Robert Garita Portfolio

Robert Garita

PORTFOLI0

Architecture 2 0 0 3 2 0 1 1

NAME ROBERT GARITA

DEGREE “LICENCIATURA” IN ARCHITECTURE

COUNTRY costa ricA

rgarita@mgstudiocr.com

Issues > building my vision • • • • •

Exploration :: experimentation.

Multidisciplinary vision.

Transformable territories.

New technologies > new toolbox (think out of the box).

Architecture plus Academy.

MAPPING MY WORK

since 2003

Academic Work

Teaching Work

Proffesional Work

Social Work

D8 I Design Workshop 8 D9 I Design Workshop 9 D10 I Design Workshop 10 D12 I Design Workshop 12 D14 I Design Workshop 14 GP I Graduation Project

DW I Design Workshops AT I Academic Tours IW I Inter-intitutional Workshop

B I Built

NA I Nazaret UTP I Un Techo

AW

D I Draft

TW

pW

VO I Del Valle Office-Center R+C I R+C House MQ I Marquee WD I Wolff Deck

para mi Pais

CV I Cabo Velas Residences EO I ECI Office AO I Avanti Office-Center

sW

mw D8 D9 D10 D12 D14 gp dw at iw vo r+c mq wd cv d.EO d.AO s.ee s.pp na utp 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 C A P glossary

C I CONTEST A I AWARD P I PUBLICATION

AW

ACADEMIC work

TRANSFER Course: Design Workshop 8 - school of architecture Veritas university.

Year: 2003.

Project: Caribbean TRANSFER / “Los Caribeños” Bus Station: San Jose CITY > LIMON CITY. Location: Cinco Esquinas de Tibás, San José – Costa Rica.

Tutors: • FRANZ BEER / ARCHITECT. • Carlos Azofeifa / Architect.

• Sergio Alvarez / Architect.

D.8

caribbean transfer AW D8 03 c

a

p

Dialogue between 2 territories / Connection between 2 spaces:

URBANISM = humanism = Architecture

When facing the sensory and perceptual connectivity of two spaces that are opposed and divergent, we inevitably come across a drift that might be uncomfortable and even aggressive. This spatial relationship and connection must respond to an ideological position related to the identification and respect for public spaces, which results from the analysis and reinterpretation of such variables as customs, traditions, surrounding and infrastructure.

Natural variables and awareness of urban sustainability must be placed before blindness; as a result of self-urbanism, which is proportional in entropy – flexible and permeable patterns are sought to produce plans and project related to their nature.

Under this perspective, public spaces of convergence and exchange are proposed, thus developing a direct and indirect relationship with the natural surroundings and in search for self-sufficient spaces.

Gestures / of the accident / incorporate / rescue bioclimate / integrated to your order.

Programmer / deprogrammed / program / indeterminant / but substantial spatial / syntax / glossary rhetoric.

The action (uninhibited) rather than prudence (timid).

The idea (projective) rather than analysis (scholar).

The strategy (operational) rather than the representation (literal).

The system (open) rather than the composition (closed).

The process (evolutionary) rather than the figurative (regulatory).

Overcoming (multilayer) more than the aggregation (linear).

The diversity (mixed) rather than homogeneity (harmonic).

The flexibility (structural) rather than permanence (monument). (the construction of the landscape (building geometry). [*METAPOLIS].

AW

CARIBBEAN TRANSFER

URBAN STRUCTURE Course: Workshop Design 9 - school of architecture Veritas university.

Year: 2003.

Project: > ITINERANT< URBAN STRUCTURE / San Jose CITY. Location: NATIONAL THEATER, “LA CULTURA” PLAZA - SAN jose -Costa Rica.

Tutors: co-workers: • Juan Lalinde / Architect.

• MICHAEL SMITH. • MINOR BLANCO / Architect.

D.9

>ITINERANT< URBAN STRUCTURE AW D9 03

Has personality / over 100 years, consecrated in the urban landscape, overcoming the challenge of time / Surrounded by at least 30 years of acquaintances â&#x20AC;&#x201C; but does not know its neighbors despite its personality. As a good grandfather, it is willing to share its experiences, but new friends must be introduced to it provisionally and must later leave and pass on their lessons learned.

Tradition> reflection / generating / contribution / urban culture in San Jose.

Heritage> raise> play in time.

Active / dynamic Removal > Perforations > Hierarchies > Projections > Scales > Theatre > Plaza.

Integration / Relations Light vs. Solid Contemporary Time.

AW

>ITINERANT< URBAN STRUCTURE

HOUSING Course: Workshop Design 10 - school of architecture Veritas university.

Year: 2004.

Project: MULTI-FAMILY HOUSING / San Jose CITY. Location: Guadalupe, San José – Costa Rica.

Tutors: co-workers: • Edgardo Mora / Architect.

• HéCTOR RODRÍGUEZ. • Andrés Guilá / Architect.

D.10

MULTI-FAMILY HOUSING AW D10 04

Landmark: a place to reminisce, collective memory of a city, which makes us remember and, simultaneously, transports us to a past, one of scents and flavors – forgotten by those around it and who long for it.

The project aims to build in this select site, previously the premises of a renowned Costa Rican candy and chocolate factory, now abandoned and deteriorated, a multi-family and commercial project that can revitalize and revalue the area and inject it with a new urban character.

Character in line with “our own” – our own concept of neighborhood, of street, of sidewalk, but slanted towards exploration, with a form resulting from customs, from relationships among spaces – from the citizen within these spaces – citizen as actor, not spectator – a project more than an unattainable scenario, which seeks to be a place to meet, to interact – share, reminisce, reinvent.

AW

MULTI-FAMILY HOUSING

LAB /

living modules Course: Workshop Design Nº12 - school of architecture Veritas university.

Year: 2004.

Project: Temporary living modules.

Location: “Triángulo Solidario” Precarious - Guadalupe, San José – Costa Rica.

Tutors: co-workers: • Fernando Ríos – architect.

• MICHAEL SMITH. • HÉCTOR RODRÍGUEZ.

D12

LAB/ TEMPORARY LIVING MODULES AW D12 04

Displacement and migration phenomena, insertion into new territories, forgotten by the system and product of residual urban growth. Change + non-adaptation = reaction = economic instability, result of a poor interpretation of reality or the inability to face it.

How to understand sectors known as “low class” […poor?] – zones where users cannot effectively joint the system […unskilled hand labor: needs], who are looking for an opportunity, a future – but stigmatized by a negative image product of their own people – their own land.

The workshop confronts us with a reality, difficult to understand and denied by many.

Undertaking a project in a slum in San José, Costa Rica, requires significant tact: humanism before urbanism, understanding the protagonists, their needs, their reasons, and not thinking that the best solution for the “poor” class is housing, mute and static housing unable to produce… to mutate according to the needs.

Capture the essence – interpret – enter / leave the site – observe and listen – in order to develop exploration maps that facilitate inclusive development models – observing from all possible angles – exploring is indispensable, seeing beyond imposed dogmas, understanding the phenomenon… proposing.

Meta-language + psychosocial tissues “…a fragile, sensibly dependent balance…” “…dichotomies divided by fragile barriers…” “…a simple gesture will suffice in front of such susceptibility for…”

“Tissues that form a system, where NON-STILLNESS prevails, with changes and variables in short intervals, while, simultaneously, these tissues form nets that slither over unstable and highly complex orders, which respond to their entropy”.

“At the same time, we see the city as a flexible, fluctuating and adaptable process, in its continent, in order to flow, allowing us to visualize the city as a phenomenon; liquid, overflowing and dynamic – and covered by compound tissues of ethereal and homogenized fragments, depending on the scale of perception and on circumstances.”

“Enhancing our capacity of awe, more than a defining game.”

living modules

Course: Workshop Design Nº14 - school of architecture Veritas university.

Year: 2005.

Project: 1:1 SCALE – living modules.

Location: “Triángulo Solidario” Precarious - Guadalupe, San José – Costa Rica.

Veritas University Architecture Workshops.

Tutors: co-workers: • Luigi Lentini – architect.

• MICHAEL SMITH. • Carlos Chacón – architect.

D14

1:1 SCALE / LIVING MODULES AW D14 05 c

a

p

Construction & development: connect, modular, site. / Meta - language :: main resource of the building - to understand the site.

Projecting from the constructive and conceptual knowledge of a proposal / laboratory / workshop / development / proposal!.

Necessity + vision: initiative.

Exploring a passionate matter related to spatial problems in marginalized areas must be seen and conceived from every single affecting angle, individual, social or natural, to understand the phenomenon and its need to explore and search based on the realization of proposals.

Trial and error, the prototype as a fundamental part of the design process.

INITIATIVE > propose an emergent alternative to inhabit “spaces”.

Some features of human settlements in urban territories are: • Human vulnerability caused by poverty and imbalance • Environmental degradation caused by abuse to land • Rapid demographic expansion, especially among poor people (Wilches-Chaux, 1993).

Therefore, the project aims to develop a spatial-modular prototype based on researching alternative construction systems, resulting from recycled materials or industrial wastes, and which may allow us to promote new “alternative” living spaces for “non-traditional territories”.

AW

1:1 SCALE / living modules

GRADUATION PROJECT AW D8 04 c

a

p

GS0306 WINNER

Migration into the city is increasing the vulnerability of San José’s urban area, making it difficult to realize basic living standards. More than 25,000 families are invading a saturated ‘allegedly controlled urban development’ looking for work opportunities, basic infrastructure, housing, services, and public space.

These developments have a strong impact on urban and social structures, giving rise to problems such as waste accumulation, river contamination, poor living conditions, and isolated communities. The problem is currently increasing and nobody is assuming currently increasing and nobody is assuming responsibility. Our case study, Triángulo Solidario II, shows the rise of dangerous high-density situations that offer no place or programme for immediate social assistance. Socio-economic improvement may take place by improving the quality spaces in Triángulo Solidario II, by selecting a specific segment of the site to generate temporary places for community projects, social assistance, and technical support. Direct contact with the site and optimizing the available resources (cost, use, re-use) are our major goals.

We have selected adaptive typologies for a collective and particular life style, through the re-interpretation of the actual urban and social scenario, with flexible housing projects in which one can live, work, produce, play, move, etc. The problem involves not only housing requirements but also the lack of individual and collective spaces for life improvement. Rather than being regarded as a problem, the informal than being regarded as a problem, the informal housing could be the generator of temporary places, for urban activity and eco-urban settlements for conservation and recycling.

San José has an enormous potential to develop a great equilibrium among its natural a social environments by linking and activating places that are waiting to be part of today’s urban scenario.

Biennially Archiprix International presents the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s best graduation projects in the fields of architecture, urban design and landscape architecture. All university-level training colleges around the world are invited to take part by selecting and submitting their best graduation project. Archiprix International forms the largest presentation of graduation work and offers unrivalled insight into current trends in design education globally and architecture generally.

The initiative reflects rapid international developments in the design disciplines. Recent decades have seen an explosive growth in the scale of international contact, resulting in lively exchanges world-wide. Increasing numbers of designers work on commissions abroad, professional journals are published on an international scale, and training colleges are becoming more and more international in their orientation.

Archiprix International intends to become an international platform for training colleges and newly graduated, talented It spotlights international trends in architecture, urban design and landscape architecture and brings designers together.

designers.

An independent jury rewards the very best submissions with the Hunter Douglas Awards. The aim of the awards is to stimulate the introduction of starting, talented designers into the world of professional practice.

A DA P T I V E H O U S I N G T Y P O LO G I E S T HRO U G H T H E R E - I N

+

NTERPRETATION OF THE ACTUAL URBAN AND SOCIAL SCENARIO

DESIGNED BY MICHAEL

SM ITH, ROBE R T GAR ITA

TW

TEACHING work

DESIGN WORKSHOPS VERITAS UNIVERSITY / COSTA RICA

>experimentation + configuration + Exploration + construction<

I joined this out of sheer passion – as a challenge, an extension of my office, my profession. This incorporation and participation is projected and visualized as a space-time to explore, to transmit a dose of attitude to those wishing to share it with me, an attitude towards change, towards the search, towards breaking stigmas and paradigms, developing criteria, sensitizing our vision of “architecture,” of “space”, of “city”… > reinventing ourselves – understanding ourselves, but especially understanding those around us and proposing for them, for those who need it, at all levels and in all directions but with one clear objective: where we are from … and where we are going?.

CPC TOOLBOX

DESIGN Vertical Workshop - Basic Unit, (First and Second years of the Career) School of Architecture, University Veritas - Costa Rica. coordinatE PROFFESOR: Robert Garita / Architect .

PRESENTATION: The workshop is conceived to shape critical, analytical and proactive thinking about principles and fundamental basics of design in zones, spaces and situations that demand expansion, growth and development. These scenarios depict our reality, the need to recover places that have become residual in the city. This proposal is projected through a flexible methodology that adapts to the trends and needs of our local-national context and its international projection.

JUSTIFICATION: These are the first two years of career for formers and deformers of ideas and thoughts, generators of the first tools with which to face a project, a situation or a condition resulting from issues brought about by the city.

Thus, the “TOOLBOX” concept is introduced as a strategy for analysis and design, giving students basic and fundamental tools with which to generate and establish their own intervention methodology, according to the diverse urban-architectural scales to study.

The workshop examines territories in expansion, growth and development in order to analyze zones and sites that require renovation, change or reinterpretation of their current guidelines of rural or urban development. This will lead to approach projects present in our national and international perspective and thus examine urban projects that are somewhat complex – but tangible in our reality.

PROSPECTION: The national outlook and the atypical issues of the city are the workshop intervention scenario; it aims to become part of the development model concept aligned with the needs of each study area, based on the social-ecological identity of the place without needing to adopt imported and exclusive models of citizen participation.

Face places of public interest to analyze them with a strategic intervention and development plan (hereafter P.E.I.D), based on understanding, applying and comprehending the urban analysis methodology applicable to the study site.

Perform a series of configuration exercises as possible urban patterns in search of an answer to the site needs – “sustainably” developing and optimizing the resources available in the study site.

Create awareness on the need for interdisciplinary work as foundation to develop “architecture,” clarity in the need for teamwork, but particularly develop a way of thinking with the leadership to more easily address issues and critical conditions.

When exploring and experimenting in site analyses and future designs to implement, a strategy is needed to organize our non-linear way of thinking, in order to then transmit any idea developed.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;FORGOTTEN SPACEâ&#x20AC;? LAB DESIGN Vertical Workshop - INTERMEDIATE Unit, (THIRD years of the Career) School of Architecture, University Veritas - Costa Rica. coordinatE PROFFESOR: FERNANDO RIOS / Architect + Robert Garita / Architect .

PRESENTATION: Strong and very dissimilar conflicts of a very heterogeneous nature support our contemporary dwelling surroundings, ranging from the non-recognition of emerging societies (therefore accentuating the socio-spatial segregation phenomenon) to the destruction of our urban ecosystem.

These states trigger alarms and lead to focus on the linearity of cognitive thinking in the search for strategies and resources to face the voracious consumption of mankind in the large settlements called cities.

This critical outlook should serve as an opportunity to ponder on the validity of science-based methodological and epistemological systems and in different areas of knowledge to address such issues.

JUSTIFICATION: The edified world has brought about many advantages to our contemporary civilization gathered in cities: our systems of organization have served to control indiscriminate development, ranking the network of mobility and services, facilitating time management and optimizing operating organizational charts. The use of urban spaces is more efficient today and the specialization of certain urban uses proudly display the operationalpragmatic mission of diverse human nuclei in the generating web, satisfying their needs.

However, city growth has simultaneously worsened longstanding problems: population growth has saturated the capacity of all types of services in some cities, to the point of complete collapse, natural green areas have been displaced by huge masses of concrete, worsening flooding in highly vulnerable areas, and the urban growth containment rings have been distorted, taking man to predate natural and biological reserves. On the social plane, human groups have become ever more segregated, with layers of social differentiation gathered in urban ghettos, aggravating hostility and social violence.

The workshop Forgotten Space Laboratory highlights the importance of addressing the void left by the absence of content in a city planned with certain atypical and sometimes impregnable spaces, explores the cracks that oftentimes generate new urban dynamics, dares to explore some hypo-logical forms of certain human groups in urban dwellings, explores the regeneration of collapsed spaces revitalizes the concept of periphery as an inescapable element to recover a historical city par excellence.

PROSPECTION: Intervention strategies will take place in a broad range of situations resulting precisely from the void left by city development and the gaps or grooves left by natural phenomena or circumstances where oblivion has taken over as result of apathy and the inability of city regulatory agents. Amidst this scenario we can find spontaneous settlements on city fringes, ghettos or segregated urban micro-nuclei, neighborhoods vulnerable to unstoppable city outcropping, scenarios transgressed by natural exploitation, loss of settlers in urban centers, public spaces in abandonment and clear deterioration, physical structures dematerialized from a dead life cycle, redefinition of site limits or boundaries for a new urban reality and, in sum, all those scenarios where human beings may find new alternatives of habitability, recreation and citizen convergence protected by an architecture which is consistent with their life systems and the natural surrounding circumstances.

ACADEMICS TOURS VERITAS UNIVERSITY / COSTA RICA

Both courses foster getting re-acquainted with the study zone as personally, humanly and close as possible.

The concept of academic tours – in order to allow the relationship and interaction among dissimilar city scenarios, in many cases unknown or simply ignored, it is necessary to tour, interview, chat with each actor within a given space-time, understand the actual needs in each environment. To visualize the different social, environmental and physical problems that shape and constitute the national reality of the country… it is necessary to generate a “workshop” outside the classrooms, come closer to developing communities and present an idea, whichever… but based on the study of its variables and the understanding of its circumstances, strengthening work relationships, the multiand inter-disciplinary, promoting and sharing as a group, not only as individuals.

INTER-INSTITUTIONAL WORKSHOPS

SOCIALAB workshop

The biggest criticism and statement that can be made of academia is that is actions remain close tight and in most cases mute as a whole to the national public and private sectors. Internally and day after day, academia generates an amazing number of ideas, most with a huge potential for implementation, creativity and practicality … but its biggest weakness comes not from the idea itself but from a system that archives them, wearing them out – erasing them – forgetting them…

Academia must be a latent voice of possibilities, of criticism in sight of current needs and situations and, therefore, must expose its position: to the city, to each actor and sector that needs them, that looks for them and that, in most cases, must repeat traditional and obsolete schemes given the lack of creativity and innovation in its proposals – tow fundamental conditions that make up the concept of academia.

Therefore, my position as a member of academia establishes and promotes a methodological and strategic concept made up of and built on a multi-trans-disciplinary collectiveness of professionals specialized in architecture, engineering, biology, sociology, geology, hydrogeology, anthropology, archeology, geography, environmental law and urbanistic law, communications and journalism.

This collectiveness is called [SOCIALAB > workshop] – this initiative attempts to work along with institutions, companies and national organizations in the search for social projects which from the beginning and throughout are created together with the community, through participatory design, self-construction, assisted construction and execution (construction) workshops.

[SOCIALAB > workshop] is a proposal that integrates my professional development, both as an independent consultant and as a university professor, to encourage research and development think-tanks and the creation of social projects.

PW

PROFFESIONAL WORK

DEL VALLE OFFICE-CENTER TECHNICAL DATA:

Location: POZOS DE SANTA ANA, SAN JOSÉ – COSTA RICA. Project Type: OFFICES. Owner: RAMIREZ BIOLLEY REAL ESTATE. Consulting Team: Architecture / MG STUDIO DESIGN + ARCHITECTURE. Structural Engineering / GUIDI ESTRUCTURALES. Electrical Engineering / ECI ELECTRICIDAD Y CONTROL. Mechanical Engineering / ID INGENIERIA MECÁNICA. Construction / CONSTRUCCIONES Y AFINES S.A. Other / Land Studies / TECNO CONTROL S.A. Environmental Impact D2 Study / NOVAGEN CONSULTORES. Topography / JUAN CARLOS GONZALEZ. Project Description: Height: 3 floors.

Land Area: 340.19 sqm.

Construction area: 475 sqm.

Edification conceived for commercial establishments on the first floor and private offices on the second and third floors. Developed as a project that seeks to bring a creative, innovative and contextual response to the sector of Pozos de Santa Ana. Due to seismic conditions and soil composition, quite common in the area and in the country, the dialogue between the main structure of the building and its enclosures becomes the essence of the project concept, since that structure is pretended to bring order to the form and to the space it contains. Additionally, transparent elements produce the interior-exterior relationship and, therefore, their colors as well as the second skins applied and placed as passive strategy elements (to regulate and filter the sun angle) are fundamental to produce internal comfort in each space.

PW

DEL VALLE OFFICE-CENTER

MARQUEE TECHNICAL DATA:

Location: MATA REDONDA, SAN JOSÉ – COSTA RICA. Project Type: OFFICES. Owner: GLOBAL PHARMED LTDA.

Consulting Team: Architecture / MG STUDIO DESIGN + ARCHITECTURE. Structural Engineering / GUIDI ESTRUCTURALES. Electrical Engineering / DYNAMO INGENIERÍA. Mechanical Engineering / DYNAMO INGENIERÍA. Construction / MG STUDIO DESIGN + ARCHITECTURE. Project Description: Height: 2 floors.

Land Area: 393 sqm.

Construction area: 470 sqm.

The project arises from the premise of remodeling and expanding a building in the heart of the capital city, witness of more than 40 years of tales and changes. Initially, it was foreseen for apartments but its architectural program changed and, instead, was proposed for offices and commercial establishments.

The main idea and concept of this project is to get Global Pharmed International, a pharmaceutical company, to reflect in its new facilities a renovated and contemporary look but, at the same time, warm, and ensure that each indoor space has the necessary level of comfort to perform each individual business activity and task.

The interaction between wood, lighting (natural and artificial), natural resources and internal furniture are the main elements that come together to produce a language aligned with the immediate needs of the site and its users.

PW

MARQUEE

R+C HOUSE TECHNICAL DATA:

Location: CURRIDABAT, SAN JOSÉ – COSTA RICA. Project Type: RESIDENCE. Owner: RAMIREZ CORELLA. FAMILY. Consulting Team: Architecture / MG STUDIO DESIGN + ARCHITECTURE. Structural Engineering / GUIDI ESTRUCTURALES. Electrical Engineering / DYNAMO INGENIERÍA. Mechanical Engineering / DYNAMO INGENIERÍA. Construction / RL INGENIEROS Other / Land Studies / TECNO CONTROL S.A. Environmental Impact D2 Study / ALEJANDRO ARAYA OVIEDO. Project Description: Height: 2 floors.

Land Area: 2300 sqm.

Construction area: 600 sqm.

The project seeks a home design horizontal on most of the land, with wide related spaces all the way from the interior to its exterior context, and an architecture that rescues the condominium guidelines, a warm family environment and architecture with contemporary details and elements.

Because of to its footage, the residence was subdivided in major sectors: Private Area, Services Area and Social Area, to produce an orderly design in development, presentation and construction.

Project conceptualization included an extensive geometric study of composition and form, leading thus to a location on the land with a high level of balance between artificial and natural, and natural elements such as water, wood, stone and fire are the main sensorial protagonists in the design, producing a sense of freshness and continuity between the outside and the inside of each space, to the point of reaching a fugue with the natural surroundings.

PW

R+C HOUSE

WOLFF DECK TECHNICAL DATA: Location: SANTA ANA, SAN JOSÉ – COSTA RICA. Project Type: REMODELING. Owner: MR. MARIANO WOLFF Consulting Team: Architecture / MG STUDIO DESIGN + ARCHITECTURE. Structural Engineering / MG STUDIO DESIGN + ARCHITECTURE. Electrical Engineering / MG STUDIO DESIGN + ARCHITECTURE. Mechanical Engineering / MG STUDIO DESIGN + ARCHITECTURE. Construction / MADERINCO. Project Description: Height: 1 floor.

Land Area: 100 sqm.

Construction area: 60 sqm.

Located on the roof of a 4-floor apartment building, this space, totally abandoned and only serving as roof, presents a privileged location – with a view of nearly 270 degrees towards the city and the hills of Santa Ana and Escazú. As one of its main sensorial and perception attributes, this area produces in users a visual connection with each panoramic and visual element within its context.

The project is based on the “bending space” concept thanks to its materials and their formal location. The use of wood, selected to achieve the concept and effect, and the interaction between material and light, produces different perceptual effects, depending on the space-time used.

PW

WOLFF DECK

CABO VELAS RESIDENCES TECHNICAL DATA: Location: CABO VELAS, GUANACASTE – COSTA RICA. Project Type: CONDOMINIUM Owner: CABO VELAS INVESTMENT PARTHERSHIP SRL. Consulting Team: Architecture / MG STUDIO DESIGN + ARCHITECTURE. Structural Engineering / GUIDI ESTRUCTURALES. Electrical Engineering / DYNAMO INGENIERÍA. Mechanical Engineering / DYNAMO INGENIERÍA. Other / Land Studies / M&V SOLUCIONES GEOTÉCNICAS Environmental Impact D2 Study / MR. JAVIER ESPINACH. Project Description: Height: 4 floors.

Land Area: 1040 sqm.

Construction area: 993 sqm.

In an area blessed by nature, Playa de Cabo Velas in the Province of Guanacaste, this project seeks to produce a spatial response immediate thereto, and simultaneously a credible relationship with its immediate natural context.

The building suggests a match between an architecture based on the local typology yet promoting more contemporary details, with the end user in mind, an individual with exotic customs, a free lifestyle and aligned with state-of-the-art technologies but at the same time respectful of its surroundings. This established the applicable strategies to mitigate impacts on nature. The â&#x20AC;&#x153;non-useâ&#x20AC;? of air conditioning systems is proposed, and replaced instead by a series of parasols along the facades using such materials as wood and cloth to mitigate any uncomfortable sensation in each space.

AVANTI TECHNICAL DATA:

Location: TEJOS MONTEALEGRE, ESCAZÚ – COSTA RICA. Project Type: OFFICES. Owner: INVERSIONES MAVAMAP S.A. Consulting Team: Architecture / MG STUDIO DESIGN + ARCHITECTURE. Structural Engineering / GUIDI ESTRUCTURALES. Electrical Engineering / DYNAMO INGENIERÍA. Mechanical Engineering / DYNAMO INGENIERÍA. Other / Land Studies / TECNO CONTROL S.A. Environmental Impact D2 Study / MR. ALEJANDRO ARAYA. Project Description: Height: 3 floors.

Land Area: 450 sqm.

Construction area: 950 sqm.

Named after the Italian word for â&#x20AC;&#x153;advance.â&#x20AC;?

Initial contextual studies and analyses revealed that the land immediately north of the project belongs to the Municipality of EscazĂş, a totally abandoned municipal park, opening the possibility to incorporate that land into the overall site design.

A proposal was made to the client and to the Municipality to reforest the area with native species of the area, thus producing an adequate landscaping design for the project.

The contrast between the proposed vegetation and the contiguous building seeks to produce a series of volumes in different tones of gray, resulting in a project that brings a sculptural and artistic response to the city.

The proposed building and park attempt to give the Trejos Montealegre sector an alternative response to the development of office buildings in the area and foster the good use and reutilization of residual urban spaces that need to be rescued and taken into account in any infrastructure development that affects our city.

TECHNICAL DATA: Location: RIO SEGUNDO, ALAJUELA – COSTA RICA. Project Type: OFFICES AND WAREHOUSES. Owner: SR. MARIO VARGAS. Consulting Team: Architecture / MG STUDIO DESIGN + ARCHITECTURE. Structural Engineering / GUIDI ESTRUCTURALES. Electrical Engineering / ECI ELECTRICIDAD Y CONTROL. Mechanical Engineering / ECI ELECTRICIDAD Y CONTROL. Project Description: Height: 2 floors.

Land Area: 1815 sqm.

Construction area: 300 sqm.

Aimed at the consultancy and construction sectors, specifically electromechanical engineering, this architectural program is planned for the administrative offices of ECI and its operating warehouse.

The proposal foresees a construction system where the facilities, especially the electromechanical facilities, can be displayed to future clients and visitors, thus becoming a â&#x20AC;&#x153;livingâ&#x20AC;? exhibition of company services.

On the other hand, the formal architectural concept seeks to fold in the covers as the main aesthetic element of the project, thus reducing building construction and maintenance costs.

SW

SOCIAL work

Fundamental to the professional and personal development of all individuals, social projects in socially and environmentally fragile areas are the major link and element to ensure integral and balanced development.

This philosophy must be visualized and conceptualized as much more than charity and instead as the commitment of all professionals, parallel to practice. The initiative of the [SOCIALAB > workshop] plays that role and attempts to produce a series of actions in search of social projects undertaken by a multi-disciplinary professional collectiveness.

Some background to support this view is included below.

UTPMP

“EL JAZMIN” PRECARIUS / SAN JOSE - COSTA RICA

The international organization “Un techo para mi país” (A roof for my country), with headquarters in Costa Rica, allowed me to examine its mission and vision in great detail. They provide on-site assistance to existing slums through prefabricated housing that meets basic shelter needs.

This experience provides insights into solutions for inhabitants with limited resources and possible integrated ways of optimizing proposals for slums.

NAZARET GUAPILES / LIMON - COSTA RICA

Nazaret is a project taken on, carried out and promoted by Fundaci贸n Promotora de la Vivienda (FUPROVI) which developed an on-site human settlement regeneration and revitalization plan in Gu谩piles, Lim贸n - Costa Rica.

The project implied the development of a series of houses of social interest following the local Caribbean typology. The housing project, concluded in 2006, was so very well received in the country that community facilities followed. The first of these, which I participated in as one of the professionals assigned to it, was the construction of a community center and sports premises.

As a participatory design process, the whole community was involved. Both the residents of Nazaret and professionals participated in work groups to foster integrated efforts and the best match to the actual needs expressed by the citizens during the design workshops and reinterpreted by the responsible design team.

rgarita@mgstudiocr.com arq.r.garita@gmail.com