LORENA DEL RIO WORKS 2008-2014 1
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CV 1981
Born in Madrid, Spain
2008
BS and Master degree in Architecture School of Polytechnic University of Madrid
2005-2006
Teacher Assistant in the course “Advanced Urban Projects” at the Architecture School of Polytechnic University of Madrid
2005-2006
Member of the Research Group “MINIMAL HOUSING” of Polytechnic University of Madrid
2008-2012
Project Architect at Selgascano Office. Madrid
2009-2010
Completed courses in Architecture PhD at the Architecture School of Madrid
2011-
Currently completing PhD Thesis in Plastic Architecture
2012-2013
Visiting Critic Architecture Department Cornell University
2013-2016
Visiting Assistant Professor Architecture Department Cornell University
2014
Found RICA*Studio, in partnership with Iñaqui Carnicero
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE 2014
RICA* Studio is founded by partners Lorena del Río and Iñaqui Carnicero
2012-2014
Collaboration with Iñaqui Carnicero Architecture Office
2008-2012
Collaboration with Selgascano Studio
2008
Collaboration with Raul del Valle at New Police´s Courts Building Competition in Madrid
2007
Collaboration with Iñaqui Carnicero at VIVA Competition for the creation of 320 Experimental Housing in Madrid
2007
Collaboration with Raul del Valle at Executive Project for 315 Housing in Os Capelos, Galicia
2007
Collaboration with Raul del Valle at Executive Project for 315 Housing in Aguas Vivas Guadalajara
2006
Collaboration with Raul del Valle at Executive Project for the multipoourpose room for the “Camilo José Cela School” Cela School”
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RICA STUDIO* 2015
Luxury Resort in Nalati, with SW Studio: Andrea Simitch and Val Warke
2015
Museo de la Memoria, Bogotá. Colombia. Competition
2015
Court House. Lorca, Spain. Restricted Competition
2014
“El jardín de mi hospi” Playground in La Fe Hospital,Valencia
2013
Rada House. Private House in La Dehesa de la Villa, Madrid
2014
Miranda House. Private House for a Doctor in Manzanares
2014
Extension for the Lobby of the Museum of Anthropology, Madrid
2014
Housing Dwelling for 74 families. at St Claire Convent. Santander. Competition
2014
Dalseong citizen’s Gymnasium. Korea. Competition. Awarded
2015
Townhall in Sandness. Norway. Competition
IN COLLABORATION WITH SELGASCANO 2008
Selgascano Headquarters
2008-2011
Congress Center and Auditorium. Cartagena. Project Architect
2008
Congress Center and Auditorium Competition in Vitoria. Second Prize
2008-2012
Congress Center and Auditorium. Plasencia. Project Architect
2009-2011
Youth Factory. Skate and Climbing Park. Merida. Leader Architect
2009
Supercomputation Center in Santiago de Compostela. Competition
2009
Exhibition Center Al Adir for the International Horse Fair, Casablanca. Competition.Shortlisted
2011
Secondary School in Bilbao. Competition
2011
Cafe for Artists in Sevilla. Competition
2011
Congress Center and Hotel in the old Aktien and Maisel Brewery in Bayreuth. Competition
2012
Public Space and Skate Park. Aruba. Project Architect
2012
Yenikapy Transfer Point and Archaelogical Park. Restricted Competition 5
AWARDS · SCHOOLARSHIPS · EXHIBITIONS · PUBLICATIONS · LECTURES 2014 2013 2011 2011 2009 2008 2007
2005-2006 2004-2005 2003 2015 2015 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 2012
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Honorable Mention International Competition for the Design of the Dalseong citizen’s Gymnasium. Korea, Runner up. Europan 12 Competition. Housing Kagran,Vienna, with Neeraj Bhatia Honorable Mention. Europan 11 Competition. Housing San Bartolome with Iñaqui Carnicero Honorable Mention . Sculpture Museum at Leganes Garden. Madrid with Iñaqui Carnicero Shortlisted . Guest House Competition in Villafranca de los Barros. Extremadura with Iñaqui Carnicero Second Prize. Collaboration with Raul del Valle at New Police´s Courts Building Competition in Madrid First Prize. Collaboration with Iñaqui Carnicero at VIVA Competition for the creation of 320 Experimental Housing in Madrid
Awarded MEC Scholarship from the Spanish Ministry of Education Second Prize Emilio Larrodera Urbanism Awards, C.O.A.M Awarded Scholarship from the EU-exchange program at Roma Tre University Publication ASSOCIATON Vol. 7 Cornell University. Juegaterapia Playground Publication GA HOUSES Nº 141 PROJECT 2015. Editorial A.D.A EDITA Tokio. Spiral House Publication EUROPAN 12 Austria Awarded. Housing in Kagran Vienne Publication Bauwelt 17-18.4 May 2014 / 09.05. EUROPAN 12 Publication Architekturjournal wettbewerbe Jänner 2014/312. EUROPAN 12 Publication Europan 12 España Publication GA HOUSES Nº 130 PROJECT 2014. Editorial A.D.A EDITA Tokio. Revolutionary House Publication GA HOUSES Nº 136 PROJECT 2014. Editorial A.D.A EDITA Tokio. Rada House. Madrid. Publication ASSOCIATON Vol. 6 Cornell University. Various Projects Publication EUROPAN 11 Awarded. Housing in San Bartolomé
2012
Publication GA DOCUMENT Nº 121 (EMERGING FUTURE) Editorial A.D.A EDITA Tokio. Sculpture Museum in Leganes, Madrid
2010
Publication “CIRCO” Tuñon y Mansilla PhD Courses.Architecture School of Polytechnic University of Madrid
2007
Contributed to the publication “V.R. Vivienda Reducida”. ISBN: 84-935571-0-2, derived from the “MINIMAL HOUSING” project and its presentation, during the EURAU CONGRESS at ETSAM Polytechnic Univ. of Madrid
2005
Publication on the students´ yearbook 2004-2005 “CARNE FRESCA”. Università degli Studi Roma Tre
2002
Publication on the students´ yearbook 2002-2003 of Alberto Campo Baeza at the Architecture School of Polytechnic University of Madrid
2014
Exhibition EUROPAN 12. THE ADAPTABLE YOUNG URBAN STRATEGIES at “ AMSTETTEN.Vienne
2013
Exhibition at International 2013 Emerging Future at GA Gallery, Tokio. Japan. Revolutionary House
2012
Exhibition Awarded Sculpture Museum at Leganes Competittion at the Spanish Association of Architects
2012
Exhibition EUROPAN 11. TERRITORIOS Y MODOS DE VIDA EN RESONANCIA. ARQUITECTURAS PARA LA CIUDAD SOSTENIBLE at “ Circulo de Bellas Artes de Madrid”. National Exhibiton of the Europan 11 Awarded
2015
Speaker at Campus Internacional Ultzama. Fundación Arquitectura y Sociedad
2014
SYMPOSIUM “ La evolución de la pedagogía: arquitecture en España” Universidad de Puerto Rico. Panel: Jose María Torres Nadal, Antonio Vélez, Iñaqui Carnicero, Julio Salcedo and Rafael Balanzo.
2013
Lecture at Architecture School University of Puerto Rico with Iñaqui Carnicero
2012
Lecture at Gerald D. Hines Collage of Architecture, University of Houston
2007
Lectured at Architecture School of Polytechnic University of Madrid, for the Master of Urban Planning with Emilio Ontiveros
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* Juegaterapia Playground
Hospital La Fe, Valencia
“El jardín de mi hospi” is an initiative of the non profit foundation juegaterapia to bring a piece of nature to all the hospitals so the hospitalized children can enjoy time outside and play.
Private Commission. Spain 2014 Authors: Lorena del Río, Iñaqui Carnicero Collaborators: Liam Martin, Takuma Johnson, Hyemin Jang
We know that it is impossible to literally move a piece of woods to the rooftop of a hospital, so we started to analyzed the main features of nature that could be artificially recreated to generate a magic space. We discovered colors, the repetition of the tree troncs, the movement of the leaves, the flexibility of the branches, the different densities, the shade… We started to think about one material that we could use in different ways to recreate all these characteristics, and that would be easy to work with and unexpensive. We thought about the versatility of ropes, their resiliency, and the tactile quality that make them be one of the most used materials in playgrounds. Climbing walls, swings, hammocks… Can be done with just one material. We want to create a magic world, an open space where the elements that we propose can generate artificial landscapes and that can blend with natural elements, where the different play structures can be used in different ways so the experience of playing can be new and unexpected every time. For that we propose big hang rope structures that move with the wind, that cast different shades during the day and that cover open and flexible spaces that can be used in different ways, playground, exercise space, stage for shows and concerts… Using the same material we fill the space with play structures, swings, hammocks, hanging ropes… We want that this magic world could be enjoyed also from the rooms of the hospital, so the bird view of the playground is an important part of the design. The hang rope structures are perceived from the rooms as huge colorful flowers. The night view is also very important because of that we use materials that during the day are capable to capture natural light and glow during the night, to generate a magic landscape seen from the window of every room.
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* Rada House
The “Rada House” emerges as an opportunity to explore how a house forced is to
Madrid
be split into two separate units as a consequence of the site constrains. The geom-
Private Commission. Spain 2013
Some rocks and trees are also characteristic in the area and basically forces us due
Authors: Lorena del Río, Iñaqui Carnicero
to the lack of space to divide the program into two independent volumes connected
Collaborators: Victor Prada
etry of the boundaries define two similar surfaces strangulated in the middle point.
by a small bridge. The program is organized in three levels characterized by different orientations and levels of transparency. In the ground level the facades designed in glass enclosure blurs the physical boundaries of the inner spaces and extends visually the limits of the living room and kitchen to the exterior walls of the property. The sensation of a bigger space is created by connecting the interior rooms with the garden terrace. The second level is where most of the private spaces are located, mainly bedrooms, therefore the east orientation becomes critical for searching the sun light in the mornings, whereas the other three orientations become opaque. Finally the third level, design as a canopy to enclose a porch detached from the ground, as a transparent space that would allow the spectator in the streets contemplate the big trees behind the lot. This summer living area connects visually to the west view of Madrid’s sunset, and extends the surface with the inhabitable roof of the main bedroom to becomes a privilege space that could be used as a solarium. The objects of the house are clustered and related to one another in such way that in the ground floor, the furniture is reduced to one single element that has very different functions: storage, fireplace, sitting area and entrance windbreak. In the first floor, some of the wardrobes are concentrated in one single strip that is attached to the façade, improving the thermal behavior of the building and therefore reducing its energy consumption. This apparently two dwelling units by means of fragmentation distorts the scale perception. It uses the abstraction of the traditional dwelling elements to mislead the visitor and to attract his attention to specificity of the environment. The structural behavior of the house is related to the site in a way that lead us contemplate not the house in itself but the landscape where the cantilevers are facing to.
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* Housing at Sant Claire’s Order Convent
Santander
We propose the development of a building responsible to the environment that facilitates sustainable mobility, encourages participation and neighborhood cohesion , reactive to its complex urban context and that optimizes interior space minimizing the circulation space and maximizing the living space , dotacional and commercial.
International Competition. Spain 2014 Authors: Lorena del Río, Iñaqui Carnicero Collaborators: Victor Prada, Marcos Cortés,
The central courtyard serves as a key player in the urban connection linking the park that is adjacent to the site, the boulevard and the new east-west road .It is designed a space that aims to be collective and alive , activated by the dotacional and commercial program. The new urban plaza combines green natural areas planted with local species therefor with low need for irrigation, and paved areas are minimized to reduce the “hot island “ effect and improve the acoustics of the inner block. A transit area also incorporates bicycle parking area in order to promote alternative transportation. Park, interior plaza and construction will work as a set , understanding the park as an organism controlling privacy, lighting and environment depending on the time of year and at the same time understanding the building as an extension of the park and of the public space that it generates and the interior plaza as the connector between the park and city. To organize the 70 apartments required a cluster organization scheme is chosen by where each core communication serves 3 or 4 units, reducing circulation and the number of elevators and escalators. The internal organization of the units reflects a strategy to maximize flexibility and incorporate any changes to their configuration that may happen in future scenarios. To do so, wet rooms are resolved in a longitudinal central spine , located asymmetrically in the layout . Also this band works as an acoustic barrier for the living areas and bedrooms of various properties .
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* Revolution-ary House
Carrión de los Condes
A small budget and very restricted regulations led us to take this commission as an opportunity to explore the potential of mobile mechanisms in a small domestic program.
Private Commission. Spain 2012 Authors: Lorena del Río, Iñaqui Carnicero
The site, located on the way to Santiago in a small village called “Carrion de los Condes,” is near a path were hundreds of pilgrims pass every day. Beyond the boundaries of the urban tissue, the site is catalogue as an agricultural zone, where only small constructions with less that 30 m2 are allowed to be built. Thus, the design solution was to develop a very simple system of revolving walls that would allow the user to expand the house while doubling the maximum surface permitted by regulations. An additional criteria of the client required that this shelter remain empty during long periods of time, allowing the space to serve a dual function as a retreat for meditation. Yet another constraint in terms of occupancy further reinforced the idea of a dynamic structure, one that would remain open to the views when occupied, but which could also be closed as an empty abstract box in the landscape when users abandon the area. The result is a double enclosure of movable volumes that adapts to the users’ requirements--a primary exterior shell divided in 4 self-supported steel box structures connected by hinges to the central core. By rotating these boxes different arrangements are achieved by expanding the primary massing into secondary spaces. Finally, an additional layer of sliding glazed panels allows the transformation of the exterior covered volumes into interior rooms. The revolution-ary house can be summarize as an exercise in restraint, one where revolving mechanisms generate a flexible space that reacts to the seasonal changes, adapts to user requirements, and remains empty as a precious object in the middle of Castilla Leon´s landscape.
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* Europan 12 Kagran
The site of Kagran is unique in that it is characterized by complete infrastructural
Wien
separation, forming an island of building types that operate at a scale closer to ur-
International Competition. Austria 2014
regional infrastructures, allowing it to attract both a local and regional public. Our
Authors: Lorena del Río, Neeraj Bhatia
proposal begins by adding a civic architectural type —the arcade— to reconcile
Collaborators: Carly Dean, Jonathan Negron, Wei Zhao, Alicia Hergenroeder, De Yi
banism than of architecture. Simultaneously, however, the site is highly connected to
the two scales of inhabitation — architectural and urban — through a strategy of consolidating domestic programs into infrastructure that utilize the arcades below to produce a local rhythm and organization. Seven bars run through the site to both operate at the scale of the surrounding infrastructures as well as organize the local scale of the neighborhoods. These bars contain nine housing types to cater to differing demographics and touch down on the site lightly to activate the arcaded public realm below in a precise manner. Ten different scales of arches are employed within the bars to mediate between the scales of public and private.These range from four to thirty meters, providing for intimate as well as monumental civic spaces.The arches touch down lightly on the site to provide access to the housing and roof terraces above, contain ‘activator’ programs related to the surface below, and offer areas to store micro-infrastructures for the multi-programmed surface. By touching minimally on the surface below, a highly level of flexibility is achieved through programming.What emerges is a field condition that is unified yet provides a diverse range of scales and publics that can form naturally. The question of adaptability in the site is addressed through the notion of time and the spatial type of the surface. A large surface operates as a multi-programmed public realm that is timeshared through a schedule – to allow a more diverse and larger set of public programs. The surface is coded through differing materials and paint to provide flexible, soft organizational strategies that are activated by the bars above. For instance, the same space can be used for greenhouses, parking, a market, and basketball courts at different times of the day, week, and year. The schedule is malleable to the needs of current and future residents, adapting for seasonal festivals, cultural events, and needs that cannot be anticipated. The surface is broadly organized into programs that share the similar surface characteristics — recreational, commercial, and community. Regions of overlap between these sectors allow for hybrid uses. For instance, a school’s playground can be used in a broader recreational sense when the school is closed, or market areas can be converted to informal night theaters. Five subtle surface variations provide diversity while still allowing for flexible programming. Pools of water and landscape enable sustainable water collection and promote microclimates to alleviate the large paved 43
surfaces in the broader strategic site. The malleable surface and schedule is structures through the arches above, forming a symbiotic arrangement as well a unique architectural scenario wherein form runs east-west through the site to connect across infrastructure while space runs north-south to connect with the larger strategic site. This weave between form and space is structured through the public realm and surface below.A singular road loop enters the site from the North, and provides access and service to the site without ordering the entire site as most examples of contemporary urbanism. A running track sits above the bars to allow connection between the arcades above grade. Void spaces between the bars and outside of the running track are densely planted with coniferous and deciduous trees to act as air and acoustic filters. The rooftops of the bars in these zones are dedicated to private uses — terraces, gardens, and courtyards. The roof tops within the region defined by the running track are zoned with public programs — restaurants, bars, community gardens, etc. Thus, the bars reconcile the scale of the public and private in plan and section. The strategic site is addressed with a similar methodology as the site, but is structured by space running east-west and form running north-south. This inverted use of space/form allows for an ease of phasing and implementation with regards to the existing buildings. The strategic site is phased to consolidated parking and return the vast surface to public uses. The north edge of the site phased for a natural remediation techniques — aeration, phyto-remediation and steam remediation. In time, this land is zoned for a denser development of housing. The arcaded public realm works in conjunction with the surface that adheres to the monumentality of the infrastructure and surrounding architecture while breaking down into local supports to promote soft neighborhood units. By connecting this island to the surrounding developments and infrastructure, a multivalent public realm is achieved in a dynamic field condition.
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* Luxury Resort
TREES are sacred at Nalati, and it is these trees that have inspired the project. It is
Nalati
against this magnificent backdrop that a network of unique architectural promenades
Private Commission. China 2014
tor can experience the trees, the landscape, the animals and the plants of Nalati in
Authors: Lorena del Río, Iñaqui Carnicero, Andrea Simitch , Val Warke Collaborators: Jessie Zhang, Helena Rong, Victor Prada, Marcos Cotes, Jose Maria Calvo, Paula Albendín, Francisco Blazquez.
are proposed that define the Nalati Forest Park Resort. From these paths the visisurprising and unique ways. Here architecture will serve to exhibit the landscape, where a forgotten tree is suddenly captured to become part of a secret garden, where the morning sun creates a glowing wall against which a tree’s shadow is cast, or where the distant mountaintop is framed as a living panorama. It is this experience of living in harmony and as one with the landscape, and in each season, that serves as the primary concept for the resort. These promenades are sometimes defined by buildings or by a simple line, at times they create ribbons of three- dimensional space and at others mark a contour line. These circuits seemingly gesture and overlap as they explore, at different speeds, the best qualities of the landscape, and from which the four seasons of Nalati can be enjoyed. The spaces of the principal programs are collected into a continuous building that inscribes a sequence through the landscape and is in itself a microcosm of the entire site. Here the resort is like a museum where the circulation path takes us through a series of rooms, but instead of Rembrandts or Degas’, the ‘paintings’ exhibited here are of the trees, the setting sun, the bird that flies across the sky, the spring flower or the water that trickles in the stream. This path is carefully constructed to bend and fold as it focuses on the most beautiful moments of Nalati, and while the building itself does not move, the ‘paintings’ that it frames continuously transform with the passing of time and each season. And while the building can be experienced as a continuous path, it can also be experienced as a series of individual spaces: the spa with its bathing pools and massage rooms, the restaurant of both larger and smaller dining rooms, terraces and pavilions, the library of special books and publications, the art gallery for the display of paintings and sculpture, the suite of karaoke rooms, and the entertainment space for evening music or small theater productions. Each of these spaces has its own private access and exterior space and one can choose to experience them individually or have a complete experience as one moves 53
from one space to the other. Thus the principal promenade can be experienced in many different ways and is never the same.The trees of Nalati have inspired this principal promenade as a simple structure that seems to be constructed of the trunks harvested from local trees. As a delicate mirage it appears as continuous row of trees – sometimes a very thick row of older trees and at other times a very thin veil of young saplings.Nestled within this continuous row of ‘trees’ are a series of spaces that hold the various communal programs. *Text by Andrea Simitch.
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* Dalseong Citizen’s Gymnasium
The site is located in an strategic and evolving district. The topography of the area
korea
is characterized by the long plain and the scattered hills. The location proposed is a
Honorable Mention International Competition. Korea 2014
the north side of the site, where the Dalseong Sports Complex Park is located, and
Authors: Lorena del Río, Iñaqui Carnicero
the south side, connecting with the new developments. The singular shape of the lot,
Collaborators: Victor Prada, Marcos Cortés,
highly transformed lot, a natural hill modified resulting in a physical barrier between
an irregular six sided polygon, where none of its sides have the same elevation, makes it challenging to conceal the new sport and cultural facilities with its surroundings. The principal idea of the project is to consolidate the boundaries of the site, responding to each of them specifically while surrounding a natural open space that is the heart of the proposal. We take advantage of the particular characteristics of the lot, its irregular geometry, its dramatic topography and its singular location in the city. The building sometimes contains the terrain, sometimes arises to generate a representative facade to the city, sometime bridges to allow the circulation underneath to get to the interior open space, all in an spiral ascension, to the point when the building wraps into itself, roof becomes ground and ground becomes roof while a fluid circulation happens around the green core of the building. By doing so we allow most of the site to remain open, creating a new park for the district connected to the existing sports belt to the north, blending the building with nature, blurring the limits between interior and exterior. From the park, the various activities hold in the interior of the building can be overseen, enticing people to participate, while from the sport court, trees and people enjoying nature is the panorama that the athletes can enjoy. The north wing of the building houses the main entrance to the facilities, opening to the interior court. It also serves as an exterior wide ramp to access the terrace on the second lever. The program dedicated to the sports facilities, containing the multipurpose room, the daily sports area, the stage and preparation room is located in the east side of the lot. It has been resolved as a semi-buried space 12m tall illuminated by high windows facing east and west that allow the natural light to enter, but prevent the direct sun to hit the badminton players. By locating these spaces underneath the ground level a higher thermal efficiency is achieved. By this operation we also reduce the visual impact of the building on the site, potentiating the natural appearance of the intervention and rendering it lighter. The sports bay is composed by two different areas, a leveled area that can host up to 63
five badminton courts and that also can be transformed into a multipurpose space for other sports or cultural activities, and a terraced part formed by five stepped platforms that can fit five badminton courts and other cultural activities serving as a informal amphitheater. Both parts are open to the upper level, the stepped area for spectators, that communicates to the exterior ramp that leads to the second floor. The bays above the ground have a much lighter character. They could be considered as covered ramps that host the leisure part of the program while surrounding the interior garden. A series of lounge areas, cafes, exhibition spaces form a sequence of spaces that rise to reach the higher level, an open terrace overlooking the near hills and the distant mountains. The building can be circulated from bottom to top, inside and outside, responding to the different needs of the users, can be a challenging running track, or a pleasant walk from the garden going up, surrounding the tree tops to the upper lever terrace with a view. The green core acts as an activity catalyst, a flexible space to host cultural and sports events, open to the community and to the whole district population. Many different activities can take place there, open cinema, concerts, exhibitions, children’s activities‌ It is visible from all interior spaces of the sports facilities, but it is always open to the public, a local park in an iconic building that transmits great pride not only for the community but for the district.
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* Sculptures Museum Leganes
On our first visit, we looked around. We saw the trees, the sculptures, the paths.
Madrid
After a while, when we got to know the place a little better , we watched. We looked
Honorable Mention International Competition. Spain 2011
for the settings that seemed more interesting to us, the scenary that made us feel
Authors: Lorena del Río, Iñaqui Carnicero Collaborators: Rafael Carbonero, Barbara Bardín
best. Last, we observed.We analyzed the elements that scored higher than others.We also studied the visitors’ behaviour at this open sculpture museum. We noticed that some of the sculptures were situated below the porches, and that people were concentrated under the vine shadows. The wide, paved paths remained completely empty while the small, serpentine, dirt trails were almost always crossed by some passerby. We also realized that the vegetation that covered the main façade of Las Dehesillas´s building made it look more inviting, more integrated with the park. We observed the sculptures carefully, (some of them huge), and we didn’t get the chance to see them from all angles. That was our starting point. With this proposal we want to address all the needs that we detected on our visits. We wanted to recreate in our building all the attractive spots that already exist in the park. We didn’t want to create a strange object, different than the surroundings that separated the open air exhibition from the newer, one inside. We thought that the new building must serve as a link between the park, the two exhibitions and the city.We also wanted that the visitors could enjoy these four areas at once. We tried that the whole way through the building resembled a walk through the park, either inside the building or in the open space protected by its shadow. We propose to restore the natural appearance of the park by recreating the land’s natural topography, and generating small gardens between the curves of the building in order to separate one sculpture from the others, giving them all the highlight that they deserve. The new building will be a continuous section piece of 5.50 meters wide by 550 meters long and it curves, turns and bends, in order to adapt itself to the plot limit and to maintain as many of the existing trees as possible. It abides by the empty spaces and embraces the sculptures, the trees, and the beauty of the art pieces surrounded by nature. 71
The piece also twists and interlaces upon itself in its vertical dimension, in order to adapt itself to the topography, and to communicate through the smooth use of ramps all the heights of the project. The visitor is carried away by the way and goes up and down, inside and outside, almost without noticing it.
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*Young Potential Development Headquarters Madrid Private Commission. Spain. 2011 Authors: Lorena del RĂo
The Young Potential Development is a recently created Spanish company, dedicated to teaching pre-college students ages 15-18, different and general job skills that are not part of a college curriculum. The students are taught how to increase their creativity, to develop their communicational capacities and to manage pressure and stress by taking care of their body. To this end, they needed a central headquarter, where the offices and classroom could contribute to increasing their creative development. They asked that each classroom should be different: the TV studio, the creativity, the communication and the space dedicated to physical activity. The original building was a conventional space of offices, polished granite floors with a strong, concrete structure of big dimensions. All floors were alike. The challenge consisted in hiding the structure, differentiating one level from another and give each assign each one of them a different personality. To this purpose, we used different colors of vinyl flooring on each floor: chrome green for the TV studio, light green for communication, yellow for creativity and orange for physical development, every color clearly implied in the activity to be developed in each room. Finally, we used different systems to hide the structure on each floor, always trying to integrate it with different elements. In the creativity room, we used a polycarbonate translucent wall, with a light system on the inside that changes color, to adapt to the requirements for each exercise. iencies with the south oriented patio of the same proportions than the house.
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*Europan 11 San Bartolomé Lanzarote Honorable Mention International Competition. Spain 2011 Authors: Lorena del Río, Iñaqui Carnicero, Silvia Fernández Colaborators: María Vega, Jose Javier Gonzalez
The climate of San Bartolome is characterized by pronounced aridity due to the low height of the relief that surrounds it.The city’s development has occurred around the farm roads, leaving memory in the interior of apples rear gardens of housing designed to produce for the house. In a place of transition between the urban and the natural environment lies the plot of the competition. In the limit of the municipality where new buildings are forced to respond with some formal autonomy versus usual insensitive and uncontrolled growth of cities. The square that defines the perimeter of the performance is a vindication of the autonomy of the residential complex. HOUSING. We propose as a starting point a minimum housing and capable of responding flexibly to the different ways of inhabiting the house. Each spatial unit is conceived as a container where a simple hinged system can transform the interior depending on time of day. Through a simple housing depression could open its entirety to a single common space to be closed or divided into smaller spaces and more privacy. The houses are developed on two levels, first floor, always in direct relationship with a courtyard for the exclusive use of the dwelling, and a second housing with separate access via stairs, resulting in some different types duplex. FLEXIBILITY. This is a tight space but dimeniones offset its minimum with the incorporation of the same size patio where housing extends and builds on the excellent climate of the island. This place is understood as a bedroom but could retake the island tradition for personal use and exploit the cultivation of a garden.These courts, inspired by the walls of the geria arise from the need to combat the wind and exterior space semiacondicionar but protected from the elements. COMMUNITY. We propose a new model of community away from the traditional individualistic pattern we see in the terraced houses that we see in some houses around and the opposite and closed block diagram e hausted. The aim is to stack houses closer together, overlap to achieve a density capable of generating an active community. The meeting and social life will be held in the covered streets that provide continuity to the intervention and which represent a new urban space where they perform different types of community activities.
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*Europan 11 in Wittstok Bradeburg
A CITY THAT GROWS INWARDS: SEARCHING FOR IDENTITY We propose to confront the whole of the urban complexity putting our attention in one operation that focuses in an architectural piece with a very strong character,
Competition. Germany. 2011
regarding the issue of local identity and trying to reinforce it this way. We started
Authors: Lorena del Río, Iñaqui Carnicero, Silvia Fernández
playing with the idea of a sloped roof as distinctive of the architectural language of
Colaborators: María Vega, Jose Javier Gonzalez
the region, almost as an arquetipical factor that puts each house in relation with the whole. Our proposal for Werderstrasse tries to subvert the traditional fabric present in Wittstock as a possible future model of operation. This piece, standing as a isolate volume, can be walked around in all its perimeter, opening the interior of the block to the street showing a new series of interstitial concatenated spaces that can give birth to new urban spaces that develop themselves inwards. On the other hand, this piece does not present itself completely sealed, but, in overt contraposition with the current model, results quite permeable through a series of passages that give access to the living units and walk across the volume. In this manner, the piece that is formally conceived also presents a very clear interior order based in the sucession of bands that are completed, alternatively,by free space or by living units. So it is all about defining this compact volume, that represents the wholeness, as the piece that will bring identity, but keeping to itself a very clear order that permits the disposition of individualities. THE STREET ENTERS THE HOUSE This volume emerges as a geometrical play that results from the disposition of sloped roofs adapted to the modulation of the living units upon the given perimeter and turning them around until they face south, in order to gain maximum of sunlight. This movement deforms the volume and introduces an interesting tension that continues this discourse about the whole and the fragments; and at the time trusts itself to the originality of the form to create identity: the dense and compact urban fragment that is contained in the interior of the urban fabric and deforms unpredictably facing south. The resulting cross section present very different spaces under this deformed roof, as in Wittstock, where every roof seems different, all of them contained in the same architectural experience that defines the whole of the piece.
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*Europan 11 in Savenay
NEW IDENTITY. In the future Nantes-Saint Nazare’s metropolitan area will be necessary to catch
Loira
enterprises, business, shops and new inhabitants. To achieve that, the town needs to
International Competition. France. 2011
change how the people knows about itself, looking for an expansion of the limits and
Authors: Lorena del Río, Iñaqui Carnicero, Silvia Fernández Colaborators: María Vega, Jose Javier Gonzalez
proposing new nodes of activities. we can avoid dealing with the railway. The new building will be visible from the distance and may could be the first remarcable place after Nantes and Saint Nazare.The goal is to gain importance to appear in the maps taking the most of its situation in the middle of the railways. DYNAMIC NEIGHBORHOOD. With the planning for the new metropolitan area, an important amount of people will be passing across the town. They will be visitors if the government won’t bring them opportunities to live and develope their lives in Savenay. the expansion is founded in a democratic system of live where you can debate how to rule your society. In this sense, there are necesaries some spaces to discuss and to have social expressions and relations. NODES MULTIPLICITY. Some plazas as the greek ‘agora’ or the roman ‘foro’ are the perfect urban element to generate the complexity for the new inhabitants. There are distributed in relation with the users and the further expansions. Each node has the flexibility to accept some use programs, on depend of the necessity of the society every moment. MODULE HOUSE. On the living unit we propose the definition of a minimum and flexible unit capable of absorbing the constant transformations that housing suffers in our days. Each special unit is conceived as a container where a complex system of revolving doors permits the transformation of the interior depending of the moment of the day. Just with a simple abasement the living space can open all its elements to a common space or close itself and divide in minor spaces with more privacy. The living units develop in two stages, the first one in ground floor, always in direct relation with a patio which is of exclusive use for the unit and a second level with independent acces through a stairway. It is a tight space that compensates its spatial deficiencies with the south oriented patio of the same proportions than the house.
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*Guest House in Fregenal de la Sierra Extremadura International Competition. Spain. 2010 Authors: Lorena del Río, Iñaqui Carnicero Colaborators: Juan José Payeras, Jeongjoo Choi
In our manner of speaking, we usually use the periphrasis, which is defined by the dictionary as: “a roundabout way of expressing something that could be expressed in less words, but not in such an attractive way.” Sometimes it’s better not to choose the shortest, most direct way, in order to increase the enjoyment of the ride. In our proposal, the crooked trace of the new building sets an itinerary that stitches and unifies the historic buildings of the Jesuist Church and College; and it also contains all the spaces required for the new Guest House. The proporsal completely adapts to the limits of the site, in order to free space on the interior of the site and to transform it into the center of the project. The continuos section of the new building turns and bends, in order to stricly adapt to the free space between the existing buildings, connected to the streets of “Almendro,” “Juan Bravo,” and “Alemania.” The part of the building that is not connected to the streets, is suspended over the site, creating a shadow, open space that divides and adds value to the exterior spaces of the Guest House. We tried to modify the hermetic nature of the site. We wanted the project to be deeply connected to the city. To this purpose, we opened up an exterior area of the Guest House for public use. The access to this elevated garden opens through a stairway, from Juan Bravo Murillo street. From this observation point it is possible to see the city from a new angle. The big palm, the lemon tree and the other trees that have been around for many years, remained in this new public space. Behind theirs foliage lies the terrace of the cafeteria, and the entrance to the Guest House. From that point we get to see the two other Guest House gardens: the smaller and more private one, which serves as an entrance to the patio guest rooms, and the other, much bigger, which we can see as big garden, through the windows of the Jesuist College. The proposal includes three types of rooms, the historical rooms, the patio rooms and the viewpoint rooms. The first type of rooms are situated on the first floor and they adapted and are conditioned by the structural and composition elements characteristic of the older Jesuit School. The second type is linked with the garden level and it introduces a small patio in each room. This increases the feeling of privacy from the street and it improves the thermal and visual comfort of the room.This terrace-patio, inspired by the town’s his105
tory, serves as a prism through which the guest perceives the street and the contour of its buildings. The third type of rooms is located on the first plant of the new buildings, in the broken piece, which elevates to help enjoy the scenery next to a new view of the town. These viewpoint-rooms bend to find the best perspective of the immediate surroundings. Although, both building interventions---at the Jesuit School, as well as the Church--have followed the rehab, consolidation and remodeling proposal, and kept the architectonic faรงade configuration and other singular elements, as well as the existing structure of the main walls; their interior organization has been completely transformed.
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*Guest House in Villafranca de los Barros Extremadura Shortlisted. International Competition. Spain. 2009 Authors: Lorena del Río, Iñaqui Carnicero
The guest house will be located within the limits of Villafranca, where there’s barely any sign of small constructions on the horizon. This is our focus point. We try to capture distance with our view because it allows us to contemplate the attractive geometry of the ploughed fields, the olive and vine tree plantations and the random encounters with nature. For this reason, our building gets distorted, it turns, it gets fragmented and i trises, as if it were imitating the vine branches, capturing the best shots of the immediate surroundings. The building is thus integrated in the preexisting plot/site and it conforms to the new silhouette, perceived as Villafranca de los Barros, from a distance. The contour of the building on the ground floor defines and qualifies the exterior spaces. On one hand, the interior patio serves as the heart of the guest house and it is intimately linked to the way it functions. It contains a concentration of the main plant and tree varieties, which purify and refresh the air that circulates through all the guest house rooms by way of crossed ventilation. The rooms are grouped in small towers on the second and third level of the building, separated from the noise and with additional sight privacy. These towers – of no more than three rooms for each floor are tilted, so they don’t interfere with each other, opening to a wider view, alienating the user from the scenery. They try to be on best terms with the sun, embracing the morning light and the plantation views, imagined toward the east as well as the noon sun, coming in direct contact with the Villafranca pine woods.This good orientation reduces the energy expenses during the coldest months and accentuates the room comfort. The blinds and other elements---on the outer side of the glass---offer sun protection during the summer months.
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*Auditorium and School of Music Madrid
A space for the artistic representation, the music. A space for creativity and illusion.
Final Thesis, Lorena del RĂo. 2007 A bridge between the bare and unsavory, surrounding city and nature, as an improvised scenery for anonymous artists. Simultaneous integration and segregation of artistic activity. The city dweller is attracted to it, and yet it must be apart, protected from the surrounding, urban reality. This is reduced to a continued integration of the street into the ground level of the building, the creation of an interior street on the first floor that simulates the activity of an urban street within the artistic, virtual world; and the segregation by means of elevating the rest. The ground level, with big hallways, independent from each lobby, the cafeteria located in the park and the stores, is transparent and visible from the street. It incorporates its activity into the city life and it welcomes participation. The covered, exterior space displayed between the pieces, suggests the idea of the park and poses as a door to nature. The facade pointing toward the city uses the same language, straight lines, straight volume. None of it gives away the scenery that unfolds towards the park. Another world.
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EXPERIENCE AT SELGASCANO 2008-2012
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Selgascano office Madrid 2006-2008
What is being sought with this studio is quite simple: work under the trees. To do so, we need a roof that is as transparent as possible. Also, at the same time, we need to isolate the desk zone from direct sunlight.
selgascano Principals: José Selgas, Lucía Cano Project Architect: Lorena del Río
Hence the transparent northern part. The part that is covered with a bent sheet of 20mm colourless plexiglass on the north side. The south side, where the desks are, has to be closed in much more, but not completely, so there is double sheet of fibreglass and polyester in its natural colour on the south side, with translucent insulation in the middle. All three form a 110 mm thick sandwich. In the former case, the
Site: Madrid, Spain Client: selgacano Design Phase: 2006 Construction Phase: 2008 Total Square Footage:65 m2 Budget: FaÇade Material: GFRP Structural engineer: TCI Fiberglass and Polyester: ursa FIBERLINE Methacrylate: INDUSTRIAS DEL METACRILATO Floors manufactured : BASCOPE Electrical En gineer: ELSUES
outward view is clear and transparent. The views in the latter case are translucent, somewhat marred by the cantilevered metal structure left inside the sandwich, with the shadow of the trees projecting onto it gently. This simplicity, it is so simple, will unfortunately mature later on into an extremely complex structure. We mean to say complex in the sense that it was impossible to convince a company to get involved in such a small building from start to finish, with components that may have been straight from the catalogue, but were not, shall we say, for catalogue-style assembly, forcing us to contract the work out under what is known as “the administration” procedure, with a timetable that more or less fitted in with when the construction companies were available. For example:The polyester party of the sandwich is composed of two types of pieces, both pultrusioned and both listed in catalogues: a straight piece with small stiffening ribs, and a curve that is only produced for the roofs of a few railway carriages in Germany. We had to wait for an order by the German railways because the few metres we needed did not warrant the recomposition of the production line – can we sent out a big hello and thanks to Gonzalo Guddat, who worked at the Danish manufacturing company?-. In between, we installed translucent white polyethylene insulation foam to preserve the translucence of the polyester. The transparent part was made from standard sheets of curved plexiglass, milled at the edges to enable a film of silicon sealant to be injected between the sheets. One company bent them, another assembled them, and yet another made the two sides, which are in 10mm white opaline methacrylate on a steel frame, which can be fully opened to permit air circulation by using a system of pulleys and counterweights.
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Half burying the whole thing, to provide horizontal views of the allotment where the arm is installed, comes before all of that, but it’s OK to do it afterwards as well. Everything placed below ground level is in concrete with wood formwork, wooden planks that are also used for paving, firmly bolted, painted in two colours with twocomponent paint with an epoxy base. And to finish off, we have given it a sightly less..... slightly more... wet touch: on rainy days, that rain, when it rains, the raindrops on the plastic, when they hit, sometimes more, sometimes less, sometimes a lot,‌ sometimes a sound,‌
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*Auditorium and Congress Hall Cartagena 2004-2011 selgascano
To be in a borderline: “... in the hot sun (they feed on the sun), in the shade (they feed on the shade), or in the borderline between sun and shade” H. Michaux
Principals: José Selgas, Lucía Cano Project Architect: Lorena del Río Site: Cartagena, Spain Client: Cartagena Council Design Phase: 2002-2004 Construction Phase: 2008-2011 Total Square Footage: 18.500 m2 Budget: 34.5 euro millions FaÇade Material: Metacrylate, Polycarbonate Structural engineer: FHECOR Mechanical, Electrical En gineer: JG Acoustic Engineer: ARAU ACUSTICA Textil Architecture: LASTRA & ZORRILLA Plastic manufacturer: POLIMERTECNIC Auditorium Seatting: FIGUERAS Floors manufactured : PRIALPAS
El “B” is this long construction, a body, that feeds on the heritage -the continuity- of a site’s treatment: THE Cartagena harbour, which is nothing but a harbour in Cartagena, borderline of the city from the sea. Everything here belongs to it, belongs to the port, any port we should say: the immaculate straightness of the pier edge (straight), the invariably calm sea (flat), the artificially horizontal plane of the dock (flat), the sky as the variable background for this plane (plane on a plane?), all based on an artifice to represent the simplest -and by virtue of its simplicity, the most natural, the most immensely artificial- plane that equates to the most natural. The Alfonso XII dock is 1,000 metres long, exactly a kilometre, where we can assume that we are at the end. A 20 metre wide strip runs the full length, parallel to the edge, which is respected by the buildings. A very pleasant walk can be designed for the city along this strip, a daily procession following the immutable edge. In fact, this promenade is what we encourage; it is what we insert in the building, in a dimensional continuum that seems to dig out an artificial beach, but is actually a continuity of history, because the old El Batel beach was right here, on this very spot. The harbour is artificial, not the beach. This reclaimed beach-ramp gradually submerges us below the waterline, with the pier’s horizontal line as a constant reference. At this point we cease to belong to the outside world and start to belong to ourselves, ourselves in movement, ourselves strolling, working on the 210 metre scale reserved site for ourselves. We have worked on the contrast with the outer facade produced by the cut at ground level, and we continue to make use of the dictatorship of the dock, but precisely in opposition to it. We refuse include the harbour’s beautiful orthogonal monotony; we exclude the hardness of the port from the interior, and instead, we seek something that is completely the opposite: translucent, delicate, light, aquatic; something that has to do with what Luigi Nono defined as “a space for water music”. Each component and detail of this project is another project in itself, but, as each project, acting in obedience to its surroundings, all belong to both a whole, not sought, but deduced, which is what shapes the character of El “B”. All the material, both aluminium and plastic, is manufactured from a single extruded 141
section, varied in placement and colour to give the appearance of multiple pieces. These pieces are all set parallel to the pier edge to underscore the idea of horizontality and achieve an even longer rectangle than it already is, in this case extruded like a “churro� (wrinkled doughnut), only on its immediate scale: overall, it seems to be the result of an accumulation of different components, stacked neatly on the pier.The memory of a former use. Outwardly and also inwardly, this is an extremely false complex, one set as the antagonist of the other, like people who seem to be very quiet but are actually paralyzed by the continuous movement of their central nervous system. Their antagonism is clearly evident in the coexistence of the upper and the lower floors, a perfect example of anacoluthon: there is no agreement between them. Their only connection is that both thrive on the harbour, because, we insist, the entire project thrives on the idea and the memory of a harbour; what happens here now and what used to happen here.
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Auditorium and Congress Center Plasencia 2005-2012 selgascano Principals: José Selgas, Lucía Cano Project Architect: Lorena del Río
Site: Caceres, Spain Client: Junya de Extremadura Design Phase: 2005 Construction Phase: 2008-2012 Total Square Footage: 10.500 m2 Budget: 34.5 euro millions FaÇade Material: ETFE Structural engineer:
BOMA
Mechanical, Electrical En gineer: JG Acoustic Engineer: ARAU ACUSTICA Textil Architecture: LASTRA & ZORRILLA Plastic manufacturer: POLIMERTECNIC Floors manufactured : PRIALPAS
The centre is on the boundary between the town and the country, in outskirts of Plasencia, the edge between what has been touched by a less artificial humanity and what has been touched by millennia of climate. What has been touched by humanity has covered up those millennia with the sweep of a trowel in a few years. This is strange, even economically, because to do so, 15m high retainer walls had to be built. Thus, from the outset, from the competition design, we saw quite clearly that the work consisted of choosing between one of the boundary´s two sides: belonging to the city, to what has been touched by our generation, or belonging to slowness. Under these conditions it was impossible to belong to both. Having been chosen by the second option, we found ourselves forced to rest the buildings on a much lower level then the street due to the considerable height difference between the two worlds. The artificial world had created a 17 m high embankment that covered the natural contours , now buried below. In reaction to this unstoppable submission (sous les paves, les 17 metres de paves, la plage), we decided that our solution would have a maximum respect for the land, resting on and covering the least possible area of the allotment. We plotted to make this building set the stage for a different method and preserve an island of natural earth in the future expansion zone, even if it meant being a small puddle in the sea, as a possible reagent for the rest of the constructions to come, which will find themselves insinuated and become beached similarly in this whiffed sea: the Extremdura countryside used as an equivalent for the ocean. Forget-me-not. We like the name of the flower, and also the fact that it is a flower. The Salamanca highway, the former Silver Route and the future Silver Motorway as well, all run past the western side of the allotment, which also has the best views of the Gata Range. The building will be visible in the distance from an entire western perspective, from north to south. It will be seen when passing by at high speed in a car, which is why we have planned it as a snapshot or a luminous form, acting as a sign for passengers by day and by night, playing at being a correspondence between sensation and reality, between the position it seems to be heading for and the position from where it will move. Forget-me-not…tell me if its final aspect triggers in you the same reminder as 159
George Sand´s for Flaubert, “ Do not define the form, don´t bother…” The form of ours is due to the building´s section; due, as we have said, to the idea of resting the smallest possible part on the ground, which corresponds to the stage area and the tiers in the main hall. The section of this hall is what continues to define and complete the form by superimposing the rest of the brief on top of it: the entrance lobby, the secondary hall for 300 people, which can be divided into three for 100 spectators each, the exhibition halls and the restaurant area. The entrance is on the urbanized street level, more than 17 meters above the lowest part of the building, using an orange gangway that arrives at a 12m deep vertical canyon in the same colour, where the views of the countryside, the spurs of the Gata Range, are accentuated. From here it is possible to move all around the central concrete shell, go up or down on a set of ramps and spiral stairs that mingle exterior and interior spaces.This is for two reasons, economy and expenditure. Economy by not climatising or using glass to enclose certain parts. Expenditure due to a crossing of spaces –in-out-in on account of the mixture of their climates.
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Factory Youth Movement Merida 2006-2011
Skatepark, Climbing Walls, broadband Internet, Modding, Tuning, Modeling, Graffiti, Urban Artists, Theatre Street, Tightrope Walkers, Circus activities, Video Art, Electronic Music, Acrobatics, Performing Arts, Manga, Parkour, Audiovisual Arts, Contem-
selgascano
porary Dance, Dance Funk and Hip Hop, Dance Hall and MACC (contemporary
Principals: José Selgas, Lucía Cano
body art performances) are the recognized activities composing the collective Fac-
Project Architect: Lorena del Río
tory and will join at the consequently so called Factory of Mérida. We do not know what type of filter will be applied in the future to the new forth or upcoming activities, but we intend though, within our assigned role as architects, not to have any filter to anyone.Therefore the building is conceived as a large canopy opened to the whole city to gather anyone who may need to shelter there. This canopy is supported by a series of ovoid plant parts holding different elements of the requested functions,
Site: Merida, Spain Client: Junta de Extremadura Design Phase: 2006 Construction Phase: 2009-2011 Total Square Footage: 1550 m2 Budget: 1.2 euro millions FaÇade Material: Polycarbonate Structural engineer: BOMA, LANIK Mechanical, Electrical En gineer: CHACON Climbing Wall: TOP 30 Plastic manufacturer: POLIMERTECNIC
which are treated as independent modules able to be used separately with whole autonomy, regulated and controlled by the direction of the Factory movement. The activities taking place below are covered from rain and sun by the big canopy, acting like a big termical one meter thick cushion, so that there will be no need to use air conditioning.The roof is understood, and extends, like a light cloud, protective, translucent; constructed with a three-dimensional mesh structure 1 meter thick covering different levels. This canopy will rest on steel columns placed in the perimeter of the supporting ovoid elements up to the highest level, where it joins the Climbing Walls structure made with the same three-dimensional mesh. The whole proposal stands on a basement five feet tall so that the sensitive historical Roman base of the city of Mérida remains untouched.
Floors manufactured : FORBO
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