Portfolio - Architecture

PORTFOLIO

ARCHITECTURE

Hello,

Fernanda Alvarez Larrain is a multidisciplinary artist, who principally explores the graphic and visual arts. Currently, she is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in architecture at McGill University. She has recently taken an interest in generative art.

Born in Bolivia, raised in Mexico and based in Montreal, Fernanda’s work reflects a conversation around the different cultural exposures she has received and her observations around them. She utilized digital and traditional media to portray the intersecting dialogue within her.

Techincal Skills

___ Languages

Spanish

English

French

___ Graphic softwares

Photoshop

Illustrator

Indesign

Gravit Designer

Premiere Pro

___ Modelling Softwares

Rhino

Vray

Grashopper

Revit

Sketchup

___ Programming

Python

SUKO Magazine aims to foster dialogue in the hopes of representing historically excluded voices. Through SUKO we hope to create a sanctuary for artists and readers alike, built on a foundation of compassion and awareness.

The position is in charge of the development of SUKO in social media. Responsible to, create and curate an effective content strategy that will actively engage the audience.

Yiara Magazine is a student-run Feminist art publication. Yiara seeks to encourage feminist dialogue within the field of art, we hope to raise critical questions on the art historical canon, study feminist representation, pay tribute to women and figures of the past, explore ideas of gender, and the self and give voice to students concerned with these themes in their work and practice to contribute to the ongoing dialogue of issues raised by intersectional feminism.

I am the leader of the creative team of Yiara Magazine. My responsibilities included defining the aesthetic direction of the volume, developing and overseeing creative projects, and ensuring that all media assets output were cohesive with the volume’s vision. Finally, I was responsible for the graphic design work of the magazine volume 11. This role introduced me to various aspects of the art and design industry, ranging from graphic design and fine arts to managing relationships with artists.

COORDINATOR OF IMAGE AND PUBLICITY

Student association that seeks to create an inclusive and safe environment at school. The association focuses on pointing out and resolving any situation or behavior that promotes

Student association that seeks to create an inclusive and safe environment at school. The association focuses on pointing out and resolving any situation or behavior that promotes gender inequality. In addition, It offers support to victims of gender discrimination.

“Los Arcos”

Los Arcos is a proposal for a temporary pavilion in MileEnd, Montreal during the summer. The aim is to restore outdoor urban spaces for events. The pavilion is designed to be open and adaptable, suitable for gatherings, artistic events, and small festivals.

Inspired by the area’s strategic use of setbacks, the pavilion was divided into three components - the gallery, cafe/bar, and toilets - each component is set back and apart from the others to create the patios.

The patios intend to set a surrealist ambiance in which reality and fantasy blend - reality being the physical space and fantasy being the purpose set by the visitor’s desires. The arches and arch forms used in the pavilion’s architecture delimit the openness to the patios and inviting new perspectives from within them.

* Featured in McGill Architecture Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CoC2JbqLD_r/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Supervisor Teacher - Howard Davies

Concept Drawing

Conceptual site plan

Analysis of the different patio uses

Open Patio - View from St. Viateur E.

Private Patio - Inside Gallery space

Fernanda Alvarez Larrain

Fernanda Alvarez Larrain

Supervisor Teachers - Ella den Elzen & Cameron Cummings

Partner - Sofia Usman

Tune is an activation space of sound archives, specifically the FF Files archive - an intersectional feminist sound media collective. The space aims to draw attention to our current modes of listening by exploring the concept of “tuning” to sound, which was born out of a spatial experiment and is conceptualized in the parti. The purpose of our space is to change how people approach listening, as it is often an underrated sense

The structure is an agglomeration of domes, recalling the theory behind the sound manipulation and distribution of whispering walls. Each dome holds an independent sound, and where they meet, the sounds will bleed together. When the perimeter of the domes is left untouched, the sound will bleed minimally with other sounds. The 10th dome has been proportionally isolated from the others to allow for a space where no other sounds will bleed. Depending on the intensity of the bleed between sounds, the user will have to put in enough effort to tune in to the sound of their choice and tune out the rest. Our intention behind merging the domes together is to present visitors with different modes of listening: communal, individual, and isolated.

Our project creates a seamless spatial experience for users to explore our display system. Through movement, they are presented with a collection from which they can choose the sound and the way they would like to listen to it.

** Whispering walls are acoustic structures that use curved surfaces to direct and amplify sound.

Sound archive display plan

Based on it’s content, the archive was categorized in five themes.

SECTION BB

https://youtu.be/JoubWSpOfPA

https://youtu.be/9yschkas-jE

Fernanda Alvarez Larrain

Fernanda Alvarez Larrain

Model 1:200

“Light”

Supervisor Teacher - Howard Davies

Partner Project - Yixuan Gu

“Light” is a proposed art gallery in Mile-end, Montreal, designed with light as both its design concept and structural characteristic. The goal was to create an immersive and engaging experience for visitors while also building an ecological structure with low carbon emissions and a light mass footprint.

The gallery’s structure is made of GLULAM enveloped by a curtain wall of recycled polycarbonate panels with varying opacities, allowing for a dynamic and ever-changing facade. At night, the panels are illuminated by artificial lighting from the interior, providing subtle lighting in the area.

The interior is flexible and adaptable, with modular walls and lighting systems that can be easily reconfigured to accomodate different exhibtions and events. The open minimalist floor plans emphasize the use of natural light, with translucent walls creating a soft and diffused glow.

E F A B C D

Axonometric Drawings

South East View

Building’s Structure

Elevation St. Viateur Street

Elevation St. Dominique Street

Fernanda Alvarez Larrain

Fernanda Alvarez Larrain

Interior View - Daylight Gallery

Exterior View - Night Time

“CRISIS”

+ =

Crisis uses the Duchampian practice of sampling, focusing on the process of copying and updating rather than the final product. The project uses "The House in Arrábida" by Suoto de Muora as the blueprint for its updates. Muora's "permanent crisis" when designing the house inspired the concept behind Crisis, further explained by Edgar Morin’s quote.

The project aimed to put Morin’s philosophy into architectural practice by creating its identity throught questioning the two major crises every human being experiences - the existential and social hierarchical crises - and throughout the process looking for answers.

Supervisor Teacher - Samiha Meem

“In the face of increasing complexity, we need, more than ever, a simplifying thought; but one that is not mutilating. When reality resists simplification, we have to turn to complexity. Complexity is the eruption of aleatory disorder and of uncertainty in reality… We all know today that the future is unpredictable, given the perpetual intervention of the newness and of the unexpected. And it is for that very reason that extreme complexity has a tendency to resemble a permanent crisis”

- Edgar Morin

Concept Diagram

Sampling

Copying and updating the plans

Update 1 - Crisis

Crisis was expressed architecturally by disorderly relocating the furniture in a chaotic and senseless manner.

Update 2 - Simplifying

Update 3 - Mutilating

Simplification was achieved by removing all the openings from the facade.

Update 4 - Disorder and complexity

The act of Mutilating was demonstrated by separating the house blocks, elevating them to the same roof level, and adding random openings.

Disorder and complexity are expressed through the relocation and rotation of the blocks throughout the site, creating a new organization.

Blop’s existential crisis

The storyboard presents Blop's existential crisis in a linear path through stages of disorder and uncertainty around the past, present, and future, indicated by the chaos of the forms in Blop's head and the captions. In contrast to the previous frames, the final frame shows Blop motionless and aligned, signifying that they overcame the crisis by simplifying and accepting their existence, living in the present.

“I

“I

“I

“I should”

won’t”

did”

am”

Collage

Crisis in the social pyramid

FERNANDA ALVAREZ LARRAIN

GET IN TOUCH WITH ME

Email: fernanda.alvrl@hotmail.com

Phone: +52 (461) 120 4089

Linkedin: Fernanda Alvarez Larrain

Tumblr: timepastdesign.tumblr.com