140719 portfolio omar quesada

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portfolio

Omar Quesada Arias

Omar Quesada Arias

portfolio

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portfolio

Omar Quesada Arias


Omar Quesada Arias BArch. Universidad de Costa Rica MSc. candidate Emergent Technologies and Design, Architectural Association School of Architecture Chevening Scholar 2013-2014

Personal Data Passport: 112360688 Birth Date: March 26th, 1985 Birth Place: San JosĂŠ, Costa Rica Nationality: Costarican Marital Status: Single Permanent Address: London, UK Main Phone: +44 (0) 74 63 80 88 50 E-mail: omar.quesada.arias@gmail.com Languages: Spanish and English


Background

Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR)

Design Workshop Professor Undergraduate Diploma (3rd and 4th year units), School of Architecture, Universidad de Costa Rica Gensler, 2010-2013 Registered Architect: Costa Rica CFIA since 2010

-2010-2011, Design Workshop Professor, III year degree -2012-2013, Design Workshop Professor, III and IV years degree

Lectures - Speaking Engagement

Selected Experience

• •

Gensler

-General Motors Facility Image, USA. Multiple locations Job Captain. -School of Business, University of Houston, USA. 5.570 m2 Job Captain -Robin Hood Foundation, KIPP High School, NY, USA. 121.000 sf Job Captain -Universidad Veritas - Visioning Session Coordinator y Facilitator -Gensler Education Practice Area Round Tables Coordinator y Facilitator -Peer Review: Fundación Ciudadelas de la Libertad Reviewer Architect -Columbia University Medical Center, NY, USA . 100.000 sf Liason and Job Captain -ULACIT, Master Plan. San José, Costa Rica 70.000 m2 Project Manager -Magen David Academy, Panama. 15.000 m2 Programming

Freelance

-Eliz Plaza, Locales Comerciales, Alajuela, Costa Rica Project Director -Casa CT, Alajuela, Costa Rica. Design Director -Residential Master Plan and Design, Alajuela, Costa Rica Project Director -Guacamayos House, Typologies Housing Design Design Director -Herrera House, Poas, Alajuela, Costa Rica Design Director

Digital Skills • • •

120.000 m2 300 m2 350 m2

Adobe: Illustrator, Indesign and Photoshop 3d Modeling: Rhino, Grasshopper, Revit, Vectorworks Architectural Drawings: AutoCad, Revit, Graphic Design and free hand abilities Microsoft Office: Excel, Word, Powerpoint

References

500 m2 350 m2

¨Disjunctive Spaces to Unlearn¨ TEDx Ed Pura Vida. 2012 ¨Towards a new spatial conception for Teaching and Learning in the XXI Century¨ IVth International Congress of Complexity, Transdisciplinarity and Ecoformation. San José, Costa Rica. 2010 ¨Learning Spaces for the XXI Century¨ Universidad Veritas, Costa Rica. 2011 ¨Spaces for the Complex Learning¨ Universidad de Costa Rica. 2011

Samuel Bermudez Ureña, Principal and Office Director, Gensler samuel_bermudez@gensler.com / Telephone: +506 2505.3700 Eleonora Badilla Saxe, Educator and Director of RIFED and Cátedra U., Universidad de Costa Rica eleonora.badilla@ucr.ac.cr / Telephone: +506 8855.2926

TEDx

Maddy Burke Vigeland, Principal and Community Sector Leader, Gensler maddy_burke@gensler.com / Telephone: +1 212.492.8699 Omar Quesada Arias

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Eliz Plaza

Project type: Retail Size: 500 m2 Location: Alajuela, Costa Rica Role: Project Director Softwares: Revit, Photoshop, Illustrator Status: Under construction Year: 2013

A client saw the chance to provide new architecture to Alajuela, a city which doesn’t have a particular architectonic language or buildings attached to the living experience of the context. This was translated into an opportunity to generate iconic architecture, bringing new values of how it can connect with its context and bring about contrast within its monotonous neighborhood.

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Guacamayos House

Project type: Residential Size: 300 m2 Location: Coyol, Alajuela, Costa Rica Role: Design Director Softwares: Revit, Photoshop, Illustrator Status: Under construction - 2014 Year: 2013

Located in the outskirts of Alajuela, the Coyol area is a warm and green zone of Costa Rica. The clients were looking for a house able to integrate the public areas with the frontyard and backyard as one unique space. The project is conceptualize by two dynamic shapes containing the private areas in the second floors and integrated by a third volume that becomes an interior bridge connecting all the areas.

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CT House

Project type: Residential Size: 320 m2 Location: Alajuela, Costa Rica Role: Project Director Softwares: Revit, Photoshop, Illustrator Status: Under construction Year: 2013

In the northwest perimeter of Alajuela city, the clients requested a house which could unveil their personalities and life perspective with a unique architectonic language. Immersed in a residential complex, the house uses overhanging geometries in specific areas in which tenants feel as if floating in the air and challenging gravity.

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320 square meters of program needed to fit into a 360 square meter site. The clients also wanted to have as many green areas as possible, thus presenting the challenge of placing the program in such a way that every piece could be fitted following national building codes. The answer was to put together the programmatic needs in one layer, differentiating public areas from the private ones. The layer was unfolded into two compacted levels, and the rest of the site’s foot print dedicated to green open spaces. This programmatic layer generates the structure which embraces an overhanging capsule that intercepts the glazing. The capsule will have the flexibility of accommodating private areas, such as the bedroom, library and music room; and then unfold again to locate the vertical circulation of the

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SolĂŠ Residential Complex

Project type: Mixed Use Size: 120000 m2 Location: Alajuela, Costa Rica Role: Project Director Softwares: Revit, Photoshop, Illustrator Status: Design Development Year: 2013

Due to the increasingly demanding housing market, an empty land formerly used for crops next to the main prison of Costa Rica is now expected to become a residential complex. 120000 square meters needs to be fitted and offer not just the appropiate place to live but also a strong marketing concept that deconstructs how people feel about living next to a prison.

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The design of the complex has to deal with almost all the perimeter borders because of the prison or its future developments. After a marketing analysis, we found that with our project and other upcoming residential projects in the area, the community would lack basic services in less than 5 years. For that reason, the concept will target 3 consolidated blocks. Block number one is dedicated to retail and will be transitioning from the projects’ public zones to the private ones. Block 2 represents 60% of the gross area and it is devoted to different housing typologies. Finally, Block 3 is going to serve as the articulator with the prison borders, opening spaces with landscape features, sports and community facilities.

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KIPP NYC College Prep High School

Project type: Education Size: 121.000 sf Location: Bronx, NY Role: Job Captain Softwares: Revit Year: 2011 The Robin Hood Foundation finds, funds, and partners with programs across New York City to help improve impoverished communities. The Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) is a national free, open-enrollment, college-preparatory network of public schools with a track record of preparing students from undeserved communities for success in college and life. For this project, Robin Hood formed a partnership with KIPP, and commissioned Gensler for the design of the KIPP NYC College Prep High School in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx. I was invited to participate with the New York team and becoming my first experience in a real educational project.

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One of the greatest challenges for this project was the site selection. The west edge of the site is bounded by Park Avenue, a road which runs parallel to the Metro North railroad tracks. Due to the vitality of Park Avenue and the noise of the railroad, the team designed an acoustically treated façade to block sound. Acoustic consideration is also implemented in separations between learning spaces and the corridors and stairwells. The project is a five-story plus basement level high school serving approximately 1,000 students and related faculty, administration, and staff. The state-of-the-art building will include classrooms, offices, gymnasiums, and a 900-seat “cafetorium” (a multiprogrammatic shared cafeteria and auditorium) with a kitchen. The building will also include science labs, an art studio, a dance studio, tech lab, a library, and other specialty instructional spaces. The classrooms on the four upper floors are arranged efficiently in a double loaded corridor to provide good visibility for teachers and administrators— as well as achieving natural daylight in all instructional spaces. At the end of each corridor, furnished areas will be provided to serve as impromptu meeting spaces for students and faculty fostering the informal learning .


CAFETORIUM TABLE GRAPHICS

GYMNASIUM

MAIN LOBBY

KIPP BRONX NYC ROBIN HOOD FOUNDATION

KIPP BRONX NYC ROBIN HOOD FOUNDATION

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Columbia Medical Center (CUMC)

Project type: Education Size: 100.000 sf Location: Manhattan, NY Role: Job Captain Softwares: Revit Year: 2012

The new Medical and Graduate Education building will serve as a learning hub that will inspire and change the lives of Columbia University’s Medical and Graduate students, carrying out the school’s core mission of educating and training future generations of health care professionals. The building contains a full program of functional and flexible formal spaces, including a lecture hall, as well as the critical technical spaces needed for medical education like anatomy labs and simulation centers which have their specific needs.

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The client (Columbia University) is ranked first (tied with MIT, Stanford University and Penn) in the first tier of the United States’ top research universities by the Center for Measuring University Performance. By establishing this new center on their 20-acre Upper Manhattan Medical Center Campus, Columbia hopes to align their facilities to the superior level of worldclass leadership in scientific research, health and medical education, and patient care that they are known for providing. Gensler as the Executive Architect firm collaborated with Diller Scofidio + Renfro utilizing BIM modeling and other programs to solve design challenges. I had the opportunity of being part of the Gensler team as a job captain having constantly tasks for the documentation and great collaborative experience with a big team. One of the challenges of the project, was the need to incorporate this complex program into a relatively small footprint of 12,500 square feet. After continuos sessions with students, faculty, and administrators, as well as the executive committee, it was decided that students going through this highly competitive and stressful curriculum also need relaxing and informal gathering spaces to unwind. The solution the team realized inverts the traditional horizontal campus concept to a vertical campus layout that allows for informal spaces and creates an interconnected, open plan. The concept was to create a ¨cascading glass facade¨ with the availability to act as a campus, equipped with informal spaces and serving as an icon neighborhood beacon. The final design weaves social areas throughoutthe building to take full advantage of the views of the Hudson River and the integrated landscaping throughout.


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Universidad Latinoamericana de Ciencia y Tecnología (ULACIT)

Project type: Education Size: 70.000 m2 Location: San José, Costa Rica Role: Project Manager Softwares: Revit, Sketch, Rio Status: Design Development Year: 2013

Redefining the educational program of one of the leading universities in Central America will not only extend more services to the Costa Rican community but it will also attract and retain an increasing amount of international presence. To achieve this goal, Gensler was contracted for taking advantage of the client’s strategic central location in the city of San José to make the campus more visible to the public and open opportunity to create an impact of reference of how educational facilities for the new century could it be.

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Since I came to Gensler I had the goal of develope the Education Practice Area in our Costa Rica office. This project meant, the first big won and the opportunity to make a tangible impact in my country. We got together a strong team of specialists within Gensler’s Education + Culture practice area and worked with the client to design new buildings and redesign existing areas. Part of the master plan includes programs such as Architecture, Art & Design, Health, Social Sciences, and Engineering. The purpose of the new buildings is to create a strong connection with the community by using a permeable design that will permit constant interaction between the campus and the outside world. Additionally, connecting the buildings with pedestrian bridges over some of San José’s main roads will showcase the campus to the Costa Rican community. The project is a whole new conceptual design for educational facilities. Additionally, the project is on track to become the first LEED certified campus in Costa Rica, and is currently in the Programming phase.

ACIT

San José, Costa Rica | Julio, 2012 | 46

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San José, Costa Rica | September, 2012 |

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ULACIT San José, Costa Rica | September, 2012 |

San José, Costa Rica | September, 2012 |

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San Carlos Cultural Plaza Project type: Cultural Size: 20527 m2 Location: San Carlos, Alajuela, Costa Rica Role: Architecture and design Softwares: Rhino, 3d max, Photoshop San Carlos is a city rich in natural beauty and vegetation. Its fresh air and beautiful mountains make it a great escape from the hustle and bustle of the capital, San Jose. Precisely beacuse of the beauty of its natural environment, San Carlos receives a large number of tourists. However, in terms of infrastructure, the city doesn´t have much appeal either for the tourist or its community. This is why the project seeks an urban intervention in the existing Central Park, generating a program in which the community will be able to broadcast their cultural expressions to the world.

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CAFETERIA EXHIBITION

EXHIBITION

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CAFETERIA

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BNCR

PLAZA DE LA CULTURA

CORTE A-A

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n.p.t +2,5 Ingreso1 n.p.t -0,1

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PATIO DE LAS ESCULTURAS

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PA RAM ja ba Cinta Mesh n.p.t +2,3 Banda 1 n.p.t +5,5

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RAMPA Cinta 1 Cinta 1 n.p.t +3,1 n.p.t +3,1

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CAFETERIA

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The project is inspired by the irregular topography of mountainous San Carlos. It is composed of an interactive moebius band that starts to bifurcate and unfold into two main overlapping layers. The first layer is underground, which fosters diverse exhibition galleries that promote San Carlos’ art and local customs. The second layer represents the green roof which is also the floor, where its curves stimulate the use of open spaces, potentially generating urban events.

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Omar Quesada Arias A44121 TALLER ARKHTEK Proyecto: Parque Ciudad Quesada Corte Longitudinal esc. 1:200

L6/10

Ver detalle P1 en lamina #8

Omar Quesada Arias A44121 TALLER ARKHTEK Proyecto: Parque Ciudad Quesada Corte Transversal esc. 1:200

Ver detalle C1 en lamina #9

Ver detalle C2 en lamina #9

Corte B-B

TEDx Ver detalle C3 en lamina #9

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Research Media Lab UCR Project type: Education + Culture Size: 2500 m2 Location: Rodrigo Facio Campus Role: Architecture and design Softwares: Vectorworks, Artlantis, Photoshop As part of a strategic plan to link the three campuses of the University of Costa Rica and the sites for future development, this project responds to the necessity of investing in technology and new opportunities to increase the quality of education and information facilities for the students. The location of the new building, which was used as parking space, will act as a knowledge-lobby between the buildings of the Schools of Biology, Microbiology and the Insect Museum, also linking the Agronomy School with the rest of the campus.

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Unidad de Evaluación

Unidad de Seguimiento Proinnova

Secretaría Vicerrector

Sala Reuniones Consejo del SEP

Vicerrector Unidad de Asuntos Estudiantiles

Unidad de Evaluación

Sala Reuniones Consejo del SEP

Vacío

Secretaría Decano

Decano

Unidad Asesoría Legal

Archivo Pasivo

N

Bodega de Materiales

A-A

A-A

This project seeks to become one of the different points of a network spread throughout campus that will connect faculties, students, professors and administratives for the emergence of transdisciplinary events. The main lobby of the Media Lab crosses all the programmatic uses of the building, integrating different types of informal spaces with high-quality techonolgy. Having said that, these spaces can foster collaborative learning as well as individual spots which give students a high range of opportunities for different types of learners. One of the needs be met was the creation a tiered classroom for executive classes and the library of the Biology Faculty. Cold materials, such as the steel with aggresive geometries, were picked for the look and feel of the project, which contrast with the modernist style of the surrounding faculty buildings of this specific area of the campus.

Unidad de Asuntos Administrativos y Financieros

Sala Reuniones Consejo del SEP

TEDx

N

Secretaría Decano

Decano

Unidad Asesoría Legal

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Faculty of Education, Universidad de Costa Rica Project type: Education Size: 12000 m2 Location: Rodrigo Facio Campus Role: Architecture and design Softwares: Vectorworks, 3d max, Photoshop The University of Costa Rica (UCR) is the main university of the country and one of the most recognized in Latin America. Its main campus, Ciudad Universitaria Rodrigo Facio, is located in Montes de Oca, around 3 km from the center of the capital city. It covers an area of around 31.5 ha, which includes the buildings of the different faculties and schools. The current location of the Faculty of Education, one of the oldest buildings on campus, is in need of improvement and gathering their faculty in one single space. Having carried out thorough research of new trends in pedagogy and education dynamics, I have proposed a theoretical work of design patterns for educational spaces that can be applied to the new Faculty of Education and integrated to the existing conditions.

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NO WALLS 58

FORMAL

ANYTIME...

INFORMAL LEARNING

360 FRONT

ANYWHERE


The theoretical principles obtained through research propose a dialogical system of complex patterns which seek the reactivation of the existing building of the Faculty of Education through its integration with the new building, both of which would be conceived as a whole. The articulation between them would be given by one of the new volumes through a skylight that marks the transition from one place to another. The new building will give users the feeling of floating above the upper level of the existing infraestructure. The site design is consistent with what happens inside the building, giving way to educational events under the concept of continuous “learningteaching-learning� patterns.

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corte B-B

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Bodega Insumos

Bodega Archivos Estudiantiles

Bodega Multimedia

Bodega Multimedia

Of icina Director de Posgrado Of icina Director de Primaria

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Of icina Director Educación Inicial

Jefatura Administrativa

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Sala de Profesores

Sala de Reuniones Cuarto Servidores

Cocineta Administrativa

Bodega Equipos Desuso

Cafetería

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Auditorio

Cuarto Conserjes

Colección Privada

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InfoRed

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vestíbulo n.p.t +0,0

Decanato

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Upon entering the building there is a height and a total reading of what happens at this first level. Here, the user will experience a new concept of “library”; which integrates contradictory activities, such as a cafeteria, making the library a place to have coffee and talk (Info-Network Café). On the other hand the new concept of “classroom without walls” will provide environments suitable for chatting, designed with soft furniture and movable walls or “whiteboard” surfaces that can be digital screens surrounding the old but renovated auditorium (classrooms without walls). The whole building is connected by a ramp core guaranteeing inclusive accesibility, which would also work as a gallery, providing places for exhibitions and social gatherings. These ramps are used as the connection with other levels, where the new heavy volume “floats”. The new concept of formal “classroom” for teaching and learning is characterized by supplying places with more than one whiteboard (Front 360), which can accommodate various educational simultaneously (Common Factor) and merge with informal spaces. This comes in useful when groups of students are too crowded or when the space is not being used for a class (self-organizational). As part of the reactivation plan, the old concrete terrace-roof of the 1957 building now becomes important for outdoor events, maximizing the total use of space conducive to knowledge emergence

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4

Speaking Engagement


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“Disjunctive spaces to Unlearn”


Disjunctive spaces to Unlearn

Extract from my graduation project: ¨Towards a new Spatial Conception for Teaching and Learning in the XXI century¨, Universidad de Costa Rica, 2010 Event: Tedx Ed Pura vida Year: 2012 What’s next? is a question that many young architects ask themselves after graduating college. When I finished my studies at UCR (University of Costa Rica), I wanted to continue the work I started with my senior thesis project based in how the Complex Thinking Paradigm1 (a sistematic way to understand and interpret world’s behavior) affects pedagogy or education in general and how these implications are translated into physical space. But I was afraid my thesis project would end up, as many others, dying slowly in dusty/underutilized libraries. Today one of my professional goals is to create something tangible from my theorical thesis.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-Tfmm1yDE0

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In November of 2010 I began to work at Gensler. Quickly I became part of a larger network in the company who shared my passion of improving spaces for education. Together we conform the Education Practice Area and we’re constantly seeking concepts that deconstruct the way we design traditionally educational spaces. What current educational spaces lack is evolution. We are stuck in the past. We can’t compare our work with other similar analogue disciplines like medicine because those spaces have always been evolving and technology has been integrated into spatial design. Educational spaces shouldn’t be outcast from a changing world full of new learners and emergent technologies. They should inspire and motivate students to increase their learning. From the start of our academic careers until the end of college, we are taught by a Newtonian- mechanic way of thinking in which information comes from a single source: the teacher. The structure of knowledge we acquire is usually fragmented by disciplines. Thanks to emergent technologies and new scientific findings, the way we learn is now changing. New generations prize collaboration in non-linear ways with other people and quickly adapt to their different lifestyles. This newly evolved “species” is always zapping2 from one information channel to another. As a result, we urgently crave for informal spaces that remind us our living rooms at home. However, educational institutions do not have these type of spaces today, so when young students arrive to educational campus they feel separated from their lifestyle driven spaces where they work most of the time via digital multiple resources. We now know that most knowledge is acquired outside of the classroom. To foster more in-classroom learning, we need to re- conceptualize formal spaces and informal spaces. They must embrace new pedagogical methodologies. Informal spaces could be seen as the new classrooms without walls3 where we can foster the emergence of knowledge in collaboration with others. Here, teachers can provide students with specific guidance depending of the student’s multiple intelligence4. Formal learning can occur in the informal spaces, meaning that we must break away from designing for just one linear function and start to think about multi-programmatic spaces that celebrate the emergence of all educational events.

Let’s start creating learning spaces where we unlearn the traditional way we used to be educated with emergent thoughts of interaction inside/outside of the “classrooms” and a better sense for evolving human behavior. These new formal/informal spaces will not educate the student, they will facilitate the interaction between students and teachers depending on the new pedagogies which foster horizontal schemes that allow learning through multiple sources of information.

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COMPOST WASTE WATER

WATER FISH FOOD ELECTRICITY FERTILISER EMBODIED ENERGY

OUT

IN

ARCHITECTURE FACILITATES AGRICULTURE

INFRASTRUCTURE INTEGRATION

SUPPLY & DEMAND

FOOD COMMERCE


Farm City:

¨Creating Efficient Urban Systems through Integrated Food Production¨, Architectural Association School of Architecture Year: 2014 - IN PROGRESS

Exponential population growth, coupled with rural-to-urban migration patterns means that the methods that we use to grow and distribute food will have to change in the very near future. Urban agriculture has the potential to alleviate, or even remove this stress on traditional or industrial agricultural practice, particularly when the opportunity to create a vastly superior quality of urban life, and the urgent need to reduce carbon emissions is taken into account. An increased investment in urban and peri-urban agriculture will create significant social and political challenges to the built environment that can only be overcome by a new urban and architectural approach. The project will address building on and retrofitting existing urban fabric to create effective food distribution networks, closed urban ecological systems, and positive productive urban spaces. A computational design language (à la ‘Pattern Language’) will be developed that will facilitate the creation of a new urban system. It will define and affect the interactions between many urban technological sub-systems, including built infrastructure, social distribution, transport and ecological networks. Interactions will be studied locally and globally in order to inform the creation of new, or modification of existing networks and built morphologies.

TEDx

Omar Quesada Arias

portfolio

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TEDx


Omar Quesada Arias portfolio



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