Carmen Martínez Fernández-Barja Harvard GSD
MAUD
2013
Cambridge
ETSAM
Architect
2011
Madrid
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Contents
Architecture
Landscape Architecture
Landscape
Urban Design
Planning
Construction
Object
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04 Curriculum Vitae 06 Linear CityVilla 31, Buenos Aires: Redirecting Three-Dimensional Growth as a Productive Process 16 City as a Campus 26 Neo-Mining: Reconstructing the Foothills of Beijing for Peri-Urban Growth 42 The Myth of the Labyrinth 54 Linear City 64 Bringing Back Cáceres’ Urban Public History 70 Island Within an Island 76 Transversal Landscapes 80 Natural Axis 88 The Cavern’s Myth 92 Appendix: Videos
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Carmen Martínez Fernández-Barja
cmartine@gsd.harvard.edu +1 857 928 7100 Skype: Carmen Martinez
88 Beacon street, apt. 51 Somerville, MA, USA
Palamios 15, 3E Pontevedra, Spain
Education Harvard Graduate School of Design l Master of Architecture in Urban Design l MAUD l 2011-2013 Master Design Thesis: “Villas 31, Buenos Aires: Redirecting Three Dimensional Growth as a Productive Process” Thesis advisor: Jorge Silvetti
Polytechnic University of Madrid - ETSAM l Master in Architecture l MArch l 2005-2011 Design Thesis: “The Myth of the Labyrinth: Housing and Social Center for Old and Young People in Almere Heaven, Holland” Thesis advisor: Jesús Ulargui Diploma in Landscape and Urban Design l 2010
Awards David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies Research Grant l December, 2012 Funding travel to Buenos Aires to conducting independent research for thesis ALSA Student Awards in General Design Nominee l Harvard University l 2012 Nominated by faculty for outstanding studio design work, “Neo-mining: reconstituting the foothills of Beijing for Peri-urban growth”; nominated by instructors Kongjian Yu, Adrian Blackwell and Stephen Ervin. Inhabitating India Scholarship l ETSAM l 2009 Funding travel to Ahmedabad, India, for architecture project’s studio. 2nd prize in ISOVER International Student’s Contest l ISOVER Multi-Comfort House School, A new concept for learning l 2008 Award winning architecture and architecture proposal, “The Warm Igloo School.”
Professional Experience José Manuel Sanz Sanz studio l Architect intern l architecture projects’ professor in ETSAM l Madrid l September-October, 2010. Architect and graphic designer for Conference and exhibitions center in Cuenca. Meijide-Marichalar studio l Architect and Urban Designer intern l Jorge Meijde, architecture projects’ professor in ETSC l A Coruña l June-September, 2010. Urban and graphic designer for Urban project in Villagarcía de Arousa. Created construction documents and construction administration for Library rehabilitation in Palas de Reis. Architect and graphic designer for Meijidedemarichalar webpage. César Portela studio l Architect intern l architecture projects’ professor in ETSC l Pontevedra l June-September, 2008. Architect and graphic designer for 1st prize in housing competition in O Berton, Ferrol. Architect and graphic designer for Housing competition in Betanzos, A Coruña. Manuel Gallego Jorreto l Architect intern l architecture and urbanism’s professor in ETSC l A Coruña l June-September, 2007. Created construction documents and construction administration for sociocultural center and auditorium in Illa de Arousa, Pontevedra. construction documents and construction administration.
Carmen Martínez Fernández-Barja
cmartine@gsd.harvard.edu +1 857 928 7100 Skype: Carmen Martinez
88 Beacon street, apt. 51 Somerville, MA, USA
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Palamios 15, 3E Pontevedra, Spain
Publications + Exhibitions Work selected for exhibition in The South America Project: Bienal de Buenos Aires I SAP Curatorial Team: Felipe Correa, Ana María Duran, Florencia Rodriguez I Harvard GSD I 2013. Studio work selected for publication in Qinglonghu Foothill Strategy. Peri-Urban Development Alternatives for Southwest Beijing. ed. Kongjian Yu l Harvard GSD l Spring 2012. Studio work selected for publication in Elements of Urban Design: Brooklyn. ed. Felipe Correa l Harvard GSD l Fall 2011. Studio work selected for exhibition in Inhabiting India Exhibition l ETSAM l 2010. Studio work selected for publication and exhibition for ISOVER Multi-comfort House School - A new Concept for Learning - Architectural Student’s Contest Dubrovnik 2008 l Dubrovnik 2008. One of the three groups of architecture students to represent Spain.
Skills AutoCAD® Products Adobe® Creative Suite® Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign,Acrobat Pro, Premiere. ArcGIS RHINOCEROS. Nurbs modeling tools 3dMax - Vray Processing Microsoft Office Suite Apple iWork
Languages Spanish: native English: fluent
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VILLA 31, BUENOS AIRES: REDIRECTING THREE DIMENSIONAL GROWTH AS A PRODUCTIVE PROCESS Course: Final Thesis. School: Harvard GSD Thesis Advisor: Joge Silvetti. Year: 2013. Villas Miseria demonstrate the problem of housing deficit in Buenos Aires, not only because of its enormous amount but also because of their socio-spatial and economic meanings. In the last century, politic institutions and programs appeared as measures to “solve” the problem of social housing and Villas Miseria but far from this target, they emphasized the unequal situation throughout the city. As Mike Davis assets, “slums are not a result of globalization and inequality but a result of bad governance”. It can be said that the lack of a constant and effective law that defended the concept of economic housing and low-income people triggered the raise of Villas Miseria’s amount and population. This thesis aims to investigate the question of how the necessity of growth in Villas Miseria can be planned maintaining its original structure and obtaining social integration. Taking Villa 31 as the site to act, its high land value and its unstoppable urban density will be the elements that generate a new spatial and economic strategy in order to develop a new pattern of growth that must enforce its vertical component. Thus, the actual concept of planning [planning = zoning (plan) + urban code (plan and section)] changes into a more flexible and holistic one, where planning is redefined as ¬a volumetric code whose unit of measure is cubic meters (m3).
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Communal stairs
Distribution + location light infrastructure: Metals
Junkyards
proposed facilities
shops
materials flows
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Openings
Distribution + location light infrastructure: Concrete
Junkyards
proposed facilities
shops
materials flows
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Dwellings
Distribution + location light infrastructure: Plastics, Glass, Tires, Wood
Junkyards
proposed facilities
shops
materials flows
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Law School - Villa 31
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Barrio YPF
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Barrio La Florida
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Barrio Guemes
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Barrio Cristo Obrero
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CITY AS A CAMPUS Topic: Campus in Coney Island, NY. Course: Core Studio: Elements of Urban Design. School: Harvard GSD. Year: 2011. Collaboration with Chenchen Hu The notion of the academic campus is rethought in this proposal. Using the 1930s image of Luna Park in Coney Island as a point of departure, the campus is understood as a new way of playing within the city, where the drivers of this new program restructure the city and activate it. It becomes a new addition to the Belt Parkway that reaffirms its first intention of leisure corridor. Formally, the campus is located in Coney Island’s “back” and reorients the island. A new waterfront comes to the surface. An enteirely new circulation is provided in juxtaposition to the famous beach front boardwalk. Thus, the existing waterfront and the proposed one work as attractions of activity. They create a new tension in between both and therefore, they revitalize Coney Island in terms of future real state applications, raising its land value. The compositiona logics are based on two main elements: the river and the path. Without using the existin urban grid as a framework, they emphasize and create a new hierarchy between neighborhoods. On the one hand, the path sews the existing urban fabric and the proposed one, going through the parts of the site that are more degraded. On the other hand, the river is treated as a real state weapon that not only crosses and limits the site but also carves and intensifies the convenient land in order to create more density and activity. The main organizing elements - the river and the path - operate at two different scales simultaneously. One scale offers identity to the entire project, while the other functions as the primary space of encounter at the scale of pedestrian. Thus, they work as the thread’s necklace that joins stripes of public program and private program that can be use both for the campus.
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River before 1880
Program
Existing river
Density
Proposed river
Connection
Horizontal spine
Ecology
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Urban Codes
Landscape Codes
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Transversal sections
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Volumetric landscape codes
Masterplan
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Volumetric urban codes
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NEO-MINING: RECONSTITUTING THE FOOTHILLS OF BEIJING FOR PERI-URBAN GROWTH
Topic: Houses for old and young people and social center in Almere Heaven, Holland. Course: Option Studio: Qinglonghu Foothill Strategy. Peri-Urban Development Alternatives for Southwest Beijing. School: Harvard GSD Year: 2012. Collaboration with Emily Gordon Responding to the challenges of explosive growth in Beijing, and
Over 12% of Qinglonghu is currently textured by open-pit limes-
a site scarred by limestone mines, Neo-Mining proposes alternati-
tone mines. Though mostly closed during the Beijing Olympic
ve proceses of urban expansion. Accounting for the extraction and
Games in 2008, the mines hold a dramatic physical and economic
reconstitution of raw material as necessities of growth, NEo-Mi-
presence on the landscape. Because of their proximity to sites
ning leverages these as drivers of urban form. As ecologic life-cy-
of urban expansion and the continued demand for material, the
cle approach to the reuse of mining sites and materials generates
Neo-Mining instead proposes alternative processes for urban
and informs a new model for foothill urbanization. The result is the
expansion that account for the extraction and reconstitution of raw
planning of a visionary city: a unique urban identity carved from a
material as necessities of growth and potential drivers of urban
phenomenal site.
form. An ecologic life-cycle approach to the reuse of mining sites and materials generates and informs the new foothill city.
In light of Beijing’s explosive population growth and accompanying loss of arable land to urban development, this project assumes
Collapsing sites of extraction with sites of construction, Neo-
an experimental approach through which new patterns of urbani-
Mining proposes continued mining phased with the construction
zation are envisioned in the foothills surrounding Beijing, thereby
of a new city directly on the Qinglonghu mines themselves. AS
preserving the most fertile zones of plain for agricultural use.
a result, land disturbance in minimized and the agricultural plain is preserved. Mining techniques and technologies are altered to
The township of Qinglonghu spans the plain-foothill threshold
efficiently provide both the material source of the city and its cons-
southwest of Beijing, just off the 6th ring road. About 100 square
tructed foundations as well. Methods that previously degraded the
kilometers holds 32 villages and 41.600 residents. The foothill
environment are altered to become the backbones of new urban
strategy necessitates that Qinglonghu absorbs 100.000 - 300.000
ecologies. Developing beyound a master plan that details pha-
residents by the year 2030. Pressing concerns include water
sing, connectivity, urban program, and density distribution, three
shortages, agricultural preservation, brownfield remediation, and
specific experiments in urbanization ensue. Factors explored
transportation restrictions as well as considerations for housing
include material re-use, water management, landscape strategies,
strategies, density, and urban program that fully respond to the
urban program, built form, and ultimately, unique urban identities
unique conditions of the foothill site.
carved from exceptional sites.
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Regional Limestone Economy
Qinglonghu Beijing today Beijing 2030 mine traffic limestone mine coal mine iron ore petroleum basin
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Geologic Tourism & Research
China University of Geosciences Beijing Research Institute of Geology Institute of Geology and Geophysics Chinese Academcy of Geological Qinglonghu Mine City Beijing General Research Institue of Mining & Metallurgy Fengshan Geoparks Peking Man of Zhoukoudon
Geological Museum of China
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Past and Future Patterns for Mine & Urban Growth
2003
2006
2015
2020
Material strategy: Excavation & Constructon
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2009
2012
2025
2030
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Site plan 2030: population 150000
Mining Methods: Ecologic & Urban Growth: past mining practices
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Site landscape systems
forest city phase 3
Accesibility & Circulation
cabel car
hiking trail
city phase 2
city phase 1
hydrology
Mining Methods: Ecologic & Urban Growth: future mining practices
bus
regional train
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Site 1: Residential Neighborhood, 2020.
cable car escalators
build form
stairs
roads
rail
ground circulation
drainage system
Residential development: Density: Very high Population: 32500 people Houses/Ha: 85 houses/ Ha Total surface: 125.46 Ha % surface roads. 6.5% % surface open space: 27.5% % surface residence: 42% % surface industrial: 20 % % surface commerce: 3% % surface other facilities: 3% % surface parking: 7%
section 1 commerce institutional residential industrial
section 2
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Transversal section
Longitudinal section
View from one of the rooftops
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Site 2: Research Campus, 2025.
cable car
build form
ground circulation
drainage system
University development: Density: medium - high Population: 6000 people Houses/Ha: 40 houses/Ha Total surface: 38.51 Ha % surface open space: 55% % surface roads: 4% % surface residence: 10.3% % surface institution: 16% % surface commerce: 6% % surface parking: 15%
section 1 commerce institutional residential industrial
section 2
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Transversal section
Longitudinal section
View from one of the hiking trials
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Site 3: Tourist Destination, 2030. cable car
build form
ground circulation
drainage system
Touristic Development: Density: high Population: 3000 people Houses/Ha: 55 houses/ Ha Total surface: 13.83 Ha % surface open space: 65% % surface roads: 1% % surface residence: 18% % surface touristic: 7% % surface commerce: 4% % surface facilities: 0 % surface parking: 10%
section 1 commerce institutional residential industrial
section 2
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Transversal section
Longitudinal section
View from the main road
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Models
Site 1: residential neighborhood
Site 2: research campus
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Site 3: Touristic destination
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THE MYTH OF THE LABYRINTH Topic: Houses for old and young people and social center in Almere Heaven, Holland. Course: Final Thesis. School: E.T.S.A.M. Year: 2011. The aim of this proposal is to bring to an extreme the primitive concept of community. Its purpose is to question what is the closest proximity that can exist among neighbors. This question is translated into the narrow relationship of distance among houses. The concept of privacy is treated from the bigger to the smallest scale. Thus, it works as a gradient of spaces and scales. In the scale of the city it is represented by a perimeter wall that surrounds the complex and during the day can be crossed while during the night is closed. In the urban design scale, houses are clustered creating different types of courtyards introducing a hierarchy in the public sphere. Therefore, the biggest courtyards are situated in the main entrance and the center, functioning as places to attract people and activities. Lastly in the unit scale, the issue of privacy is solved through positioning the windows so that no one faces another. The proposal works like a stamp that activates and regenerates activity in the city due to Almere’s condition as a new city consisting of filled in land triggered a kind of landscape that can be considered anisotropic. Its organization has the traces of a labyrinth, an abstract and free space that can be inhabited by the members of the community as they decide.
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LINEAR CITY Topic: Linear city between Mumbai and New Delhi, India. Course: Projects 7. School: E.T.S.A.M. Year: 2008. Scholarship: Ahmedabad, India. Inhabiting India 2009 E.T.S.A.M. The purpose of this course is to develop a linear city from Mumbai to New Delhi between two major infrastructure systems, a highway and a railway. The aim of this proposal is to create a flexible city that, with a set of urban codes based on fractal rules, will make possible its growth and shrinkage depending on different interactions such as people needs, attractors of activity, or landscape systems. Its patterns of growth have the following logics: first, attractors of activity such as airports, universities or industries appear as dots of intensity within India’s landscape. These main actors will need the provision of primary and secondary transport nodes which the main direction is the perpendicular to the highway and railway in order to connect them. At the same time, these transport nodes will generate a third network of communication based on a local scale. They will connect another range of facilities that will satisfy the needs of certain neighborhoods. The grid distribution of roads and its fractal logics allow easy expansion or/and shrinkage of patterns of activity and modes of the city. The variable division of the land promotes different urban fabrics and the typological diversity of Indian cities. Additionally, the flexibility of this division permits the parcels to change their proportions and therefore absorb different urban forms in a short period of time. In doing so, housing units are designed as a set of urban design strategies that will allow the aforementioned flexibility. Their management is a key point in order to develop them and start establishing a dialogue between different urban structures.
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Case study: Polls urban fabric, Ahmedabad, India Collaboration with VĂctor Cano, Mohit Kapoor, Satyam Ramkrishna Pitroda, Saptarshi Mitra
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Collective model Collaboration with María Hernández, Laura Martín, Javier Dharandas
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Globe scale
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Logics of generation
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Process of generation of the city
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BRINGING BACK CÁCERES’ URBAN PUBLIC HISTORY Topic: Marco’s brook recovery in Cáceres. Course: Urban Projects in Historical Environments. School: E.T.A.M. Year: 2010. Collaboration with Raquel Fernández Gutiérrez The purpose of this course is to recover a linear road that surrounds the old town of Cáceres and provides the best views to it. Several activities are proposed along the length of the spine in order to promote and revaluate its use. Thus, these activities will be part of a major phasing strategy in order to promote and ensure: first: mobility; second: agriculture production; third: education; and forth: recreation. In addition, processes of renovation and rehabilitation are taking places such as working on the façades of the existing buildings, re-qualifying the existing road with different layers of transportation networks, and emphasizing existing perpendicular connections to the old town.
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Situation plan
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Plan: insert of programs along the brook
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View from the brook
Section: recuperation of the urban faรงade
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Perspective
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ISLAND WITHIN AN ISLAND Topic: Olympic Village in Madrid. Course: Project 6. School: E.T.S.A.M. Year: 2008. The proposal deals with the idea of island within an island. Each one of the three buildings responds to a specific program from the Olympic Village. Furthermore, they are distributed constituting a central plaza that works as the main access and face a forest. Four towers are erected as the icon of the Olympic Village. They can be perceived through the highway and therefore work as the main reference to the site. Thus, they emphasized the importance of the Olympic Game as a new symbol for the city. At the same time, the complex works as an enormous container of activity. Therefore, in the proposal’s section it is possible to appreciate the connection among different range of spaces and programs in a three dimensional way. It is possible to distinguish three main types of housing. They are designed with the aim of being adapted for future and permanent residents. People with different incomes will inhabit these three types. One of the types of housing is based on the rethinking of the traditional courtyard type. It is elevated so the created whole can provide light to the ground level and therefore avoid the perception of heaviness mass to the complex.
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Situation plan
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Plan
Units’ plans
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TRANSVERSAL LANDSCAPES Topic: Recuperation of the railway in San Juan, Alicante. Course: Advanced Urban Projects. School: E.T.S.A.M. Year: 2008. Collaboration with Raquel Fernández Gutiérrez, Alejandro Burgueño Díaz The aim of this proposal is to, in a sewing action, join but separate two villiages in Alicante simultaneously through a unique architectural element. This element responds to different situations in terms of location and program. Thus, the action of enclosing or embracing adjacent urban fabrics responds to this need of joining/ separating both towns. The rhythm of distribution along the line deals with the location of several exits from the underground highway. This sculptural wall element is always placed in the perimeter generating many spaces that would allow flexible programs such as markets, greenhouses or playgrounds.
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Situation plan
View
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Axonometric
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NATURAL AXIS Topic: School and social center in Almere Heaven, Holland. Course: Projects 8. School: E.T.S.A.M. Year: 2009. Situated near the sea, the aim of the school design is based on perspectives. The strong directionality of the building deals with its relationship between the sea and the forest, the duality of water and ground. The proposal provides a constant faรงade to the sea. It is materialized by a continuous gallery in order to get a panorama view of the horizontality of the sea. The structure of the school is based on the articulation of several small courtyards that behave as extensions of the study rooms and other exterior courtyards of bigger scale that join directly to the part of the forest with the sea. Additionally, the forest works also as a third type of open space. It welcomes students to the school.
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Situation plan
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Roof floor
Ground floor
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Main floor
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Elevation from the sea
Transversal sections
Constructive section
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THE CAVERN’S MYTH Topic: Pavilion. Contest: Arquia Competition. Year: 2010. “Imagine a kind of underground cavern house that is provided by a deep entrance, opened to the light, that spreads to the carvern’s wide”. The cavern’s myth, PLATON.
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VIDEOS
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PETRA BLAISSE INSIDE - OUTSIDE Topic: GSD Curtain video. School: Harvard GSD. Year: 2012. Collaboration with Raquel Fernández Gutiérrez, Savina Romanos. The purpose of this work is to show the GSD curtain as an architectural and tectonic element that provides another atmosphere to the Gund Hall Auditorium. Taking into account the principle “inside-outside” by Petra Blaisse, this video establishes a dialectic between the curtain’s gold fabric and Gund’s concrete as opposite elements, Furthermore the curtain is shown as the component that brings the energy from the sun into the cold interior of the Auditorium. Spatiality is another feature to consider. It is the element that introduces a different scale to the vast space of the Piper and transforms it. Explaining the section of the Auditorium where the curtain is the central element that provides a more comfortable space for chatting and opening/closing it, the space of Piper is expanded and contracted.
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RIDE ALONG PRESS. ARTURO ILLIA, VILLA 31 BUENOS AIRES Topic: Ride along highway that crosses an informal settlement. Course: Digital Media. School: Harvard GSD Year: 2012. Collaboration with Raquel FernĂĄndez GutiĂŠrrez, Savina Romanos. The purpose of this video is to study the relationship between the highway and Villa 31, an informal settlement in the center of Buenos Aires. The Pres. Arturo Illia highway splits the Villa through the middle. There is a continuous dialogue between the formal and informal through the lens of a person that is riding along the highway. Even though Villa 31 is represented as a homogeneous and isotropic element, there are different elements highlighted during the ride such as the skyscrapers of the formal city, the advertising signs, and the railway.
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PYROGEOGRAPHY DYNAMICS
NASA says, “On Earth, something is always burning.”
Course: Mapping: Geographic Representation and Speculation School: Harvard GSD Year: 2013. Collaboration with Savina Romanos. Fire can be read as an essential environmental condition that is both regenerative and transformational. However, climate change has shifted the constructive dimensions of fire to more frequent, wild conflagrations. Such a shift has greatly affected, and continues to affect natural and built landscapes across scales. The above quote from NASA makes us aware of the presence and implications of fire. This project aspires to speculate on wildfire behavior across temporal and spatial scales while investigating different modes of operation and effects. “Wildfires are affected by three key factors: 1) availability of vegetation to burn; 2) environmental conditions, such as temperature, wind, and humidity or rainfall but also topography and ecosystem type— tropical forests for example are more humid and burn less than temperate forests; and 3) varying ignition sources of fires” (Krawchuk et al., 2009). The project will be framed in three scales: (1) an analysis that relates geography with climate in the context of a global fire landscape, (2) a case study that demonstrates wildfire behavior in the urban/ex-urban conditions of Los Angeles, (3) an investigation of the atmospheric and particulate effects of such spatial processes.
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World fire activity
Spreadability tests
Carmen MartĂnez FernĂĄndez Barja
Somerville MA
Jun2013