Architecture Sample Works by maria saavedra

MARIA INES SAAVEDRA misaaved@syr.edu

(315)-708-3663

POTSDAM UNIVERSITY DORMITORIES Location: Potsdam, NY, USA.

The project is conceived as a campus within a campus that creates a downhill promenade overlooking the adjacent body of water. A series of terraces carve into the terrain and host different activities that celebrate the path to the housing units. The common spaces are located in the center, reinforcing the connection between inside and outside and allowing opportunities of social interaction among students. A major challenge for this project was the integration of sustainable systems within housing units. A core system that combined heating and plumbing was the main organizational component of the entire scheme. It divides the program, placing living in the front and service in the back. Media Used: AutoCAD, Illustrator, Photoshop, Rhino and V-Ray for Rhino Design and Production in collaboration with K. Thompson 1

3 2

Commons Building 1 Long Section 1â&#x20AC;?:64â&#x20AC;&#x2122; 1 entry 2 auditorium 3 study lounge 4 study lounge 5 conference room 6 conference room

Maria Ines Saavedra misaaved@syr.edu 315-7083663

SOCIAL SPACE DETROIT Location: Detroit, MI. The Scheme performs as a support for a current project called “Get Fresh Detroit.” Detroit is a shrinking city that is better known as the food desert.“Get fresh Detroit” offers a possibility to turn unconventional service spaces into opportunities for easy access to healthy foods. The site is proposed as a social corner where a mixed-use hotel and a farmer’s market merge in order to allow social interaction. The idea is to create an interior world that opens up to the adjacent streets in order to create an elevated plaza where the activity occurs. Easy flow of people and visual connections are a key aspect of the project. The connections between inside and outside are also a key aspect in the design. The boundaries between interior and exterior programs start to blur in the moments when the skin turns into exterior furniture. Media Used: AutoCAD, Illusttrator, Photoshop, Rhino and V-Ray for Rhino

d g

Maria Ines Saavedra misaaved@syr.edu 315-7083663

Short Section 1’:1/8” a. hotel room b hotel room c. restaurant d. plaza

e. water fountain / ice skating rink f. market g. parking

STUDENT CENTER Location: London, UK

Media Used: AutoCAD, Illustrator, Photoshop, Rhino

Maria Ines Saavedra misaaved@syr.edu 315-7083663

STUDENT CENTER Location: London, UK Media Used: Photoshop, Rhino and V-Ray for Rhino

Maria Ines Saavedra misaaved@syr.edu 315-7083663

PERSONAL WORK Designed and built sculptures and furniture exploring media and scale combining both digital and manual work. Description of pieces from left to right: 1. Torso: Rubber casted over a mannequin 2. Sculpture: Cement sculpture over wooden base 3. Stool: Iron base (manually constructed) and laser-cut plywood for the top. The furniture piece was constructed in full scale. (12 in diameter x 24 in). 4. Lamp: Modelled in 3D using Rhino. The lamp was constructed by adding layers of laser-cut chipboard and plexiglass. (16 x 6 x 7.5 in). Maria Ines Saavedra misaaved@syr.edu 315-7083663

PROFESSIONAL WORK Renderings realized for Mathias Klotz & Asociados.. Media Used: SketchUP, V-Ray, Photoshop.

Maria Ines Saavedra misaaved@syr.edu 315-7083663

ted. This network supports recreational, educational and cultural activities and becomes the organizer of e of neighborhoods growing along the riverfront. Combining Architecture and Landscape Urbanism has eveloping new methods that allow visual and physical connections to the water while protecting the city By re-thinking flooding infrastructures as multi-functional systems that encourage the inhabitation of e, people will be able to re-connect with the environment and learn from it.

AND 2050 THE ROJECTED TO ILLION, AND LL OCCUR IIN ELOPED COUN-

PROTECTIVE

DEMAND FOR BASIC

ZONE

SERVICES

WATER INFRASTRU-

NEED FOR

TURE

WATER

FLOODING

RIVER

WATER RUNOFF

ACADEMIC THESIS CITY AS A BALOON

THIS MEANS THAT CITIES ARE GOING TO GROW MORE

RE-THINKING THE GREEN BELT: SUSTAINABILITY AND DEVELOPMENT IN GROWING CITIES how do cities grow?

Internal Pressure (Development)

External Pressure (Green Belt)

Internal Pressure (Development)

External Pressure (Green Belt) gets bigger

what is the impact of the Green Belt on Development?

what is the impact of Development on the Green Belt?

Location: Santa Cruz, Bolivia RIVER +

GREEN BELT

+ CITY

INFRASTRUCTURE

GREEN BELT

RIVER

The river, the Green Belt and the city don’t interact in a physical or spatial manner. Instead, they are presented as different layers of space and material that are located next to each other. How can we integrate them spatially to create a physical experience on the River Edge?

The incorporation of Green Belts as an urban tool has helped stop sprawl and protect farmland around cities. But what happens when the pressure for growth is so big that it surpasses the boundaries of the Green Belt? In Santa Cruz, PATTERNS AND LAND ORGANIZATION Bolivia, development pressures have resulted in expansion of the city beyond the Green Zone, with a second city center developing on the city’s hinterlands. New transit lanes that connect both sides of the city have become the gates for illegal settlements, which have caused major deforestation and land degradation, challenging the Green Zone’s original function: to protect the city from flooding. This project explores how the inhabitation of flooding infrastructures can help reconnect the city with the waterfront by creating a series of public nodes that program the city’s largest green zone. Studying the intersections between engineering and architecture has been a great tool in order to understand current flooding infrastructures and be able to re-design them. Also, combining Architecture and Landscape Urbanism has been key in developing new methods that allow visual and physical connections to the water while protecting the city from flooding. By re-thinking flooding infrastructures as multi-functional systems that encourage the inhabitation of the water edge, people will be able to re-connect with the environment and learn from it. Series of Pattern Studies that explore the interaction between: water

infrastructure

programmed green spaces

natural green spaces

Pattern 1 The pattern continues the current proportions of the blocks in the urban fabric, creating a density towards the river edge. Both architectural infrastructure and programmed green spaces are altered with natural green spaces and start to frame them. This creates a natural green space zone in the middle that allows the continuous interaction with the natural landscape.

Pattern 2 The pattern inverts the current structure of the city and uses programmed green spaces as the blocks. Infrastructure continues the streets’ proportions and direction. The infrastructure is seen as series of inhabitable walls that interact directly with the programmed green spaces, creating a promenade towards the river while serving as

Pattern 3 The pattern continues the density of the city into the flood plane and uses the second flood barrier (dike) as a public urban space. Instead of breaking the access to the green zone, the dike becomes the entry point, which welcomes people to a series of programmed and unprogrammed green spaces that create a promenade to the river edge.

Pattern 4 This pattern also continues the current proportions of the blocks in the urban fabric, creating a density towards the river edge. Both architectural infrastructure and programmed green spaces are altered in order to create density towars the River edge. Programmed green is puhed to the middle zone in ordet o allow a continuours promenade to the water.

Pattern 5 The pattern inverts the current structure of the city and uses programmed green spaces as the blocks. Infrastructure frames the programmed green spaces and creates series of

Pattern 6 The pattern continues the current proportions of the blocks in the urban fabric, creating a linear axis towards the river edge.

Green Belt 1. Current Condition: Dike divides the Green Belt and the city. It blocks the access to the river edge. Green Areas

River Deforestation Future extension of roads into the hinterlands 2. The Re-interpretation of the dike as a void would activate the Green Belt’s edge to the city and would allow the inhabitation of it. Proposed public nodes

Flooding infrastructures Olimpic Villa and Soccer Club Commercial Avenue Cultural/ Main Square 3. The Surface of the dike is treated as a public staircase that allow the access to the Green Belt and act as an outdoor theater that overlooks the city and the river.

Main Educational Facilities Site

Maria Ines Saavedra misaaved@syr.edu 315-7083663 4. Introduction of stairs on the river edge allow direct contact with the water

Maria Ines Saavedra misaaved@syr.edu 315-7083663

Expansion of Educational Facilities

The Site chosen is where the next bridge that connects the city center and the new developments on the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hinterlands will be built. This project proposes to expand the educational axis into the site and use it as an opportunity to inhabit the Green Belt and re-establish the dialogue between the city and the river. The program proposed is an Arts and Crafts Center. The Educational program not only relates to the existing surroundings but also refers to the seasonal changes and the differences in water levels. During the dry season (fall, spring and winter) the project will function as an arts and crafts institute and during the flood season (summer) the educational facilities will remain unoccupied and will welcome the flood, allowing people to occupy only the permanent program (library, auditorium and permanent exhibition spaces) . After the flood is gone, the remaining earth and clay will be cleaned out of interiors spaces and used as materials for pottery.

Maria Ines Saavedra misaaved@syr.edu 315-7083663

1. Private University

2. Public University

3. Municipal Library

Re-connect the City with the River

- 4.70

+1.30

- 2.70

0.00

+3.00

0.00

Current Condition doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t allow the access to the River Edge

150

350

(Changes)

tion

Proposed condition uses the flooding infrastructure as a catalyst between the city and the river Maria Ines Saavedra misaaved@syr.edu 315-7083663

+3.00

8 30

Site Plan

Maria Ines Saavedra misaaved@syr.edu 315-7083663

Flooding infrastructureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s module during dry season

Maria Ines Saavedra misaaved@syr.edu 315-7083663

Flooding infrastructureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s module during flood

Maria Ines Saavedra misaaved@syr.edu 315-7083663

Exhibition spaces during the dry season

Maria Ines Saavedra misaaved@syr.edu 315-7083663

Exhibition spaces during flood

Maria Ines Saavedra misaaved@syr.edu 315-7083663

For more information contact:

Maria I. Saavedra

319, Euclid Ave. Apt 2E Syracuse, NY 13210 (315)-708-3663 misaaved@syr.edu