PORTFOLIO MIGUEL MEDINA ALBERO
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EDUCATION Throughout my years in the School of Architecture, I have addressed projects of different type and scale, including residential, cultural and industrial programmes. Constructive and structural detailing is an important part of my projects, and in each of them I look for a solution that expresses the core architectural idea and that captures the material qualities. During my degree, and especially in the last years, I have tried to develop a language of my own to express my ideas. My references are craftsman like architects, such as Herzog & de Meuron, Caruso st John, Sverre Fehn, or Francisco Mangado. I also try to bring in ideas from other activities that inspire me. My love for design, technical knowledge and taking courses on structural project and applied technologies has helped me deepening in the link between the architectural concept and its physical realisation.
FABRICATION LABORATORY Master’s Final Project, 2015 With the orientation of Antonio Raya de Blas
HIGHER LAYERS
The space of appearances, ruled by the corporate elite through their large buildings.
This is the final project of my Master’s Degree in Architecture, and it brings together the knowledge acquired throughout all the courses. It was also my last step towards the qualification as an architect in the EU. The project was developed with the orientation of my tutor, obtaining a grade of 7/10. An independent jury evaluates the project, requiring the following: a solid architectural idea, an understanding of the urban planning, complete architectural documents, a high level of construction detailing, the verification of the structural solution, a design of the building systems, and a memory describing the compliance with the corresponding building regulations.
LOWER LAYERS
The space of real interaction between pedestrians, trade, traffic and street furniture and the conflict between them.
PARTY WALL
THE SITE
The building adjacent to our plot is 10 floors tall, creating a huge party wall. In addition, there are two rows of windows in it, one of which is necessary to preserve with its access at the ground floor.
TELEFONICA HDQ
At this time, the plot has the remains of an old building. Its dimensions are approximately 14x25 meters. It is situated next to Manteleria street, a very sloppy street which has traffic access but is de facto pedestrian.
The building for the Telefónica headquarters is located in front of our plot. It is high and is topped by a very visible antenna. Its facades are decorated in classic style, with a careful composition of the corner.
NIGHTLIFE
Estrella Street is one of the busiest places for nightlife in the city.
TRANSFORMER Old building for an electrical transformer. It is about 3 storey tall.
SETTING & IDEA The city can be read as a system of layers, in which each social agent takes part. Pedestrians move in the lower layer and interact with shops, pavement, parking, arcades, etc.
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La Coruña’s city centre is a historical quarter living a process of transformation, in which the traditional narrow buildings are replaced by large bodies that host the headquarters of the main banking and business groups, and a myriad of commercial establishments. Due to its constrained geographic location, it is an area of permanent conflict between pedestrians and an overflowing and invasive traffic.
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A Fablab is a workshop equipped with 3d printers, CNC machines and other tools for digital fabrication. It allows anybody to develop prototypes of physical objects with industrial techniques, sharing their work in a global knowledge network.
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In half a century, the computer has managed to give people control over the world of ideas. Through the Internet, anyone can obtain and generate content. The Fablab initiative aims to put into the hands of people the control over the built physical environment.
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The project arise from the tension of a city and a society both in transformation. Only by engaging the citizen with the social program of the building we activate the space in this part of the city, the pedestrian interacts with the activity at their level, i.e. the ground floor. The interior of this ground floor is a spatially connected public space that is opened to the street in all its perimeter. The pedestrian perceives this inner complexity whose opening contrasts with the street itself. What is inside and what is outside? What space gives us more freedom? The building shows up as a dialogue at different levels: At the lower layer, this of the pedestrian, an arcade of human dimensions, 1.5 meters wide and 2.5 tall, fitting the scale of the pedestrian world. Above, the upper layers are stacked, undefined, unaware of the people’s world. An abstract, colourless and translucent skin. Daytime silent and active overnight. The envelope is compound by a double skin. On the inside, a translucent glass with thermal insulation, which results in an important lighting inside during the day and that exposes the activity during the night. On the outside, a system of horizontal steel plates every 50 centimetres and a polycarbonate skin that blurs even more the light and the colour, and recalls the materiality of the wet stone of the Galician city.
The arcade is what separates, and at the same time connects, the pedestrian with the Fab culture. The building and its program are a response to the stresses of the post-industrial city and society. The structural concept is simple, a perimeter structure of H-section steel columns (UKC) that leaves the interior space free of structure. We meet the specific mechanical and aesthetic solutions in all the building through a language of welded broad steel plates. On the arcade, the outer flange of each H-section column is cut to a height of 2.5 meters and is replaced by two broad steel plates welded to each side of the web of the base profile. The behaviour of the T-section column as a whole is obtained with an additional rebar that connects both plates improving bending resistance.
HEB Steel profile (UKC)
Steel plate 650x12mm
Steel plate 650x12mm
Rebar Ă˜7mm
The functional organization of the building responds to a differentiation into two areas:
ASSEMBLY
Assembly of steel plates at each side of the web
STIFFENERS
Steel plates work as stiffeners that connect the frames
INTERIOR LAYER
Panels of translucent insulating glass
OUTER LAYER
Facade of polycarbonate cladding in horizontal stripes + Glass roof
The open area is intended for the main activities of FabLab. The ground floor houses the public uses (exhibitions, grandstand, etc.) and is visually and acoustically connected to the area of fabrication and assembly through the courtyard, located on the first floor. Thus, the core activity expands to the entire building. The compact area houses the offices, workshops, storage and classrooms, and is organized in traditional stacked storeys.
BURY THE BODY, RISE THE SPIRIT Monastery in Santiago de Compostela, 2013 Academic project in collaboration with JesĂşs Aller
CONTEMPLATION
WORK
SILENCE
OBEDIENCE
TRADITION
Monks belonging to the Carthusian Order live a life of special isolation, completely oblivious to the outside world.
Monasteries finance themselves. These brothers are computer scientists, they have a workshop where they perform programming tasks.
Carthusians take a vow of silence. They are given their food in his cell daily, and only meet once a week on the Refectory to eat in silence.
Carthusian monasteries have a small number of monks. The Prior leads the collective prayer and assigns tasks during the Chapter.
Monasteries are organised in a very specific way, around a central courtyard with a fountain. Each cell has its own small lawn with a fruit tree.
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3 2 This project is selected due to the outstanding relation between the architectural idea and its constructive solution.
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CARTHUSIANS The purpose of the building is to serve as a monastery to a community of 13 Carthusian monks in the city of Santiago de Compostela. A small city that was the centre of the pilgrimage in Europe for hundreds of years, and one of the rainiest cities in Spain. The Carthusian Rule is known for their vow of silence and their utter isolation from the outside world. Hence, we propose a refuge that is buried, for a society that wants to keep hidden. Raw walls of modern stone, concrete, provide a solid shelter to the user from the people outside, while they remember the monks their vow of poverty. Light comes from above, the prayers in complete silence. Burying the body to rise the spirit.
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6 1 Chapel 2 Chapter House 3 Library and cells 4 Workshops 5 Cloister 6 Guests house 7 Refectory
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LOWER PART LEVEL
UPPER PART LEVEL
SPACES OF RELATION
Above: The church is a Sacred space in which the light and the shadow are used to create a theatrical atmosphere and to hide the people that attend the singing from the sight of the carthusian monks. To the left: The common spaces are based on a centralized configuration. The prior is the one who lead the prayer the life in the monastery. The chapter house is the place where the prior assigns the tasks to the rest of the monks.
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3 Muro exterior de hormigón armado visto HA-25/P/20/IIa con acero B-500S, de 25 cm de espesor, armado en ambas caras #Ø12c/15. Acabado de tablas, sobre encofrados modulares. Aislamiento térmico de panel rígido de lana de vidrio, espesor 12 cm.
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Muro interior de hormigón armado visto HA-25/P/20/IIa con acero B-500S, de 25 cm de espesor, armado en ambas caras #Ø12c/15. Acabado de tablas, sobre encofrados modulares.
Falso techo de tablero de fibras duro HB con acabado lijado natural, de 122x138 cm, espesor 3,2 cm. Anclado a subestructura mediante tornillos a perfiles de acero inoxidable en U 25.50.3 mm. Subestructura para soporte de falso techo, consistente en perfiles rectangulares de aluminio, de 50.100.3 mm.
Chapa de recubrimiento exterior de acero inoxidable, espesor 3 mm. Carpinterías de aluminio anodizado natural de tipo oscilo-batiente para ventana en celdas, con RPT, vidrio doble 5+10+5.
1 Bedroom 2 Toilet 3 Oratory 4 Systems 1
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SOLITUDE The cell is the place of seclusion of the monk. It is the place where they work alone and say most of their prayer. To the north, the monk cells are 13 minimum rooms of concrete, where they receive their daily food. There is a trap door on the ground of each cell that leads to a small underground room where the monk can say their prayer in complete silence. Burying the body to elevate the spirit.
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STEEL UNIT
Industrial building for sport competitions, 2013 Academic work The project consists of a building for sport facilities for the training of tennis and paddle tennis, as well as the celebration of public sport events. This work is part of a module on Structure Project. Being one of the requisites a structure on steel and that reached large span distances. The main element is a steel truss of hollow elements, with a maximum span distance of almost 50 meters. This truss is supported by a bolted joint in one of its sides, and by a rigid frame on a intermediate point. Thus with a cantilever frame of 20 meters of span distance to the north. The structural calculation was accomplished using Cype software.
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MAIN TRUSS ELEVATION 4.00
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Pletina 2x12mm 4.85 3.65
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Pletina 14mm
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4 2 1 Entrance 2 Competition court tennis 3 Competition court paddle 4 Shop 5 Training courts tennis 6 Training courts paddle
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PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE From April to September 2014, 6 months, I worked as an intern in the practice of architect Jorge Barata in La Coru単a, Spain, developing projects within a team of 4-6 architects. My responsabilities also included the development of a Revit model for each project, so that we might observe its evolution accurately, and easily obtain graphic output. Being the first person to carry out this task for the office, the implementation of an efficient workflow between the traditional CAD work and the use of a BIM model was especially challenging, and served me as an extraordinary training. The experience was very motivating and rewarding, both for the knowledge that I acquired as for the quality of the results. The following pages are a sample of the works that I realised during this period.
ARCO267 Sports Facilities in Cartama
Professional work, Second Prize This is the first big project in which I worked during my architectural internship. The project was developed, in collaboration with the practice Iglesias Veiga Arquitectos, for a public competition for the city council of Cartama, Spain. The project obtained the second prize in the competition, what was especially motivating since I had the opportunity to do an important part of the competition project.
GRANDSTAND
SPORT ACTIVITIES
During the development of the project, one of my tasks was to generate a Revit model of the building, in order to evaluate accurately the evolution of the project and to produce views, cut-away images and other document to describe the project. The images on this page also required an important work of post-processing, of which I was in charge too.
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SALAMANCA SPORTS CENTRE
MUSEUM OF ARCHAEOLOGY OF OURENSE ALTZA SPORTS CENTRE Heritage refurbishment Professional work
Extension of an existing building Professional work
Our practice received the commission to renew some of the existing sport facilities and public swimming pools in the city of Salamanca. During my internship, I jumped into this ongoing project by developing ideas for the renovation of one of these buildings, the sport centre of San JosĂŠ, and providing plans and images to present the project to the public contractors.
Public competition for the refurbishment of an old monastery in the historic city of Ourense into a Museum of Archaeology. The project was developed in collaboration with the practice Iglesias Veiga Arquitectos.
This is the project for a public competition for the extension of an existing sports centre in Altza, near to the city of San SebastiĂĄn, in the Basque Country. The one interesting aspect of this project was was working with execution phases. The competition brief required that some parts of the existing premises remained usable while building the new facilities.
Refurbishment of existing buildings Professional work
Š 2015 Miguel Medina Albero