Isabella Alvarado - Architecture Graduate

CV

Education

Experience

Programs

2014-2016Bachelor of Architecture at Monash University

2017-2019Masters of Architecture at Monash University

2019

- Architectural Student at Gray Puksand

- Completing Masters Part time

- Recipient of Peter Elliot Architecture's 'Drawing Architecture Prize'

- Participant for Murder Sounding Pavilion Design, Warsaw, Poland

2020

- Graduate at Brand Architects

- Teaching assistant Monash University

2021

- Graduate at Brand Architects

Project: Balwyn High School Theatre Upgrade

2022

- Graduate at Brand Architects

Project: New Schools 2024 - with Design Inc

Project: Maribyrnong Kindergarten

2023

- Graduate at Brand Architects

Project: New Schools 2024 - Contract Admin

Project: Balwyn High School Theatre Upgrade

Project: Toolern Waters ELC

Revit

Experienced in using Revit from small alteration projects to large multi campus bundle projects

General knowledge in Detailing, enagaging Structural engineers for comment, using the BCA and Gyprock Red Book, Referring to reports, Performance Solutions and requesting supplier information to inform details.

Using Revit for Feasibility studies, Concept massing, Design Documentation, Contract Docs and Contract Admin

- Teaching assistant Monash University

- Studio Tutor Monash University

- Studio Tutor Monash University

- Recipient of Friends of Goethe Scholarship for Architecture and Design

- Research Placement at Baukind, Germany

Enscape

Bluebeam

AdobeSuite

Aconex

Excel

SpecialisedSkills

- VSBA projects : Working within theVSBA framework, Forms, and BQSH

- ELC and Kindergarten pedagogies Progressive design goals, knowledge in current cultures and trends, experience with designers who specialise in Early education design.

- Design teaching: Working with First year Architecture students has strengthened skills in communication, empathy, patience, working with people and a general comfortability in sharing knowledge.

- Ideas Commitee: I was part of a commitee at Brand Architects where we acted as an advisory group to senior management on social/company culture matters. This involved pitching ideas and organising events.

References Kiril Petrov Senior Architect

+61 421 117 529

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Kindergarten/EarlyLearning CentreExperience GoetheInstituteScholarship

EducationProjects

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PersonalProjects

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UniversityCompetitionsand Awards

Projects

MaribyrnongKindergarten Feasibility Studies

ToolernWatersELC Schematic Design

BaukindBerlin Wasserstadt Oberhavel Kita Concept Research + Presentation

NewSchools2024Bundle 3x Secondary Schools

BalwynHighSchool-TheatreUpgrade VSBA project Design Development to Tender

VolunteeringinNepal Primary School + Construction Project

KitchenRenovation Custom kitchen

WearingtheCity2015 Architecture and Textile Design

PeterElliotArchitecture‘DrawingArchitecture’

Prize2019

Commendation for Coral Renaissance

ToolernWaters ELC

Schematic Design

102 place Early Learning Centre, the brief included 2 x 33 children long day care rooms, 2x under 3yo rooms, Community room, Consulting MCH rooms. Our brief was to fit an extreme amount of amenity into a limited plot of land that fits in between a future Community centre and the northern section of a new Primary school in construction - whilst providing as much car parking as possible. Due to the complex brief, Schematic Design stretched longer than anticipated. As a result, a series of the following iterations were developed as a testament to the area-strict nature of doing Early learning centres in accordance with VSBA frameworks and guidelines.

Literature Considered

- VSBA Building Quality Standard Handbook

- Childrens Services regulation

- National Quality Standards + Frameworks

- Design guide for Victorian Childrens Services

Skill Set

- Functional design brief

- Form 15

- Departure schedules

- Site investigations

- Area schedules

Maribyrnong Kindergarten

Feasibility Studies

Maribyrnong Kindergarten engaged Brand Architects to initiate a series of feasibility studies to improve the current facility and provide comment for provision to include 3 year old kinder on site. All options were developed to be costed for council's consideration and used to apply for building grants.

Skill Set

Under supervision from a Senior Associate I took lead in the following tasks

- First point of contact between Client and Architect

- Initiated and engaged in all Consultant coordination

- All documentation work

- Report writing

- Handling paperwork such as forms, schedules, assessments

- Project admin - scheduling meetings, writing project programs

Project Leader

Option 1 improved staff areas and retained existing Children's room and Amenity with no adjusted placement numbers.

Option 1.a looked at expanding the facility to include 33 children which also encouraged associated amenities and space planning to improve.

Client Maribyrnong City Council

Option 2 looked at retaining the existing facility and building a 1 room modular building on site whilst still retaining adequate and efficient external outdoor space.

Option 3 explored a complete demolition of the existing building replacing it will a 2 room modular building increasing capacity to 66 children.

Project Leader Kate Reed Brand Architects

Esther Deutscher Brand Architects

Client VSBA - Kindergarten Infrastructure Department

Isabella Alvarado Architecture Graduate

Project Type

Research Placement

Project Outcome

Feasibility Study and Schematic Design

Scholarship Commitee

Christoph Mücher - Goethe Institute Australia Director

Olde Lorenzen - Froebel Australia Director

GoetheScholarshipfor ArchitectureandDesign

Its an extremely fortuitous opportunity as Graduate to join innovative firms that set the standard for the rest of the world. Last September I was given the incredible opportunity to be sent to Berlin and work with Baukind who are the only firm in Europe that specialise in Early education design

WATERPLAYWASSERSPIEL

The practice is founded by Nathalie-Dziobek Bepler who is the author of the book 'Designing for Children' which captured the practice's dedication to progressive pedagogies and intelligent architectural design for children. Working at their office proved to me that thoughtful, careful and considered spatial design is always a worthy endeavour for the development of young minds. From furniture design that transforms into play objects to colour theory and acoustics - working with Baukind was an enlightening experience that taught me in order to design for children, you often have to become a child yourself.

The following slides are excerpts from a presentation I put together regarding all the knowledge I learnt whilst at Baukind.

Project Address

Wasserstadt Oberhavel, Spandau, Berlin, Germany

Project Outcome

Gestaltungskonzept (Design Concept)

Project

Räume und Erfahrung Beispiel

My first project at Baukind was to put together a presentation for a kindergarten center located in Spandau, Berlin. The location informed the concept which was this question of 'where does the river flow?' The client wanted animals to be included so I put together a narrative that started from 'the Home' and then started to explore aquatic worlds inspired by the River Havel (local river to site) and continued into an imaginary journey from the River to the Reefs then the Sea. At Baukind a primary question for thought was asking 'How does the concept show itself?’ Making use of the floor plan layout (very different to the typical floor plans in Australia) the corridor spaces are designed to act like the river / primary circulation. Vinyl is shaped to encourage movement and provide opportunities for floor play. Home group rooms act as reefs buzzing with activity and water spaces act as the deep sea immersing children into water play.

After Berlin,

A reflection on research, experience and delightful design

Article written by Isabella Alvarado for Friends of Goethe 2024

Not many designers, let alone young designers have the opportunity to venture beyond their usual sphere of work to join innovative firms that set the standard for the rest of the world. Last September I was given the incredible opportunity to be sent to Berlin to join one of Europe’s leading practitioners in progressive Early education design, Baukind. The driving force behind the scenes is Nathalie Dziobek Bepler, an extremely kind and energetic character that is passionate about designing for children. Here I saw what it meant to find pure child-like joy in kindergarten design. My personal disposition is that in order to design for children, you often have to become a child yourselfand at Baukind, I for the first time felt a shared consensus that not only the design but also the design process should be playful and joyous. I watched people use Lego on floor plans to make decisions, I saw a deep appreciation for colour and material and its sensory effects, around the office there were remnants of sticky notes and child-like sketches from previous brainstorming sessions. With years of specialised experience under their belt, progressive pedagogies, experimentation and some child-like play, Baukind’s success is something to be studied for any young designer and practitioner.

One gleaming difference between Early education design in Germany versus Australia is how we as a society view children and how we choose to guide them as they discover the world and themselves. In each country, the quality of Kindergarten often provides insight into the attitudes of each culture. For Germans, the idea of selbständigkeit (self sufficiency) is celebrated by allowing a greater degree of responsibility into society’s smallest of hands. For a culture that is known for taking things seriouslythey have seriously prioritised the need for fun, play and competence to be of high priority for each child. A typical child in a German Kindergarten can be expected to have the responsibility to explore wherever they want to go in the centre (a rule that came into effect by the Senate a decade ago). All door handles are accessible to children, floor plans are designed to encourage movement, corridors are opportunities for children to charge up and down, ‘plazas’ or ‘courtyards’ are designed in between rooms to encourage active social engagement between group rooms. The same rules for urban planning that we apply for ourselves as adults, ie. street engagement (designing interfaces that are appealing- attracting people to explore), active community building (setting up scenarios for citizens to cross pollinate ideas and conversations), spaces for socialisation (liminal spaces, third spaces) all of these cornerstones of public life are replicated into the best of kindergartens in Germany - not only to roleplay the outside world, but to build self agency and a promote curiosity for the child about participating in the world in their own way. The idea of self sufficiency is the idea that every child is highly competent to be able to mitigate risk for themselves, and that from birth, they not only have the right - but the talent to influence the world around them even as children - regardless of how big or small their contribution is.

In Australia, Early education design seems to tell a different story. Corridor length is reduced as much as possible and all door handles are set 1200mm above floor finish out of reach for children. Line of sight between children's amenities and the outdoor spaces must be maintained and the building design must reduce any possibility for blind spots where an educator cannot maintain supervision. Despite the strict nature of its interiors, one of the most celebrated aspects of Australian kinder is its outdoor spaces. Here is where a love and respect for the natural world fully flourishes. These spaces are rich and intricate with an abundance of stimuli and ambitious in its execution. Isabel Henderson Kindergarten is an urban forest which is an extension of their nature based pedagogy. Located in North Fitzroy, the centre thinks about the smaller scale of nature, the height of branches to create obstacles instead of removing them (with healthy risk involved), celebrating the microworlds found on logs, stones and branches, using Wurundjeri seasons to teach about seasonal flowers blooming. In comparison to Germany, Australia prospers due to its mild and temperate weather where children are, if possible, outside even more than they are inside. And lastly there are programs like Bush Kinder where it is integrated into the curriculum to take children out to parks, beaches and bushland and use nature as a foundation for educational lessons. Apart from Landscape design, Interior design and Architecture in Early education design is in its formative years, and perhaps it comes back to recalibrating our perspective of how impactful these space’s can be for a child’s development.

Returning back home and having the privilege of experience and perspective, it takes a particular passion to call out our ways and express that there are always things we can improve on. Having seen a plethora of meaningful and impactful design in Early education, and experiencing the process and philosophies first hand has given me the foundation to continue to navigate in search of this in my own work here in Australia. With that being said, the most effective lesson from Baukind that I learnt is how great of a responsibility it is to take on as a designer the growth and development of young children. It's important to recognise the profound impact these spaces have on a child's development, they are landscapes for imagination, arenas for making great discoveries, a stage to see themselves interacting with other children, we should appreciate and marvel at the novelty that everyday they come to a kindergarten session, an educational journey is waiting.

Isabella

Project Address

Aintree, Lollypop, Riverdale

Project Outcome

Bundle of 3 Secondary Schools

Client VSBA

Project Leader

Peter Muhlebach - Brand Architects

Adrian Doohan - Design Inc

Kiril Petrov - Brand Architects

NewSchools2024

Isabella Alvarado Architecture Graduate

Administration and Library

Resource Centre

Design Development - Contract Docs - Contract Admin

New Schools 2024 is a joint venture between Brand Architects and Design Inc to build 3x Secondary schools in 3 locations in the rapidly expanding regional areas of Melbourne

The school campuses are comprised of Learning neighbourhoods, Administration and Resource centres, Community Hubs, STEM and Drama Arts and Theatre Facilities. The buildings shown on the adjacent pages are Adminitration, Resource and Library spaces documented myself.

Design Documentation - Contract Docs

Skills and tasks included

- Documentation and Detailing

- Working in 20+ people teams

- Coordination with consultants

This Project was my first introduction to Contract Admin which I worked on for almost a year. As the most Junior team member I got to have a much closer experience with the Project Architects, Directors, Documenters and even Builders for the first time. It was my first introduction into the process and realities of building and construction - especially at such a large scale such as a New Schools bundle.

Skills and tasks included

- Primary document controller during Contract Admin (Aconex)

- Shadowing all site visits during construction

- Issue for Construction drawings

- Handling smaller RFIs from Builder

- Joinery and Window shop drawing review

- Defects

Project Type

Alterations and Additions

Project Outcome

Extention and upgrade to Existing Theatre

Client VSBA

BalwynHighSchool TheatreUpgrade

Design Development - Contract Docs - Tender

Doing an extension to a building this large in particular required a tedious amount of complexity in terms of documentation and also project management, all of which I was primarily responsible for.

The Theatre upgrade retains as much existing prefab concrete walls whilst providing extensive expansion and internal works that have triggered a healthy amount of Performace solutions, Fire engineering and Project management complexity. The most laborious difficulty was prior to going out to Tender, we recieved a 5 page Building Surveyors checklist that I worked through on my own for months, a long list of technical items such as….

- BCA Non Compliances

- Issues with Land Title and Council

- Complex FRLs for wall and doors

- Writing Performance Solutions

- Negotiating with RBS regarding existing infrastructure for dispensations

- Engaging consultants for Performance Solutions

- Mediating between Fire engineer and Building surveyor for the FEB

-Requesting information from suppliers

- Documentation + detailing

Project Leader

Farnia Askari Brand Architects

Isabella Alvarado Architecture Graduate

PersonalProjects

Freelancework:Kitchen Renovation

To be completed April 2024

ABOVE:

Total Project Cost: $15k

This project was managed by myself, responsibilities included organizing trades, preparing timelines and budgets. Managing client expectations and ensuring smooth project delivery.

RIGHT:

In the summer of early 2023 I joined a volunteer group to go to Nepal and provide assistance to a primary school in various remote villages. The team was assembled by Aussie Action Abroad, we started off in a village called Balamchaur located in the foothills of the Annapurnas. We repaired floor slabs, painted walls, murals and started construction of a Community center.

Volunteering:NepalEducationandConstruction Projects

Isabella

Project Type

Alterations and Additions

Project Outcome

Extention and upgrade to Existing Theatre

Client VSBA

UniversityAwards

Participant:WearingtheCity StudentCompetition 2015

UniversityAwards:PeterElliot DrawingArchitecturePrize 2019

Project Leader Farnia Askari Brand Architects

Isabella Alvarado Architecture Graduate

ABOVE: Exhibited at the M Pavillion 2015, ‘Wearing the City’ asked to produce garments inspired by Melbourne’s most iconic architecture/interiors. The piece presented was inspired by Leonard French’s famous glass stained roof at the NGV. Photograph by Matthew Stanton

RIGHT:

This image won commendation for the Peter Elliot Architects Drawing Architecture Prize 2019. The image is a neo-renaissance-esque drawing documenting coral bleaching in the Great Barrier Reef.