PORTFOLIO

M A R I A D E L A TO R R E Architecture & Cultural Heritage PORTFOLIO

MARIA DE LA TORRE ARCHITECTURE & CULTURAL HERITAGE | PORTFOLIO 2016 MARIA-DELATORRE.COM MARIA.DLT@ICLOUD.COM | 646.659.8678

I am an architect from Bogotá, Colombia with a M.S. in Historic Preservation from Columbia University. I grew up in Bogotá and I currently reside in New York City. ​ I am interested in the relationship of individuals and communities with their surroundings, on the impact of buildings and space on people’s lives, and on architecture as a tool for social development. These concerns have led me to focus my career as much in buildings as in people. ​ I have explored these issues through cultural heritage, design, construction, and community engagement. My experience has taught me that buildings have values, qualities that make them significant and active participants in shaping lives and the environment. Architecture has social, political, ecological, economic, and cultural agency, and my intent is to use it in an effort to create a better world.

I N S TA L L AT I O N M E T H O D

a tool for community engagement in historic preservation COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY | M.S. IN HISTORIC PRESERVATION THESIS | ADVISOR: ERICA AVRAMI JURIES: ALBERTO ESCOVAR WILSON-WHITE, JORGE OTERO-PAILOS | 2016

As major stakeholders in their cultural heritage and in development processes in their towns, local communities should be a driving force behind planning for change.

For preservationists to gain a comprehensive understanding of the significance of a site, it is imperative that they engage with the local community to understand the values that they ascribe to their built environment, to their history, to their culture, and to their future.

Building upon ethnography and community engagement strategies in which visuals and space are used as communication tools, this thesis proposes that heritage itself be altered through installation art. The idea is that an installation can potentiate space’s power as a communication tool.

A large portion of this thesis was devoted to testing this idea in the case-study of JordĂĄn Sube, a small, forgotten town cradeled deep in the Chicamocha Canyon in Colombia.

Once a prosperous stop in an important colonial road, Jordán underwent drastic depopulation and isolation as a result of political violence and infrastructure neglect in the twentieth century. Today, this semi-inhabited town is at the brink of change. Infrastructure projects, rising regional tourism, and a recent change in the local government, imply the opening of Jordán to new projects and new people.

The objective of the installation in Jordån was to uncover the values that the community attributes to their heritage in the face of change; to explore through the community’s eyes the role of heritage in the past, the present, and the future of the town.

1960

The installation consisted on the abstract reconstruction of the town’s plazuela: a small square located at the bridge entrance of the town. This space was lost around 1995 with the demolition of one building on one of its sides. The spatial experience of being in this reconstructed space during the installation intended to trigger personal recollections; and these memories, in turn, gave an insight of what Jordán’s residents deemed most important in their culture.

2004

A piece of fabric outlined the corner of the demolished building

P L A Z U E L A

A series of lanterns deliniated the space of the plazuela

P L A Z U E L A

Historic photographs were projected on a building’s façade, and an event was organized with the community in the reconstructed plazuela.

Interviews that encouraged the use of space and the installation for communication were used to gather people’s memories of the plazuela.

Asking questions about personal memories of buildings, generated conversations on the lifestyle, the trades, the objects, and the products that, for the town’s inhabitants, make part of Jordán’s past, present, and possible future; insights that should be central in planning for Jordán’s development.

GINGERBREAD HOUSES Port-au-Prince, Haiti

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY | URBAN PLANNING, HISTORIC PRESERVATION, AND REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT JOINT STUDIO PROFESSORS: ERICA AVRAMI & WILL REYNOLDS | 2015

“Culture in general remains a factor for social integration, in that it is a uniting force, situating us in terms of our history, our collective memory and the present time. In return, memory and history nourish culture in its infinite variety of expression and show the way forward into the future.

Making this cultural wealth the subject of research, creation and education can be hugely beneficial in recreating Haiti’s social fabric.”

- Michèle Pierre-Louis, 2010

This project focused on the Gingerbread houses as important elements of the urban environment of Port-au-Prince. Given the value they hold to the people of Haiti, the Gingerbreads are not simply historic buildings in need of repair; they are a form of living heritage that can help to catalyze change within the physical and social fabric of the community.Â

Building on previous efforts by World Monuments Fund, the studio worked with the Fondation connaissance et liberté (FOKAL) as the studio client, as well as with Haitian students from the Université d’Etat, Université Quisqueya, and the Haitian Education and Leadership Program (HELP). The team undertook a field survey of the densest concentration of gingerbread houses in Port-au-Prince and their urban context.

The research, survey, and fieldwork resulted in mapping, data visualization and analyses, and proposed interventions at the neighborhood level. A report produced by the studio and published by the World Monuments Fund summarizes the analyses as well as presents proposals for how the Gingerbread houses can be preserved within Port-au-Prince’s diverse urban environment and can create positive benefits for the city’s communities.

TO M I N É

Country House Addition INDEPENDENT PRACTICE | DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION | TEAM: MARIA DE LA TORRE, DIEGO SOTO, JOSE A. MICHELSEN

This 750 ft2 addition to a country house intends to be a warm and tranquil gathering space in the cold, beautiful mountains surrounding the TominĂŠ reservoir. It integrates the landscape through its carefully placed windows in a play with scale that recognizes the grandiose in nature and the intimacy of family time.Â

The architecture is a response to the spectacular views of the reservoir, the mountains, and the surrounding native forest. The interior is centered around the warmth of the hearth.​

Wood was sourced from the site and from a local sawmill, stone for the floor, the bathroom, and the sink was acquired from a local quarry, and the carpet is woven wool of traditional artisanal manufacturing from the region.Â

In plan, the construction is rotated with respect to the rest of the house to frame the views of the water. In section the design uses a steep roof slope to generate a sensation of intimacy and spaciousness at the same time.Â

¡ VA M O S A L A P L A Z A !

Public Markets Revitalization

FUNDACIÓN ESCUELA TALLER DE BOGOTÁ | MARKETS REVITALIZATION PROJECT FOR THE CITY ADMINISTRATION | ​PARTICIPATORY DESIGN | 2014

Marketplaces are nodes of interaction and socialization. They are vibrant centers of diversity, culture, and traditions; where urban meets rural and popular knowledge is transferred in produce transactions. Unfortunately, marketplaces are threatened today by supermarkets and the practicalities they offer. Popular culture, traditional recipes, and local products are dying with our markets; our intangible heritage is slowly being forgotten.Â

In an alliance between the District’s Tourism Institute, the Institute for Social Economy, and the Fundación Escuela Taller de Bogotá, the project ¡Vamos a la Plaza! (Lets Go to the Market!) sought to revitalize three marketplaces in Bogotá: 20 de Julio, 12 de Octubre, and La Preseverancia.

A multidisciplinary crew tackled the problem from different perspectives, among it, a design team worked through human-centered design to identify the needs of different stakeholders in the markets and propose changes in the overall design of the markets and in furniture for the vendors.

Participatory design activities included parties, events, meetings, interviews, surveys, interactive games, prototype testing, visualization sessions etc...

Due to political instability in the local government in Bogotรก, the project was halted before it reached completion in 2014. The project concluded with a thorough report of our findings, analyses, recommendations, and schematic designs but non of them were implemented. However, the project was recently reinstated and our recommendations are the basis for its development.

A R G O S I N N O VAT I O N Laboratory building in EAFIT university LORENZO CASTRO ARQUITECTOS | ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN | ​2013

This building is a result of the joint effort of Argos, an important Colombian cement producer, and EAFIT, a prominent business and engineering school in MedellĂ­n. The architecture responds to its campus environment and its role as a research and innovation center for the cement industry.

The building’s facades explore the potential of concrete as a building material through prefabricated elements that express the laboratory’s vocation.

The building’s first floor is completely integrated into the university campus, and the design of the vertical circulation of the building encourages its public use throughout: from the first floor to the rooftop cafÊ.

SEMOLINA Restaurant, Cartagena

CRANE + ARQUITECTURA Y DISEÑO | DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION ADMINISTRATION | TEAM: ANGELA CRANE (PRINCIPAL), MARIA DE LA TORRE (PROJECT MANAGER) | ​2014

This is the flagship locale of Semolina, an Italian Restaurant that has since opened two other locations in Bogotรก (also designed by Crane+).

The balance between marble, metal, wood, and plants intends to give the restaurant a fresh feel in the soaring heat of Cartagena, while at the same time making it warmly welcoming.

The lamps, central in the design, are made from traditional fishing cages. All the woodwork and metal work (except the chairs) was designed by Crane+ and fabricated in a woodshop in Bogotรก.

L A TA Q U E R Í A Restaurant, Bogotá

CRANE + ARQUITECTURA Y DISEÑO | DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION ADMINISTRATION | TEAM: ANGELA CRANE (PRINCIPAL), MARIA DE LA TORRE (PROJECT MANAGER), GABRIELA ORTIZ (DESIGNER) | 2​ 016

La TaquerĂ­a, a long-established Mexican restaurant in BogotĂĄ, opened this new location in an effort to revamp its image and attract a younger crowd.

The design aims for a casual feel inspired in street-food vendors and Mexican culture.

The lamps are made from the remnants of metal sheets where soda caps are punched; the floors, cement cubes wall, and bathroom sink were tailor made in a local cement factory; and all the woodwork and metalwork (except the chairs) was designed by Crane+ and fabricated in a woodshop in Bogotรก.

EL RODADERO Children Pavilion

UNIVERSIDAD DE LOS ANDES | DESIGN-BUILD STUDIO | TEAM: MARIA DE LA TORRE, FELIPE DELGADO | ​2011

The pavilion is an artifact for exploration; an object that facilitates kids’ acquaintance with the world by inciting their curiosity through play.

This construction is the product of a design-build studio in the Universidad de los Andes. The course was structured around a competition that asked for the design of a pavilion for children. Two winning proposals were built by the whole class, exhibited in the university campus, and then donated to children organizations.

As winners of the competition, Felipe Delgado and I directed the team building our design and coordinated the pavilion’s transfer to the Fundacion de la Santa Cruz in San Francisco, Colombia, where it is being used by the kids to this day.

The design of the pavilion was based on the creation of boundaries that would materialize opposites (up-down, inside-outside, dark-bright, etc.), and through these opposites incentivize play.

Build out of wood and plastic crates, the pavilion was designed for easy fabrication and assembly.

THE FORUM

Urban Activators Studio, Bronzeville ILLINOIS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY | COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT STUDIO | PROFESSORS: MONICA CHADHA AND MIKE NEWMAN | ​2011

This community engagement design studio intended to identify opportunities for Bronzeville in Chicago though a series of activities with the neighborhood residents. After several stakeholder meetings, interviews, and participatory design activities, students came up with ideas and plans that could serve as urban activators for this neighborhood, once a thriving epicenter for African American culture.

I proposed the restoration and adaptive reuse of the derelict Forum Building. Built in 1899 and abandoned for more than 40 years, the Forum housed a dance hall and meeting room on the second floor, and retail spaces on the first floor.

It was a very important community space during Bronzeville’s Golden Era (still remembered fondly by the community), and today occupies a privileged lot next to the Green Line “EL� stop on the wide retail corridor of 43rd Street.

The proposal is structured in a three phase adaptation of the building. The

space that serves the market. In this scheme, a central void connects both floors,

first floor is used for retail in the form of a market where small stalls are

revealing the architectural historic features of the second story to pedestrians,

rented as business incubators, and the second floor functions as a dining

bringing the performance space of the great hall all the way to the street.

MARIA DE LA TORRE ARCHITECTURE & CULTURAL HERITAGE | PORTFOLIO 2016 MARIA-DELATORRE.COM MARIA.DLT@ICLOUD.COM | 646.659.8678