K J I
I LAND
I LAND + WATER
WATER
F E
M B
A
G
C L
D H
K
J I
LEGEND BRASIL PARAGUAY ARGENTINA URUGUAY BOLIVIA PERU COLOMBIA VENEZUELA DAM WATER
PARANA RIVER AS LAND MAKING MACHINE
Times Square - Eje Ambiental - Carrer d’Enric Granados Analyzing Urban Projects
- Urban Grids: Open Form for City Design Spring 2017 MAUD - Semester 2
As exercise two from Urban Grids: Open Form for City Design, we were assigned three different projects that dealt with urban grids which were to be analyzed to understand their different elements and impacts on the city. My three projects: 1) Times Square, New York; 2) Eje Ambiental, Bogota; and, 3) Carrier d’Enric Granados, Barcelona, were all interventions that restructure or redefined the grid by rearranging uses and flows on streets. Although the three projects are in very different contexts, their approaches to changing dynamics in each city are similar. Both Times Square and Eje Ambiental were projects that took advantage of the irregularities in an otherwise very rigid grid, to increase the amount of surface destined for pedestrians. In the case of Barcelona, the intervention was more about rearranging the areas for each of the uses on the street in order to privilege pedestrians and bikers. Times Square was mostly about joining blocks to form larger pedestrian areas; and in Bogota it was taking advantage of the introduction of the BRT system to increase the width of sidewalks and to join existing open spaces. Although the scales of the projects are different, they all restructure the grid.
Understanding a City through Textures: MedellĂn, Colombia Photographic Project on Narratives
- Photo Narrative Fall 2014 Minor in Photography
As an elective of the minor in Photography I chose Photonarrative, a class where we learned to tell stories or narrate through pictures. We had to make a trip and tell our story through photographs with any concept and about any subject. I chose to travel to cities and photograph the different textures that make up the visuals. The final composition of the different textures had to be a visual explanation of the city and how it is perceived by the people. My final project was to travel to MedellĂn, Colombia and walk for three days in order to take enough representative pictures for the final composition to be a clear image of the city.