Gidiony Alves' Portfolio

Gidiony Alves

Master

Architecture

Island School of Design

2022

About Me

A recent MArch graduate from the Rhode Island School of Design, born in the Cape Verdean Archipelago and raised in Providence Rhode Island. The transition from the motherland to the United States is something that I am still experiencing even 18 years after immigrating. This characteristic of my life drives me to be conscientious of the diversity and uniqueness of the people and spaces around me daily. I believe that design excellence is achieved through prioritizing our abilities and tools on being conscientious listeners and observers to fully understand the capacities of our projects to positively impact the lives of individuals and groups whom we serve.

Contents

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Curriculum Vitae

2015 - 2019

Rhode Island School of Design

Leadership + Awards

2019 - 2022 2020 - 2022 2019 2019 - present 2019 2016 - present

Education Skills

Software Rhino 3D Revit Autocad Sketchup V-ray ArcGIS Grasshopper Adobe Illustrator Adobe Photoshop Adobe Indesign Adobe Premiere Microsoft Office

University of Rhode Island

Master of Architecture Bachelor of Landscape Architecture

Peer to Peer Mentorship Program [ AIS + NOMAS ]

Cum Laude Honors University of Rhode Island Onyx Senior Honors Society David Edmonds Award for Outstanding Artistic and Creative Expression

American Society of Landscape Architecture Student Member

Fabrication Model Making Laser Cutting 3D Printing Hand Drafting

Soft Skills

Timekeeping Organized Critical Thinking Detail Oriented Leadership Team Player Self-Motivated Open-Minded

English Portuguese Spanish

Languages Other Photography Painting Sketching Film Drone Piloting

Work Experience

Summer 2022

Habanero Architecture, North Carolina

Summer Intern

Fall 2021

Summer 2021

Spring 2021 Fall 2019

(401)

galves@risd.edu

Summer 2018

Worked on construction set documents. Designed and drafted drawings through various design phases. Assisted with the preparation of meetings and presentations for client sessions. Assisted with site surveying.

RISD , Rhode Island

Core 3 Studio Teaching Assistant

Responsible for mentoring and supporting students with course work, organizing outside of class sessions and promoting an inclusive studio culture.

RISD , Rhode Island

ARCH Foundations Studio Teaching Assistant

Aid incoming students in transitioning into RISD’s MArch program. Assisted professors with class lectures, facilitated group discussions and led workshops on 3d software and model making.

RISD , Rhode Island RISD , Rhode Island

Architecture Department Shop Monitor Architecture Department Gallery Co-curator

Supervised and ensured safe usage of laser cutters and woodshop equipment by students and staff.

Worked with a group of students and professors to design, curate and fabricate the Architecture Department’s yearly Gallery Exhibit.

Blithewold Mansion, Gardens and Arboretum , Rhode Island

Landscape Architecture/Horticulture Intern

Worked on a tree project advising and assessing the arboretum’s collection of notable trees. Designed and did some stone construction on the Garden of Hope. Worked on Cad drawings for documenting existing and new gardens.

01Worden Edge Oasis

Type : Architecture Studio Core 1, 2019

Subjects + Tools + Processes

Advisor: Annie Mock

Location: Worden Pond, RI

“It is impossible to represent architecture without representing the human. Even when the human presence is intentionally left out or is reduced to a faceless set of measurements, it haunts architecture in its absence.”

This project reflects my nostalgia for being at the edge of a forest and a water body. Worden Edge Oasis materializes my experiences through form, spatial order, materiality, and systems derived from the physical and atmospheric qualities of the space as I experience it. The sense of intimacy accompanied by the presence of multidirectional and intersecting voids, shadows, and views formed by the natural arrangement of landscape and vegetative forms are reconstructed to extend on the physical and spatial interdependencies that represent my nostalgia for being in a forest and water’s edge.

- Michael Meredith & Hilary Sample

An atmospheric corridor directing access to the water’s edge with voids welcoming the interplay of light and shadows from the evening sun.

Sketch Models: exploring light, shadows, voids and solids.

Interior View: Morning sun rise.

Elevations: West and East respectfully.

Exterior View: backside of the house.

Physical Model

02

Raising Voices: Altgeld Gardens

Type : Architecture Studio Core 3, 2020

Subjects + Tools + Processes

Advisor: Jess Myers

Collaboration: Caitlin Dippo

Location: Altgeld Gardens, CHA

“We have to fight for our children. We have educated ourselves on environmental issues and the health threats from the nearby polluting industries. We have not waited for the government to come in and determine the cause of our illness. We may not have Ph.D. degrees, but we are the experts on our community.” - Hazel Johnson

Altgeld gardens, a CHA public housing project, is a victim of years of environmental injustice due to poor zoning laws that authorized its construction over a highly contaminated site on the South Side of Chicago. Before imagining what the future of Altgeld could look like, we examined how policy changes could affect the city, the community, and the residents. This project involves the remediation of the land surrounding Altgeld and in turn the remediation of the harm done to the community along the way. Foregrounding the community’s ongoing efforts to remediate and dignify their community rather than proposing our own design interventions was the key approach to this project: to serve as an audience and resource to a community striving to be heard.

HAZEL JOHNSON

GARDENS

VEGETATED BACKYARDS

PAVEMENT

Proposed winter gardens give residents protected access to the outdoors year-round. They act as direct extensions of the resident’s living rooms which may be closed off during the winter months and opened up completely during the summer months. They also filter the surrounding polluted air which is a major health concern for the residents.

WINTER GARDENS

Aerial View: The backyard

Altgeld community members desire the area to be a role model for the rest of the world of what a sustainable and green economy can look like. Using phytoremediation processes to treat contaminated soils and air will require yearly community efforts to remove and replace contaminated plants. It will provide jobs and community stewardship. The connected winter gardens will bring the communities outside and together, which has not happened over the past years due to fear of pollution-related diseases.

A Hazel Johnson Memorial Garden educates the Altgeld community and the public on the community’s ongoing fight against environmental injustices. They are to be cared for by the community’s youth in partnership with other local youth programs to educate and spread awareness of the need to fight against environmental injustices in Chicago’s underrepresented communities. The community market and greenhouse encourage selfsufficiency and community pride. It gives residents access to fresh produce year-round and offers great opportunities for job training and employment.

03

Redhook Silo Aquatic Center

Type : Architecture Advanced Studio, 2021

Pooling - Between Behaviors and Environments

Advisor: Rachely Rotem

Location: Brooklyn, N

“Despite their considerable potential to foster community life, level social differences, and empower ordinary americans, municipal pools rarely realized their full promise as public places” - Jeff Wiltse

Redhook’s waterfronts saw a vast transformation from a wildlife sanctuary to a waterfront occupied by maritime industrial activity that completely devastated its natural identity. With the end of maritime industrial activity, demolitions led by upscale businesses began destroying its historic industrial identity. The waterfronts are privatized by upscale lofts and studios while the communities that once worked and inhabited the area are centralized and excluded from its waterfronts. The proposed Redhook Silo Aquatic Center reclaims the Redhook Pier that recently saw the demolition of its large silo that was once a community landmark, with great significance to Redhook’s history. The curved nature of the silo is reimagined as an aquatic center that memorializes the history of both nature and humans while simultaneously restructuring a future for humans and nature to coexist as a charged ecosystem that rejects past cycles of privatization and erasure.

The curvature of the demolished silo is resurrected and celebrated through a continuous curve that creates a dynamic network of pooling, visual connectivity, various scales, and moments of public and private as it intersects the enclosures and existing pier.

Connectivity

Prioritized Seclusion Community Pooling

Accessible Shelter

Aerial View

Site Significane: Reclaim Access to Privatised Redhook Waterfronts.

Islands

Perspectives: the aquatic center offers year-round access to the waterfront even when normal aquatic activities are not operating. It also ensures that the public and urban wildlife have access to a sheltered space.

Other Works

Integrated Building Systems

In collaboration with Zheng Xu and Isabel Manah and Advised by Professor Jonathan Knowles, 2021

A selection of drawings from an Integrated Building Systems course during my 3d year at RISD. We were tasked with researching the haptic and performative qualities of steel and copper which were the primary materials used for the structure and envelope of an open office building concept with a centralized core. We conducted various calculations and looked at building codes and regulations, mechanical systems, means of egress, energy efficiency, and other technical aspects to efficiently design and document the proposed building.

Freehand Sketch: RI State House

Pencil and ink on bristol paper. One of my favorite hobbies is drawing. I have always enjoyed the ability to sit, observe and understand the precise details of what’s in front of me as I translate them onto paper.

Thank you for your time.