Gabriela Abril // Architectural Portfolio 2023

CONTENT

House of Funk

Site Location

North Lawndale, Chicago

Term

Fall 2022

Class

Detail and Fabrication Studio

Design Team

Gabriela Abril, Raissa Gonzalez

Starting with character studies of one self and the rest of peers in the studio, the work started from the inside out to develop highly sensitive, compassionate, and exuberant design proposals for a shared dwelling space, or a House of Funk. The studio focus is directioned to architectural interiority that advances from the intimacy of the body, to the scale of furnishings, to the realm of rooms, and ultimately, to the immersive world of an exquisitely detailed building inserted within an urban context.

The design of the individual room combines sectional shifts and relationships with poche spaces defined by thick architectural elements. These carved spaces are permeable through thresholds that define continuity throughout the room on all axes.

The project’s walkthrough provides an unexpected, counterintuitive spatial experience and physical engagement driven by curiosity.

House of Funk

and physical engagement driven by curiosity.

Color + Material Palette

House of Funk

Yungueni grainy yellow #F5EC40

Ground Orange #F57027

Tianguis purple #47399B

Paused rough white #E6E6E5

Succulent purple #726AA2

Pulpy purple #BF7CAE

Pink Satin #F5186C

Scale 3/4” = 1’

Cross SectionHouse of Funk

House of Funk Model

House of Funk Model

Liniers Highwalk

Site Location

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Term

Spring 2022

Class Architecture and Urban Design

Design Team

Gabriela Abril

Khurtsbileg Erdenetsogt

Nomination

ISoA Graduate Excellence Design Awards 2022

The building would unlock the urban potential of its site at the Liniers Train Station by reclaiming Rivadavia Avenue, where disconnection between north and south is keenly felt.

The project stitches together these two urban axes by its programmatic distribution. The localized intervention ties into the vision for Buenos Aires as a pedestrian friendly city with lively public spaces such as an auditorium, nursery, retail places, and programming such as a hospital and a courthouse. All of them distributed throughout.

The project seeks to combine a multitude of uses in a single element that symbolizes and stands out in the urban profile. The space surrounding the site would become an elevated urban park. Extending upwards from the train tracks and reaching a highway on the other side, it is a true gateway to the city from the province.

1933 Visitor Center

Site Location

Beverly Shores, Indiana

Term

Fall 2021

Class

The design proposal emerges from the natural topographical conditions and views to existing horizons: the lake and the houses.

Visitors are introduced to the building from the lowest point to begin a tour that ends with the showcasing and connection to the houses. The orientation of the volumes is meant to unblock the view creating a sloping open accessible green plaza and the open stairs aligned to the perimeter of the building.

Design Team

Gabriela Abril, Afreen Merchant

Integrative Design Studio Awards

ISoA Graduate Excellence Design Awards 2021

The unique condition of the project, as being tucked into the landscape, was an essential driver when taking structural and mechanical design decisions.

Thermal Break

Insulation and Finish System)

Thermal Break

Insulation and Finish System)

Rigid insulation

Rigid insulation

Continuous Bead of Sealant Moisture Barrier

Bead of Sealant Barrier

Perforated zinc sunshade on painted galvanized steel framing

Perforated zinc sunshade on painted galvanized steel framing

Waterproofing Membrane Protection Course

Waterproofing Membrane Protection Course

Structural Topping/ Screeding laid to slope

4" Extruded Polystyrene Rigid insulation R-4.7/inch

Concrete Slab

Structural Topping/ Screeding laid to slope

4" Extruded Polystyrene Rigid insulation R-4.7/inch

Concrete Slab

Double Glazed Panels

Shöck Isokorb Structural Thermal Break

EIFS COMPONENTS (Exterior Insulation and Finish System)

Double Glazed Panels

Aluminum Railing

Sheet-Metal Parapet Cap Sloped to Drain Roof Side

Sheet-Metal

Aluminum Railing

Concrete Wall Sheet- Metal Protection

Concrete Wall

1933 Visitor Center

Paving Slab laid on support pedestals

Paving support pedestals

Paving Slab laid on support pedestals

Paving support pedestals

Waterproofing Membrane Protection Course

Waterproofing Membrane Protection Course

Structural Topping/ Screeding laid to slope

Sto Adhesive Mortar Finish Panels

Shöck Isokorb Structural Thermal Break

EIFS COMPONENTS (Exterior Insulation and Finish System)

Sto Base Coat Sto Mesh

Sto Adhesive Mortar Finish Panels

Sto Base Coat

4" Extruded Polystyrene Rigid insulation R-4.7/inch

Sto Mesh

Blocking

4" Extruded Polystyrene Rigid insulation R-4.7/inch

Sill Extender w/ Continuous Bead of Sealant StoGuard® Air and Moisture Barrier

Blocking

Aluminum Frame with Seal

Sill Extender w/ Continuous Bead of Sealant StoGuard® Air and Moisture Barrier

Double Glazed Panels

Aluminum Frame with Seal

Double Glazed Panels

4" Extruded Polystyrene Rigid insulation R-4.7/inch

4" Extruded Polystyrene Rigid insulation R-4.7/inch

Concrete Slab

Structural Topping/ Screeding laid to slope

Concrete Slab

Sealant Rod Sill Sealer Protective Covering

Sealant Rod Sill Sealer Protective Covering Termination Concrete Board

Termination Concrete Board

Polished Concrete Flooring System

Under floor heating pipes

Polished Concrete Flooring System

Insulation

Under floor heating pipes

Concrete Slab

Insulation

3" Extruded Polystyrene Rigid insulation R-4.7/inch

Concrete Slab

3" Extruded Polystyrene Rigid insulation R-4.7/inch

Capilary break over footing (Damp-proofing or mebrane)

Capilary break over footing (Damp-proofing or mebrane)

Concrete Footing Gravel as thermal break + Capillary break

Concrete Footing

Perforated drain pipe

Gravel as thermal break + Capillary break

Perforated drain pipe

Colegio y Centro de Oficios

Site Location

Quito, Ecuador

Term Fall 2020

Class

There is a great importance of community and places to celebrate it. The role that cultural and civic spaces play in contemporary cities is essential, not just because they promote social interaction, but over all because they bring vitality to urban spaces.

Quito is a city that lacks of a good quality of public spaces, which reduces any confrontation with residents or pedestrians. Currently, there are not sufficient suitable zones to promenade and that have a strong neighborhood culture. One of them is the Gonzaez Suarez neighborhood, an area with growing residential and commercial demand but without community spaces.

Individual Project

Capstone Studio Awards

Best Studio Final Project

The project titled Colegio and Centro Barrial de Oficios seeks, therefore, to be an urban and social articulator between students and professionals, creating a direct and frank relationship with the city. To achieve this, the project proposes a mixed program that creates meeting spaces where interesting collaborations among users can start.

MACRO PROGRAM

RESPECT TO CONTEXT AXES

FREE PUBIC AREA

ARTICULATION

RELATION TO CONTEXT HEIGHTS

Design in the Age of Crisis

Project on display at the London Design Biennale 2021

Design in the Age of Crisis

Site Location

Quito, Ecuador

Term

Summer 2020

Class

USFQ CADI Research Team

Design Team

Daniela Alcocer, Martin Cartuche

Awards

Exhibited at the London Design Biennale 2021\

Published in Revista de Arquitectura, Universidad de Chile 2022

The proposal is a utopian project that seeks to reinvent the way of doing architecture and urbanism, putting various strategic points of the city of Quito into analysis.

La Argelia is a vulnerable zone to natural disasters and climate change. Here; popular housing is strongly consolidated but deals with severe challenges in terms of access and sustainability.

The project seeks to create an urban revolution, a return to the communion between architecture and mountains. La Argelia will be the crown of the city, an image conceived by Bruno Taut as a place where arts and knowledge converge.

This point of union between architecture and mountains will revitalize the city and open the way to a new architecture, a more sustainable way of living with respect for nature and adaptation of popular housing to the new conception of the city.

Design in the Age of Crisis

Low Density Housing

Site Location

Quito, Ecuador

Term

Fall 2019

Class Design Studio

Individual Project

The process was the development of small housing units on integral lots of one block. The location between four streets and its relationship with a public block, allowed to shed light on different ways in which the building can respond to its surroundings.

The block was divided into twelve lots and tow pedestrian paths. This one week exercise consisted on developing an individual proposal that can be adaptable to a global, collaborative design.

OTHER WORKS

Perspective Illustration

Koizumi Sangyo Corporation HQ Building by Peter Eisenman

Unfolded Plan

Casa Devalle by Carlo Mollino

PHOTOGRAPHY

1st Prize ISoA Perkins & Will Photo Competition

HAND DRAWING

Churches in Cuenca, Ecuador 1

Churches in Cuenca, Ecuador 2

Architecture must recover that clear awareness of its agency and autonomy without disregarding reality. Reclaiming this consciousness is our most urgent and ambitious commission. Our practice must draw ethical lines and produce reflective, non-gimmicky spaces. Portrayals are an insufficient choice. Instead, we must think of sequences that allow building on the memory of a place inhabited or, to be inhabited. Our purpose and action are not in the talent of drawing but in the deep concentration of thought and silence...

Fragment from my Architecture Manifesto, 2022