Hello! I’m a candidate for Bachelor in Architecture at Universidad de Los Andes, with a passion for using architecture as a means to make the world a better place. I am dedicated and enthusiastic about my work, always eager to learn. I complimented my studies with a minor in Art History, and will be graduating from university in the fall of 2024. You can see me pictured here with one of my favorite buildings, the Barbican Centre!
2023 instituto superior técnico - u.lisboa semester abroad
2018 savannah college of art and design 5-week summer architecture course
2005-2019 colegio los nogales experience
certifications
2022 autodesk bim architectural design (110-hour) credential ID AM0183097085755089860
RELIEVE
Year: 2021
Team: Mariana Tamayo, Juan Felipe Gómez
Use: Community Center
Location: Bogotá, Colombia
The final exercise of this course consisted of the design of a community center in the El Tunal neighborhood, in southwestern Bogotá. The proposed lot is located in a small park adjacent to a larger, metropolitan scale park, and in front of a public library.
The project is born from the geometry of origami, enriching exterior and interior spaces through the playful folding of the roof. Additionally, the building is slightly sunken, and enclosed by green slopes that surround it on all its facades. This way, it further adapts to its environment and acts as an extension of the park.
The main objective of the project was to propose a series of spaces to house cultural and leisure activities that complement the nearby facilities, and to carefully blend the project within its environment.
Our proposed program includes a community kitchen, a café, an exhibition room, a small amphitheater and a flexible module for interior sports and leisure activities.
The course also focused on promoting technical resourcefulness and resolution of the constructive detail. Our technical emphasis was on the habitable roof in recycled tire flooring, the interior suspended ceiling with wooden dowels, and the proper functioning of the concrete retaining walls.
Relieve’s flexible and diverse spaces allow a variety of activities to take place, and the active roof deck invites young and old to play.
Relieve was conceived to attract all of its neighbors, by bringing them together in a comfortable, attractive and functional space.
This course focused on the development of housing solutions with complementary services for the Rionegro community, a neighborhood in central Bogota with a long tradition of auto repair shops. My design proposal incorporates housing with automotive services and explores an innovative way to alter the urban fabric to better accomodate the district’s productive and residential needs.
One of the key elements of the design is the way the project’s first floor blends in with the nearby streets. The proposal is to articulate the existing urban block by creating a pedestrian street with shops and services. The access to the different residential units is given via a secluded backstory of vertical circulation.
The treatment of the façade explores its depth by creating bay windows that capture sunlight and heat, and balconies that establish a more direct connection with the exterior and its vegetation.
The lower level contains six car mechanic shops with flexible divisions, depending on the space needed, a hands-on classroom of the car repair learning center, and a car wash. The parking spaces for the residents are separated from this area.
The towers are meant to have a similar scale to their surroundings. They recede inwards, forming a series of communal terraces for the residents.
El Eje intends to create a replicable design that allows for productive, automotive activities to coexist with a residential complex, improving the quality of the public space by incorporating mixed uses.
KURANDZA WOMEN’S LEARNING CENTER
Year: 2022
Team: Emilio Pizarro, Salomón Hernández, Juan Felipe Gómez
Use: Women’s Learning Center
Location: Chivonguene, Mozambique
This was our proposal for the architectural competition organized by Archstorming and the Kurandza foundation, selected as one of the 50 finalists. The brief called for a flexible learning center for girls and women, for both academic use and external use by the community during after-hours.
The project aims to take the most advantage of the proposed lot, while also responding to the weather conditions with architectural strategies. The distribution carefully weaves community services with exclusively academic spaces, and maintains a close relation between the exterior and interior. The modules that house the different spaces are separated from one another to allow for wind currents to flow throughout the building. 1.
The double roofing technique, with a series of open-ended brick vaults as well as inclined zinc metal sheets, allows for the interior spaces to remain comfortable and airy, promoting cross-ventilation. Additionally, the double, separated layer prevents direct heat from the sun to warm the spaces, while also collecting rainwater.
Our proposal aims to create a place where girls can feel safe and comfortable, where they can learn, play, explore, and discover. The architecture provides a series of dynamic spaces where they can interact with each other and the surrounding environment. Beyond functionality, the project itself is a learning tool for its community that creates a sense of belonging and paves the way for personal and collective growth.
THE LIMITENCLOSED GARDENS
Year: 2023
Team: Mariana Verísimmo, Salomón Hernández, Juan Felipe Gómez
Use: Mixed (Cultural + community spaces)
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
The studio work during my stay in Lisbon focused on rehabilitating the railway of an isolated area of the city with an architectural and urbanistic intervention. Our proposal intends to weave the unused railway with its surroundings by creating a promenade with a series of enclosed patios that articulate the community services and enrich the different scenarios along the path.
The buildings along the project accomodate the diverse program. By characterizing the line with a series of enclosed patios, the limit between the line and the surrounding terrain dissolves. The linearity of the promenade is segmented and explored: even though it maintains its elongated character, its spaces invite you to stay.
The built components allude to the neighboring convents of Beato and Grilo with the typology of the cloister: the spaces revolve around the central courtyards inside the buildings. The core of the proposal contains a large central open space, establishing a relationship with the nearby alley, and the distant views over the Rio Tejo.
1. vertical access
2. inter-religious dialogue room
3. library
4. walled
The technical solutions aim ro respond to the objectives in terms of spatial character and atmosphere. The project’s emblem is the duality between heaviness and lightness: the excavation asks for the use of heavy concrete retaining walls that enclose the built program.
The use of elevated beams instead of porticos or arches throughout the project delimits the courtyards while also dissolving the limit between the exterior and interior. The four built spaces interact with the limit of the line, as they are placed next to it, and not within.
The project aims to transmit calm and promote functionality and versatility by using and characterizing the void, and weaving the built in relation to it.
BANCAL
Year: 2024
Team: Juan Felipe Gómez
Use: Social Housing + Urbanism
Location: Bogotá, Colombia
Undergraduate Thesis Project
For my final project, worked on a proposal that aims to resettle 80 households in the Alto Fucha area in Bogotá, due to the risk of landslides and flooding. Even though this resettlement has taken place already, the inhabitants were relocated to distant neighborhoods from this area. In Alto Fucha, they have fought for their right to housing in informal conditions for over 40 years, thus establishing a deep connection with this place. My proposal seeks to resettle these families “in situ”, using an existing plot of land that borders the neighborhood, and hasn’t been developed.
The project is made up of 11 housing blocks that adapt to the inclined topography of the land. The fanshaped disposition of the housing blocks designates a series of communal and public spaces and landmarks, connected by transversal and longitudinal circulations.
This fosters community interaction and extends both domestic and work or commercial activities of the inhabitants onto the public space.
riverfront decks community multi-purpose room
multi-purpose sports court shops and community spaces (public restrooms, shared laundry)
The project maintains a close relationship with its privileged natural surroundings. A connection with the neighboring river is promoted with the placement of three different waterfront platforms. At the core of the project, a generous park brings people together and encourages leisure, activity and entertainment. It’s disposition within the fan-shaped site allows for it to double as a green, exterior amphitheater, with a small public plaza and sports court at the center.
(ref. diagrama de implantación)
terraceo con contenciones de guadua de menor tamaño. prevención de remoción en masa y habitabilidad de la ladera.
(ref. diagrama de implantación)
(ref. diagrama de implantación) perfil tipo II
axonometría - módulo tipo 01
module 01 - axonometric view
module 01 - plan view
planteamiento intervención urbana
La propuesta a nivel urbano incorpora la mitigación de riesgo de deslizamientos con la creación de un nuevo eje peatonal conector de borde. A su vez, está planteada como parte del modelo de progresividad y colaboración institucional-comunitaria: las contenciones de mayor envergadura en concreto que protegen los puntos críticos de borde con mayor pendiente son entregadas por el Estado, y constituyen unos hitos a lo largo del borde. Luego, a medida que pasa el tiempo, y por medio de esfuerzos de autogestión a nivel de barrio y comunidad, se va consolidando el borde con el terraceo y las contenciones de menor escala en guadua.
module 01 - section
There are three different types of blocks depending on the slope of the terrain. Within each block, I experimented with the idea of bi-familiar housing: this allows for each household to remain with certain individuality and is closer to the original single-family typology, while also densifying the area without losing its character.
This first module corresponds to the lowest slope of the plot. Between each structural module, there are two housing units, mirrored. Main living spaces take place towards the facade, and services are located in the interior. The first level includes a productive space for use of the household, or rent.
axonometría - módulo tipo 02
planta escalonamiento - módulo tipo 01 esc 1:100 planta escalonamiento - módulo tipo 02 esc 1:100 corte longitudinal - módulo tipo 01 esc 1:100 corte longitudinal - módulo tipo 02 esc 1:100
(ref. diagrama de implantación)
(ref. diagrama de implantación)
axonometría - módulo tipo 01 planta escalonamiento - módulo tipo 01
1:100
axonometría - módulo tipo 02
02 - axonometric view
1:100 planta escalonamiento - módulo tipo 02
1:100
02 - plan view
longitudinal - módulo tipo 02
02 - section
The second module corresponds to a medium slope. In this case, the bi-familiar typology is explored in section.
Two L-shaped housing units are designed, one atop the other. Productive spaces, living spaces, services and vertical circulation are designed with a high level of detail, optimizing the space.
escalonamiento - módulo tipo 03
axonometría - módulo tipo 03
1:100 corte longitudinal - módulo tipo 01
Access is through the lower and middle level, depending on the slope and grouping of the units, via a concrete piece that both acts as a retaining wall, and marks the entrance. Top units enjoy a rooftop terrace, and lower units enjoy a more generous front and back entrance porch.
1:100 corte longitudinal - módulo tipo 03
1:100
- módulo tipo 02
- módulo tipo 03
escalonamiento - módulo tipo 02 esc 1:100
longitudinal - módulo tipo 02 esc 1:100
escalonamiento - módulo tipo 03 esc 1:100
longitudinal - módulo tipo 03 esc 1:100
The third module corresponds to the steepest slope of the land. Like module 02, the bi-familiar typology is explored in section, with two L-shaped housing units, one atop the other. The distribution of spaces, circulation, and access is similar as well. However, the generous rooftop terrace now takes place atop the neighboring unit, opening an additional facade and enriching the interior space.
corte a-a’
planta
planta
corte
corte
axonometría
axonometría
module 03 - axonometric view
module 03 - plan view
module 03 - section
Each housing block is designed in such a way that the access to the homes is located on one of its facades, while the access to the productive spaces is located on the other. In this way, the mixed uses of the first floor generate flows of activity in the public circulation routes. In addition, each block has a larger communal or commercial at its lower end. private spaces (housing)
Architecture brings together the multiple dimensions of living: the socioeconomic, the cultural, the physical space and the natural environment are some of the factors that come together to mould habitability. It is interesting to re-think the usual way of doing things in architecture, and reflect on new ways of weaving life, home and territory. We shall always look for the most sensitive and harmonious way to include all dimensions and all actors of living in architecture.
