Ramon G. Pena Toledo Graduate Portfolio by Ramón G Peña Toledo

RAMON G. PENA TOLEDO Architecture Portfolio

Live Work environment for emergent industries in Korea.

Art Museum for the Helsinkii competition 2014. Group Effort

High-Rise office in manhattan for environmental agencies.

Micro Housing. Sharing resources as a way to create value.

Higher Education Campus that incorporates a publilc park.

LIFE/LAB

ART HEIM

RESP PRESSURES

THE LUX OF MICRO

EDUCATION SPECTACLE

P R O J E C TS

Revitalizing Urban plan for New Orleans. Group Effort

Lessons from Fluid Dynamics in space. Figure/Field

Edge Dynamics in Growth Experiments. Algorithm

Temporary Pavilion for Deutche Bank. Professional Work Parametrics

Applying Learning Algorithms to Architecture. Thesis Project

ULI HINES

CURVED PERCEPTION

EDGE

CAIRO PAVILION

NEGOTIABLE SPACES

G R A D U AT E W O R K 2 016

Ramon G. Pena Toledo ramonpenatoledo@gmail.com (787) 428-7478

EDUCATION

Languages

University of Pennsylvania, School of Design – Master of Architecture / May 2016 UPR Rio Piedras, School of Architecture – Bachelors of Environmental Design / May 2013 Elisava School of Design – Barcelona Summer Studio / 2012 Wesleyan Academy – High School Degree 3.7 / May 2009

English (Native) Spanish (Native)

ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE

SKILLS & SOFTWARE

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, GRADUATE TEACHING ASSISTANT, 2014 - 2015 Responsible for teaching-related duties to assist professor Eduardo Rega Calvo & Lasha Brown in the entry level architectural design studio at PennDesign. Tutored and mentored students, prepared and presented lectures and tutorials, created 3d models and scripts to supplement lectures, and served as a juror during student final review.

Design - Rhinocerous 3D - Grasshopper - Autodesk Revit - Autodesk Maya - AutoCAD - Google Sketchup - Pixologic Zbrush Post Production - Adobe Photoshop - Adobe Illustrator - Adobe InDesign - Adobe After Effects Rendering - Maxwell - Vray - Keyshot Programing - Python 2.7 - Processing - Arduino IDE - HTML

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, GRADUATE TEACHING ASSISTANT, SUMMER 2014 Responsible for performing teaching-related duties to assist instructors Ezio Blasetti and Danielle Willems in intensive computational seminars for entry level M.Arch & PPD students. Assisted students with digital modeling techniques, concept development and drawing techniques, and served as a juror during student final review. COMMUNITY DESIGN STUDIO / VOLUNTEER ARCHITECTURAL SERVICE 2012 Managed a team of four students, participated in the design of multiple projects (Interior Renovation –Green Roof – Temporary Art Exposition), prepared preliminary construction documents, preliminary cost spreadsheets, multiple architectural presentation, and renderings for clients.

USGBC STUDENTS UPR RIO PIEDRAS, PRESIDENT 2011 – 2012 Participated in the LEED 2012 regionalization campaign; in charge and responsible of student organization, activities and conferences and created the LEED Case Studies Program (Research on LEED approved structures in Puerto Rico)

G R A D U AT E W O R K 2 016 AWARDS & PUBLICATIONS Kohn Fellowship – PennDesign, E. Lewis Dales Travel Fellowship – PennDesign, “Pressing Matters Vol. 4” - PennDesign (Publication) Plaza Design Challenge 1st Place – Int. Design

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE EWING COLE, SUMMER INTERN, SUMMER 2015 Worked on healthcare projects as part of the firm’s Schematic Design team. Created Schematic drawings, models, renderings and cost spreadsheets for projects such as the Ronald McDonald House Philadelphia (multi-family residential), the Western Pennsylvania Hospital Competition (healthcare) and the Nemours Hospital Entrance Pavilion. AKTE_01, INTERN PROJECT DESIGNER, 2014 Worked alongside firm principals on the schematic design of an experimental pavilion for the Lobby of the Winchester House, home of the Deutsche Bank in London, England. Designed general massing, schematic detail and performed materiality tests, prepared drawings and renderings for client presentation as well as shop drawings for a physical model. NOVO CONCEPTO (RAFAEL RIVERA MEDINA) / INTERIOR DESIGN SERVICES 2011-2013 Participated in the design of multiple competition projects (PR Designer Home and Plaza Design Challenge, both First Place), designed interior renovation projects (Radiology Medical Offices published in various Int. Design Magazines), created preliminary construction documents, and prepared multiple architectural presentation and renderings for clients.

COLLABORATORS SIMON KIM - Instructor CALEB WHITE - Initial Research RAMON PENA - Conceptual Design, Diagrams, Drawings, Renderings and Physical Model. RIGHT Diagrams of articulated edge.

Academic Studio Project

Life/Lab Urbanism Proposal for entrepreneurial economies in Seoulâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Urban Landscape When visiting the Yeongdeungpo District it is hard to miss the fact that itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s urban landscape behaves in very different ways from that of the modernist western city. This ad hoc form of urbanism makes a very peculiar use of its connection to the street. The architectural design that is to follow will continue this tradition by not only accepting, but exaggerating this condition of the broken and articulated urban edge. By increasing the surface area of that edge we allow this modus operandi to continue to flourish, empowering the small and personal over the big and indifferent. What results then is a hyperarticulated urban experience where your contact with space is both nonlinear and indeterminate.

Physical Model of Live/work community and Public Tower

Studio Project

Seed Unit

Life/Lab Urbanism

Exterior Expansion Unit

Expanded Lab

Linear Deformation Unit

Typical Unit

Studio Project Life/Lab Urbanism

Left Protypical Live/Work unit morphologies.

Right Masterplan of live/work urbanism showing interrelations between articulated edges and public amenities.

Life/Lab Urbanism

Studio Project

Studio Project Life/Lab Urbanism

Left Unit assembly into communal corridor.

Right Back of house in live/work units face a communal service corridor while front engages public area.

C C C

Life/Lab Urbanism

Studio Project

Studio Project Life/Lab Urbanism

Left Physical conceptual models, exterior renderings and final physical model. Right Interior rendering of exhibition tower showing reprogramable spaces for product display.

A.K. Silver Art Oy/Ltd

In-between grids

Public connection between park and market

The creation of a new block type

A seamless hybrid condition

COLLABORATORS EDUARDO REGA - Conceptual Design, Plans and overall massing

market activity

DANIEL MERIDOR - Conceptual Design, Sections and overall massing JOHANNES POINTL - Conceptual Design, and overall massing

tru

ADRIAN SUBAGYO - Renderings and Diagrams

lan

JAY GEUN AHN - Renderings, Landscape and Diagrams Park expansion

RAMON PENA - Facade Design, Renderings and Diagrams RIGHT Diagrams depicting translation of site conditions into massing.

Integration with local art scene Expanding the local art network

Views across the site

Digikuvasto Art Oy

Minimal interference with surroundings Art Pursuing

Helsingin Tuomiokirkko

00130Gallery Helsinki

Professional Competition

Haddadin Antiques

Art House Oy

Art Heim

Art Frida Oy Life Art Oy Design Museum

Sinebrychoff Art Museum Art Fils Production AFP Oy

Manual Arts

Uspenskin

Katedraali Guggenheim Museum for the City of Helsinki

A.K. Silver Art Oy/Ltd

In-between grids

The creation of a new block type

Challenging the idea of the museum as an isolated white box, ART HEIM proposes to maximize the integration of the Guggenheim with the city of Helsinki. It enables a dual exchange: Helsinki as home, or “heim”, for major exhibitions of international art, and the museum infrastructure as a “heim” for the local artistic scene of Helsinki.

Palace Hotel

Public Datum Rendering Interior Gallery Rendering

The exchange performs at multiple levels: the museum enhances urbanity, enabling and intensifying public events and activities through a major covered outdoor public space. It facilitates education in the arts by establishing new relationships among spaces for local art institutions, international exhibitions and curatorial practices. Various spatial strategies such as transparency, accessibility and transference across three levels of activity blends the Art Heim Museum into the city and vice versa.

Observatorie-

Professional Competition

2 2a

3 2

2a 2

Art Heim

4a 2

1. Access Vertical Circulation 2. Gugggenheim Gallery 2a. Gallery 3. Studio 4. Conference Room 10 4a. Conference Room 20 5. Performance Hall 5a. Equipment/Storage 5b. Green Room 6. Multipurpose Zone 7. Education / Classroom 8. Cafe/Bar 8a. Cafe 9. Kitchen 10. Formal Restaurant 11. Multifunction Classroom 12. Marketing Office (2 floors) 13. Curatorial Offices 14. Shared Art Prep. 15. IT Server +Staff Offices 16. Education Offices 17. Copy Room/File Storage 18. Art Storage 19. Shipping / Recieving 20. Staff Lunch Room, Lounge 21. Administrative Offices 22. Multifunction Classroom/ Laboratory 23. Uncrating/Staging 24. Shared Work Room 25. Exhib. Design & Tech Offices 26. Museum Book Store

Floorplan of Gallery levels. Second floor consists of formal galleries while the third and fourth floor incorporate larger exhibition spaces.

Professional Competition Art Heim

Section showing public datum and galleries. Massing diagrams of multiple programmatic components and operative skin.

COLLABORATORS Franca Trubiano - Instructor RAMON PENA - Conceptual Design, Diagrams, Drawings, Renderings and Physical Model. RIGHT Diagrams of conceptual mechanism for negotiating aperture.

Academic Studio Project

Responsive Pressures High-rise Office in Manhattan for Environmental Agencies.

Exterior rendering of tower.

The particular challenge embedded within the design process was to develop a formal strategy that could accommodate and respond to environmental pressures that surround a high rise office building in Manhattan. First tackled through biomimicry â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a system of folded concrete walls and slanted planes was established to open and compress the apertures of the building in response to its immediate context. Between the folded concrete structure, Embedded Objects were introduced to mitigate and negotiate the specific requisites for natural ventilation, structural stability and day lighting. These objects were then calibrated using a series of environmental simulations that resulted in an informed and iterative process with human comfort as a specific design goal. These objects that exist within the fold are also responsible to engage the site programmatically by providing auditorium spaces, means of egress and meeting areas that maximize the views light and wind for the rest of the building.

Responsive Pressures

Studio Project

Studio Project Responsive Pressures

Left Structural simulations and responsive facade showing office and core alignment. Right Detailed 3D section of office equiped with responsive environmental systems.

Responsive Pressures

Studio Project

19.0

67.5

22.0

Studio Project

25.0

80.5

24.0

64.0

Responsive Pressures

60.0

Left Interior renderings of environmental offices. Right Prototypical plan of environmental offices within the two cores.

Responsive Pressures

6 5 7 2

8 9

2 3

Studio Project

6 3

1 Cementitious board cladding, PVC suporting rivet, Rigid thermal insulation, Vapour Barrier, Reinforced concrete Folded Wall, Polished interior finish 2 Actuated window unit with thermal glazing 3 Precast heat- radiating concrete floor tiles, rigid thermal insulation , Precast concrete floor slab 4 Double Glazing laminated Safety Glass 5 Cementitious board cladding (Clipped), PVC suporting rivet, Rigid thermal insulation, Vapour Barrier, Precast concrete floor slab, space for building services equipment suspended ceiling: chilled beams lighting unit, intake/outake air duct, acoustic ceiling pannel

3 3 5

Left Detail section showing multiple facade treatment options throughout programs. Right Wall Section Details from key performative points in the facade.

6 Actuated Solar control aluminum louvers controlable separetely for daylight control and natural ventilation 7 Gypsum board reflective dropped ceiling for diffuse light 8 Parquet with oak finish, Plywood supporting structure, Precast concrete Floor slab. Rigid thermal insulation, Cementitious board cladding (Clipped) 9 Cementitious board cladding (Suspended), PVC suporting rivet, Rigid thermal insulation, Vapour Barrier, Reinforced concrete folded wall with supporting structure for precast floorslab

Responsive Pressures

6 Actuated Sola separetely for 7 Gypsum boar light 8 Parquet with o Precast concr Cementitious 9 Cementitious suporting rivet Reinforced co structure for p

2 2

SHARED LUXURIES ONE’S ESSENTIAL IS ANOTHER’S LUXURY ONE’S ESSENTIAL IS ANOTHER’S LUXURY COLLABORATORS

Essential Essential Private Private

BRIAN PHILLIPS - Instructor

Public Public

DAN LAU - Initial Research

Luxury Luxury

RAMON PENA - Conceptual Design, Diagrams, Drawings, Renderings. RIGHT Diagrams depicting binary programmatic relationships and benefits that will be shared at different times of the day.

Cafe

Gym

Entertainment Room

Cafe

Gym

Entertainment Room

Kitchen

Weights

Storage

Large TV

Kitchen

Weights

Storage

Large TV

Storage Seating Storage Seating

Housing

Public Garden

Bar/Pub

Security Booth

Public Garden

Bar/Pub

Security Booth

Vegetation

Storage Water

Pool Table Grand Piano

Storage

Extra Room

Storage

Vegetation

Storage Water

Pool Table Grand Piano

Storage

Extra Room

Storage

Housing

Academic Studio Project

The Lux of Micro New Tendencies in Micro Housing for Millenials According to the Pew Research Center Millenials are the most educated generation in America. Nevertheless they are faced with unprecedented financial burdens that hinder their ability to obtain luxuries. It is in this disconnect between millennial desire and their economic reality that a new housing paradigm is born. In this project the particular housing tendencies of the emergent millennial generation in Philadelphia are catered though an interlocked web of programmatic “Essentials” and “Luxuries”. The symbiotic relationship between these two dichotomies creates an environment of program sharing whose ultimate goal is to give the user access to amenities that under a normative, individualistic housing model, would be impossible. 13th Street Exterior View

The Lux of Micro

Studio Project

Studio Project The Lux of Micro

Left Section cut through shared spaces and micro residences. Right Prototypical Floorplan of micro housing residences showing shared amenities.

The Lux of Micro

Studio Project

Studio Project The Lux of Micro

Left 3D Section cut through shared spaces and micro residences. Right Shared amenity typologies paired up with micro residences.

The Lux of Micro

Studio Project

Studio Project The Lux of Micro

Left Locust Street Exterior View showing interlaced program relationships. Right Exploded Axon of Programatic Components.

COLLABORATORS EDUARDO REGA - Instructor RAMON PENA - Conceptual Design, Diagrams, Drawings, Renderings and Physical Model.

Academic Studio Project

Education by Spectacle A Project of Architectural Translation This project of architectural translation will try to convey the spatial and programmatic desires of an Electronics Micro Industry, a Upenn Research Facility and various natural forces/actors within the Greys Ferry South Bank. Through the establishment of elevated pathways that are organized along a Multi-functional Space Frame we can transform the multiple ground datums so as to make them act as generators of interest and activity. This activated datum, when viewed from the vantage point up above, can provide a meaningful collaborative experience in which both the experimental products produced by the Industry and the Findings done by the Academia can be in a constant state of exposure and dialogue, within themselves and towards the immediate community. Exterior View Rendering of communal park under university campus

Studio Project Education by Spectacle

Exploded Axon showing multiple components of urban model: Public Datum, Structure,Circulation and Massing.

Studio Project Education by Spectacle

Section Cut through urban proposal. The public datum has an ability to visually engage the educational program above creating value for the community.

Education by Spectacle

Studio Project

Studio Project Education by Spectacle

Left Exterior and Interior renderings showing relationship between park and university. Right Floor plan of open park datum. The university touches the ground plane at key points.

COLLABORATORS LINDSAY RULE - Landscape, Urban Design CALEB WHITE - Architecture, Urban Design RAMON PENA - Architecture, Urban Design

Professional Competition

ULI Hines Competition Revitalizing Urban Plan for New Orleans

Bird’s eye view of Masterplan

As part of the Urban Land Institute’s annual competition this proposal seeks to provide a coherent masterplan for the Lafitte Greenway sector in New Orleans. “Stitches” - Programatic amenities that respond to the particular necessities of a neighborhood. They connect together the disrupted fabrics and repurpose unused infrastructure throughout the site. “Water Management” - The landscape brings the water management infrastructure to the public realm. It is responsible for creating a functional sense of place while at the same time reshaping the collective memory of water in New Orleans. “Scalar Densities” - The particular densities of structures in and outside the Greenway are determined by the programmatic needs of the region and the surrounding urban context in each case. “Modular Development” - Due to the careful specificity of program placed throughout the Greenway, the site can be developed simultaneously in modular segments while not compromising its overall function.

ULI Hines Competition

Professional Competition

Professional Competition ULI Hines Competition

Left Site Plan for the urban development of New Orleanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lafitte greenway into a cultural hub. Right Diagrams presenting the relationship between multiplicity of program types.

COLLABORATORS LASHA BROWN - Instructor RAMON PENA - Conceptual Design, Diagrams, Drawings, Renderings and Physical Model.

Figure Generation & Reactive Curves

Studio Project

Curved Perception Lessons from Fluid Dynamics on Space Following the nature of the objects within the site this project seeks to analyze and restructure the same logics found within the interior of the 30th Street Station in order to create a new spatial experience that defies the Cartesian ruling of the site. A new generation of objects is placed within the space. The organizational logics applied to the placing of these new objects, is derived from the analysis of fluid dynamics studies inside 30th Street Station. The lines and curves generated by the fluid dynamics are then passed on to an architectural language through the curve folding process, as a way of manifesting the emergence of all the logics into an established geometrical form for the project.

Interior Views of waiting areas

Studio Project Curved Perception

Building Legend Building Legend

1. Performance Amphitheater 1. Performance Amphitheater 2. Pedestrian Amphitheater 2. Pedestrian Amphitheater 3. Restrooms 3. Restrooms 4. Bar/Restaurant4. Bar/Restaurant 5. Cafe 5. Cafe 6. Top Bleachers 6. Top Bleachers 7. Figures 7. Figures 8. Reactive Field 8. Reactive Field

Floor Bottom Floor Bottom Plan 1/16” = 1’Plan 1/16” N = 1’

Floor Top Floor PlanTop 1/16” = 1’Plan 1/16”N= 1’

COLLABORATORS EZIO BLAZETTI - Instructor CHRIS MULFORD - Drawings, Renderings AIDAN KIM - Drawings, Renderings RAMON PENA - Programing Drawings, Renderings

Academic Project

E.D.G.E. Edge Dynamics in Growth Experiments Understanding growth as a computational process, this project seeks to explore the fundamental relationship between procedural transformations and their resulting geometry. A dynamic system is modeled as a network of springs and nodes that serves to activate the morphology of the test subjects throughout time. As our digital matter flexes and contorts, we introduce new detail at the naked edges that is responsible to cause ripple and distortions in a nonlinear fashion. As our system â&#x20AC;&#x153;growsâ&#x20AC;? with time changes, it gets locked into place as new geometry layers upon itself, creating a continuously articulated object. Careful attention was placed for the initial conditions of growth as well as the parameters that determine the rate of growth as a process. 4D Deformed Sphere

E.D.G.E.

Academic Project

Academic Project E.D.G.E.

Left Iteration catalog of formal deformations, background processes are allowed to ripple edges or create new ones. Right Emulating complexity results in a re-evaluation of that which we consider natural or synthetic.

COLLABORATORS RAMON PENA - Scripting, Drawings, Renderings

Personal Project

Excess & Edit Mining Generative Systems for Value

Recursive Tree Landscape

Generative systems can be understood as endeavors that place their epistemological value in method and process as opposed to a direct design approach. Instruction rules over outcome and what is produced is considered but a shadow created by the underlying processes that churn at the problem at hand. As such, the predominant mode of thinking in the field is one that must program solutions in a rather holistic manner. Generative design is often so concerned with solving a particular task that it forgets the extent to which our tools can act as agents of exploration. In this project I propose a different methodology towards computational process, one that is coded for excess. In these experiments the goal is to generate a field with a rich enough resolution, so as to grant us the ability to mine it. To edit is to distill from a whole and our eye is has an evolutionary handicap on the rudimentary scripts we make. Hence, we can envision a methodology that relies on generative systems to create vast landscapes of solutions that we, as designers in the end, crop, edit and mine.

Escess & Edit

Personal Project

Personal Project Escess & Edit

Left Computational process applied to a whole, in this case agent based. Right Given a critical resolution we can extract moments of interest far more complex and interesting that we could ever explicitly code.

COLLABORATORS LASHA BROWN - Conceptual Design SANDRA ARNDT - Conceptual Design RAMON PENA - Conceptual Design, Diagrams, Drawings, Renderings and Physical Model.

Professional Work

Cairo Pattern Pavilion Temporary Pavilion for Deutche Bank, London. The project essentially deals with the panelization of volumes through the intricacies of the cairo tiling pattern. The cell-like structure is conceived as ideal for the structural modules that will then hold the weaved threads. The threads, through their patterning, compose the second system. The Cairo Tiling is distinguished for its specific pattern of pentagons that when assembled in pairs of four generate a hexagonal perimeter. Another way of understanding the Cairo pattern is as a voronoi structure/pattern that emerges through a particular placement of center points.

Pavilion Plan

Cairo Pattern Pavilion

Professional Work

Professional Work Cairo Pattern Pavilion

Left Section of Pavilion Interior, cell like structures aggregate to form a cavernous interior. Right Interior view, fading into the background the structure gives way to the layering effects of the string weaving technique.

COLLABORATORS LINDSAY RULE - Landscape, Urban Design CALEB WHITE - Architecture, Urban Design RAMON PENA - Architecture, Urban Design

Thesis Project

Negotiable Spaces Applied Learning Algorithms The goal of this thesis is to deal with the representation of a form of crowdsourced architecture. One that through means of actuators is able to change its geometry and operation based on feedback from a collection of users and thus raises the question of how to design such multi faceted spaces. Through shifts in geometry, can architecture be negotiated in real time? How do we manage multiple interests in one urban site? What are the computational methods needed to regulate and operate an architecture that is always in motion? We hypothesize that if architecture were to instill within its spatial medium the intelligence to interpret user-generated data it could be able to produce spatial repercussions in real time that are synchronous with our collective metrics of value. Birdâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eye view of Masterplan

Negotiable Spaces

Thesis Project

Thesis Project Negotiable Spaces

Left Stereographic projection of virtualized interactive space as strategy to create causal distance. Right Virtualized space, how the algorithm interprets the physical realm.

Negotiable Spaces

Thesis Project

Thesis Project Negotiable Spaces

Left Volume cloud representation where moving mechanisms understood as a probabilities in time. Right Interior view, resulting spaces are an agglomeration of mechanical partitions.

Negotiable Spaces

Thesis Project

Thesis Project Negotiable Spaces

Left The operational strategy allows for the real-time negotiation of space between conflicting programs, office space and art exhibition. Right A distributed approach to actuation in architecture is preferred over larger moves.

ramonpenatoledo@gmail.com (787) 428-7478