Pedro Albizu-Campos Espiñeira th
550 NW 114 Avenue. Apt. 203, Miami, Florida, 33 172 Phone: (786) 294 – 7250 Architectural Designer / Architectural Drafter
Email: pedroalbizu61@gmail.com
Professional Experience USA. 2010-2013 SGGE. Architecture LLC. Architecture & Planning. - Adaptive Reuse / Remodeling: New Chapel. Broward / Single House. South Miami Heights. FFPP. Plans & Permits. General Contractor. - Multifunctionality / Sustainability: Tower “NM65” North Miami / Reversible Housing. Hialeah. - Urbanism / New Developments: New Dwelling Condo. Miramar. Architect Nicolas Quintana. (D. May / 2011) FIU. - Urbanism: Voluntary Collaboration in the Research & Project “Havana and their Landscapes”. FIU. ADIGO Engineers. Fire System Contractors. - Engineering: Project for New Dwelling Condo. Homestead. Cuba. 1996-2010 University of Havana. School of Architecture. Ministry of Higher Education. - Urbanism / New Developments: Regla’s Urban Rehab. Habana / New Lawton’s Residential. Havana. - Commercial / Multifunctionality: Comodoro’s Shopping Center. Miramar / Tower “Alaska”. Vedado. EPROB Company. Group to Development of Tourist Infrastructure. Ministry of Construction. - Hospitality / Residential: Cubanacan Hotel. Varadero / Cubalse’s Luxury Houses. Miramar. CNCRM. National Center of Conservation, Restoration and Museology. Ministry of Culture. - Restoration: Building of the ancient Convent of San Francisco De Asis. Old Havana. - Adaptive Reuse / Remodeling: Building “La Corona”. Old Havana / Fashion Design Center. Vedado.
Professional Skills Architectural Designer / Architectural Drafter: - High level of training to get and interpret conceptual solutions in different scales of work, according to specific conditions of physical contexts and project characteristics. - High level of training to get and apply technical solutions according to functional specifications. - High level of training in the use of software programs for graphical representations both in 2D, using Auto CAD, as well in 3D, using Google Sketch-up. - Proficiency to the elaboration of scale models and graphical presentations. - Proficiency in the use of software packages as Microsoft Word, Power Point, Excel and Outlook.
Summary of Qualifications Academic Certificate of Bachelor Degree in Architecture. GPA: 3, 573. Issued under academic homologation process completed on May / 3 / 2010; by the International Education Consultants for the State of Florida. Represented at the City of Miami by the Law Firm Joseph Silny & Associates Inc. Title of Architect. Awarded at the Higher Polytechnic Institute “Jose Antonio Echeverria”. Faculty of Architecture. Class of 1996.
Introduction to projects portfolio: The works chosen to be part of this portfolio are a sample of the searches, conceptual proposals and projects undertaken by Mr. Pedro Albizu-Campos Espi単eira in his work both in Cuba, as in USA. The projects which conform this portfolio had been selected to show not only the diversity of treated design scales and the functional programs developed, but also a work philosophy oriented to the achieve the correspondence and the balance between all the factors involved in each problem to solve, through an introspective focus, beyond any formal influence or aesthetic trend. The selection consists of six projects classified according those topics treated and the specific places for which they were made. The sample has been organized in the order described below:
1- Urban rehabilitation: Axis 23. The renewal of an urban paradigm. Havana. Cuba. 2- Rebuilding and adaptive reuse: La Corona. A future in the past. Havana. Cuba. 3- New insertion: Metastructure. City and architecture. Havana. Cuba. 4- Green architecture: Shamal. A didactic walk on the sky. Dubai. UAE. 5- Dwelling and sustainability: Transferrable habitats. An operational autonomy. Miami. USA. 6- Multifunctionality: NM65. A functional study for an urban landmark. Miami. USA.
The works listed as numbers 1, 2 and 3 were made in Cuba, while working as professor in the School of Architecture of Havana, as resulting from different requests made by the office of the Group to the Research and Urban Development of the City of Havana. The work that is listed as number 4 was result of an architectural contest summoned by the authorities of the City of Dubai and the Thyssen Group, as part of new development plans for this urban context. The projects that are listed as numbers 5 and 6 are result of works made by contract for FFPP. General Contractors, a company of the City of Miami. Each project has a brief explanation to help understanding the specific conditions under which it was conceived, the conceptual approach followed and the results achieved in its final proposal.
Project : “Axis 23. The renewal of an urban paradigm�
Project Objective: The urban reanimation and expantion of one of most important public areas of Havana City. Intervention area: 0.56 Sq mile = 1.45 Sq Km / 145 ha = 358 Acres. Conceptual approach: The restructuration of the urban environmental qualities, starting from those physical potentials identified through the following principal features: a- Its possible extension and the contrasting characteristics of their boundaries. b- The high quality present in most of its physical preexistences. c- The high quantity of point of interest both at perceptual level as at economic level. d- Its high potential of growth through many points of physical empties. Proposal results: a- An increase of its extension in three miles through a lineal link of two urban poles, at the axis of 23th Avenue, that is obtained by setting emphasis into the own poles, in those intermediate nodes of vehicular network that connects the two, and by setting new sequential transitions between them.
b- The obtaining of new indexes of intensity in the soil use through the improvement and extension of the functional variants in the urban context. c- The modeling of a new urban landscape through the introduction of new architectural objects both in strategic points of perceptual interest as in strategic points of economic potential.
Punctual Examples:
Strategic point: Corner of 23th Ave and M St. High interest both to the urban landscape as by its economic potential. Element 660.0 ft high. Multifunctional set.
Transitional point: Corner of 23th Ave and B St. Secondary role both to the urban landscape as by the economic potential. Element 450 ft high. Monofunctional set.
Overall view of a interior environment in apartments of the new real state development.
PROJECT : “La Corona. A future in the past”
Project Objetive: The reconstruction and adaptive reuse of a building of high heritage value, set in an urban area that is identified as one of the higher environmental quality at Old Havana. Construction Surface: 105 624 Sq ft. Conceptual Approach: The establishment of a physical permanence through its adaptation capability to new use conditions. A focus supported in the following intervention strategies: a- Achieve an heritage rescue through a functional and physical recycling reached in a balance between new and preexisting elements. b- Adapt a new functional program according the spatial qualities inherited by the object but letting a highest flexibility to easier allow a future functional recycled. c- Reach a better fit between the building’s expressive characteristics and the expressive categories of the architectural elements in its immediate context. Proposal results: a- The convertion of its functional first character as cigar factory in a new one, as public building destined to offices to rent, providing the enlargement of its physical permanence through a new functional usefulness. b- The combination of new physical elements with those originals that were possible to tap, getting by this a maximum flexibility to future functional adequations. c- The obtention of a new expressive category starting from its original design, through the using its own elements of emphasis at those façade sectors that were chosen to get the original composition.
Functional schemes of new program:
PROJECT : “Metastructure. City & Architecture�
Project Objective: The punctual insertion of a new element within a context of high heritage value identified by its urban quality and singularized by the presence of several architectural landmarks located in their urban edges. Construction surface: 308 790 Sq ft. Conceptual approach: Set a flash of contemporarity by the renounce to all form of expresive mimesis and by a total use of current technological possibilities. The focus will be achieved through: a- A perceptual design contextualized in the balance between those heritage values and most advanced architectural trends. b- An element that will define its character of permanence by its own capability to evolve through functional programs studied and chosen according those particular features identified in the urban context, and their probable evolution. c- A design to set the highest level of operational self-sufficiency and get the lowest operational level on existing urban networks from more than hundred years ago. Proposal results: a- A volumetric composition, as well as an aesthetical expression, not only derived from the perceptual rhythmic implicit in the architectural preexistences and their volumetric proportions, but also by the own environmental condition of the place and the functional requirements of chosen programs.
b- An element with the capability to be functionally recycled as many times as necessary without any constructive high impact operation, reaching the highest potencial adaptation to the functional possible evolutions of its inmediate context. c- A technological package common to all operational requirements of all architectural programs chosen.
Developed Programs:
Hospitality
Offices
Commercial
Multicinema
Museum
General details of technological support
Overall view of the perimetral double frame and the sets of solar pannels.
Detail of façade’s main sector.
Detail of composition at corners.
PROJECT : “Shamal. A didactic walk on the sky�
Project Objective: The insertion of an iconic element at the Zaabel Park, a leisure and didactic area entirely dedicated to the ecological themes and clean technologies, as part of new development plans to the city of Dubai. Construction surface: 239 945 Sq ft. Conceptual approach: The emphasis of the urban thematic established for these public spaces through a landmark that will be conceived following these strategies of design: a- Get an archaeological milestone as result of the application of last technological advances into the field of ecological sustainability. b- Get a functional and expressive element determined by its efficiency and operational effectiveness, blurring the boundaries between architecture and engineering. c- Get an element which can be perceived as a dynamic museum by showing its technological logistic and their operational work in real time. Proposal results: a- A shape design which derives both from a full harnessing of place's environmental conditions, as well as from a full use of functional specifications of those equipment chosen, to get the highest level of operational effectiveness.
b- A dynamic architecture based in a spatial structuration that allows the total perception of each of the technological equipment’s work as well as most of the operational maneuvers at real time. Design proposal:
PROJECT: “Transferrable Habitats. An Operational Autonomy�
Project Objective: The design of a small house using recycled industrial elements to reach the highest operational autonomy through an investment level defined by the exact balance between the costs of its functional envelopment and its technological infrastructure. Construction surface: 640 Sq ft. Conceptual approach: The obtention of the most high flexibility's level in building operations,the highest level of functional autonomy and the highest level of adaptation to environmental conditions. This basic focus will be outlined through the following strategies: a- Through a structural design that is conforming by removable elements and cores stiffening armed in the place. b- Through a technological design conceived to reach the lowest dependency level regarding the logistic provided by the urban infrastructure. c- Through a staggered design of the operational variants to provide a wide range of investment options in a flexible and gradual increment of the functional autonomy. Proposal results: a- A volumetry which is derived from the combination of two freight containers and recycled tubular elements, that will joined using semi-articulated nodes with removable fasteners, allowing a structural assembly totally reversible. b- A technological logistic designed to be gradually supplemented which, starting from standart designs, will improved by steps until get an operational autonomy which is expressed in a dependency of less than a 15% respect those services usually provided by the urban infrastructure.
Proposal schemes:
PROJECT: “NM65. A Functional Study for an Urban Landmark"
Project Objective: The study to the emplacement of a high-rise building in a North Miami area, starting from an investment feasibility study, supported on the research and the analysis about possible functional programs and their combining options. Construction surface: 954 857 Sq ft. Conceptual approach: The obtention of the widest range of functional options for this tipology in that specific location and getting the highest effectiveness level in its adaptability to the urban context, both functionally as economically, through these basic strategies of design: a- By developing a multifunctional scheme as main strategy to get a widest range of possible adaptations regarding the existing urban potentialities. b- By developing spatial combinations flexible enough to allow different functional proportions inside the architectural container through of surface recyclings. Proposal results: a- The obtention of eight basic functional plans starting from three proposed programs which are: Office, Hotel and Dwelling. b- The obtention of an structural design that allows a wide range of sequencial compositions, expressed in more than fifty spatial variations, allowing not only a wide range of design’s posibilities to functional strategies, but also for possible volumetrical compositions.
General schemes: