Architecture Portfolio 2022

PORTFOLIO

2022 ANA MARIA SUSO

anasuso@outlook.com

Born and raised in Cali, Colombia, and currently based in Delft, the Netherlands, I am a 24-year-old Master of Architecture Student with a sensitivity towards the spatial arts. Since a very young age I have been excited by the power that space has to evoke meaningful experiences in its users, which drove me to pursue my professional education in architecture and the building sciences.

Throughout my time as a student, I have been able to expand my skills in research and design, as well as experiment with other interests. For example, during my bachelors I took part in the honors academy programme, where I helped develop a tool to accelerate the energy transition. In my free time I enjoy the art of textile making and fashion, which I experiment through crocheting and knitting, and which has also recently become part of my creative process for design. I thrive on creative exploration and curiosity; therefore I’m always searching for new methods, themes and perspectives to dive into.

The range of my interests is best expressed through the type of work I create. I feel the most inspired by projects with unique contexts and problems that push the boundaries between different disciplines. They also reflect my belief that architecture is an interdisciplinary art that encompasses countless different realities, experiences, and cultures.

EDUCATION 01

2014 - present Delft University of Technology

Delft, Netherlands

MSc Architecture, Urbanism, and Building Sciences

2018 - 2021 Eindhoven University of Technology

Eindhoven, Netherlands

BSc Architecture, Urbanism, and Building Sciences

2002-2016 Colegio Colombo Británico

Cali, Colombia

International Baccalaureate

EXPERIENCE 02

2019-2021 External Relations Lead at Team RED

LANGUAGES 03

NativeSpanish

Fluent English

B2 German

A2 Dutch

SKILLS 04

Adobe - Illustrator / Photoshop / InDesign

Archicad

Sketchup

Enscape

AutoCAD

Model making

Oil painting

Crochet

Knitting

Student team start-up from the Eindhoven University of Technology, focused on the acceleration of the energy transition through the development of an interactive table.

DIGITAL ARCHIVE

Tuvalu is said to disappear within the next hundred years.

The consequences of climate change and rising sea levels have put this small Polynesian microstate in an extreme state of emergency. With a population of only eleven thousand, and a total surface area of twenty-six square kilometers spread over nine islets and atolls, Tuvalu’s mere dimensions are already an indicator of its vulnerability. As its citizens have observed their land wash away with the rising tides in the last decades, this situation brings up new questions about extinction, adaptability, and migration.

Besides Tuvalu’s vulnerable position against climate catastrophes, the situation is exacerbated by the country’s dependence on foreign aid and resources. Because of its geographical location, Tuvalu does not have enough resources to exploit and profit off from, which is why it is unable to economically sustain itself. This dependency leaves Tuvalu in an even more vulnerable state, in which it relies on external help to deal with its crisis.

However, an opportunity arose in 1996 that could potentially change Tuvalu’s economical power, and possibly offer a solution to its battle against looming extinction. In this year, Tuvalu was assigned the internet domain “.tv”, which would later become a coveted resource for television companies around the world. In 1998, Tuvalu signed its first contract to lease the domain. In 2011, it signed a contract that would ensure a yearly income of five million dollars, a tenth of the country’s entire income. Furthermore, this opportunity allowed Tuvalu to implement internet infrastructure in the capital, opening opportunities for education and co munication. As internet domains become more popular, Tuvalu now has a valuable economical resource that can provide them the independence needed to fund projects that will aid their crisis.

But beyond economical resources, the .tv domain also opens a door of opportunity for digital migration. While being confronted with the idea of extinction, Tuvalu must now make decisions regarding its future and relocation. The idea of digital migration enters as an opportunity to safely store and relocate vital data regarding Tuvalu, by means of the internet. Though it is not a real migration, this idea offers the citizens of Tuvalu the possibility to work on leaving a digital footprint of their country that can be accessed from anywhere else in the world.

The ministry of digital migration is then a proposal for a building located in the atoll of Funafuti, in which a cloud archive can be created and updated by its citizens to upload any data that needs to be safely migrated. The design proposal for this digital archive is then centered around a physical yet impermanent building that makes use of local resources and low impact construction methods to offer temporary shelter. After its destruction, the digital contents temporarily stored in its server will migrate to overseas servers where they will continue to be stored. The physical remains will either decompose into the land or will readapt to host new life.

The archive for the ministry of digital migration is a building designed around the concept of impermanence. Because of the harsh climate conditions surrounding its location, and the possibility for its destruction at any moment, the archive building makes use of materials found in the immediate surroundings that can be either easily replaced if damaged or can degrade back into the land if destroyed. The two primary material sources are then sand and coconut.

Top – the top part is entirely made from coconut, with its main structure made from a light coconut timber frame connected by coconut dowel joints, and finishes made from coconut timber slabs, coconut leaf thatching, and coconut fiber woven mats. Because of the harsh climate conditions, including strong winds and heavy rainfall during storm season, and strong heat from the sun, the use of natural forms of waterproofing and ventilation is necessary. The use of an atrium and a double skin façade allow for ventilation; therefore, all climate regulation is passive.

Bottom – the bottom portion of the building is underground, carved out from the sand. With the sand that is taken out to accommodate this part, it is possible to make the structure on the inside with a rammed earth construction technique. The only foreign materials which are introduced here are the use of concrete, which will be used for the retaining wall and the server room, and some aluminum which is needed to raise the servers for cooling.

The use of a double skin facade with rotating panels on the outside allows for an adaptable layer against the tuvaluan climate. The panels can be used for both ventilation and shade, and they can be rotated to allow the desired combination of sunlight and wind to pass through.

To counteract the fact that the materials used for the server room cannot degrade back into the land after the building has served its purpose, this room is intended to be completely sealed so that its insides (servers, flooring, and wiring) will remain completely isolated from the surroundings, and its outside will be covered in a layer of tabby. Tabby is a material made from seashells which creates a rough surface upon which coral can regrow.

02 MUSIC HALL FOR MAASTRICHT

Architecture and music are two separate disciplines that often set themselves apart from other arts because of one main convergence point: they are both spatial. Yet, despite their power to impact space, they do so in very different ways. The aim of this project is to design a proposal for a house of music in Maastricht, by exploring the relation between architecture and music, and using it as the base of the design.

The project consists of the design for a music hall in Maastricht, focused specifically on the design for a conservatorium including artist spaces, study rooms, repetition rooms, classrooms, a library and a small auditorium. To bring together music and architecture, I found a common ground, or rather a vocabulary, for which the two disciplines could replicate each other. For example, sound pitch can be emulated by height variations in volumes, rhythm is represented by the sequence and pattern in which volumes appear, and volume (regarding intensity of sound) corresponds to the physical volume that is taken in space. Based on these three definitions, I arranged the brief, assigning a volume, pitch and rhythm to each designated room, and then tried to compose a sequence for these spaces.

In addition to the influence of music, the site’s own context was also a source of inspiration. Located in the bassin of the Boschstraatkwartier, the site is of important socio economical history for the city. Remnants of the once predominant ceramic industry are seen in the factory structures that still stand, offering additional material and aesthetic inspiration for the redevelopment of the site. Furthermore, the Maas River is drawn into the bassin, marking another prominent feature of the site, as the water interacts with the area on multiple levels.

The final concept for the design is a mix of three layers: water, volumes and routing. The water will be brought into the plot, creating a propagation medium for the volumes. Water represents a “white sound” by the way it moves and the reflections it casts onto surfaces, making it a good background element. The volumes are then added on top of the water, adding the rhythm and main “beat”. Finally, the free forming routing will be the final layer being added. This layer is characterized by the movement of people through the building.

03 DREAMSCAPES //PETEQUI

This project made part of a course about methods of analysis and imagination, in which we were to choose a site we had a personal connection to, and which had throughout time changed or lost its function, and then offer it a new future.

The location I worked with is my grandparent’s house, a place that has for decades served as a gathering place for the family. In its lifetime, this house has been as a home by different family members, it has been occasionally transformed into a venue for anniversaries, birthdays and weddings, it has also been used for my grandmother’s cattle, and more importantly, it has always served as a place for rest and spiritual connection. This last one in particular is also connected to the fact that the house is now also the resting ground of both of my grandparents, as well as other family members and pets.

In this project, I attempt to reimagine this house as a memorial space, in which the line between the physical and the metaphysical are blurred. I gathered my own personal memories of this place through soundscapes and the recollection of the objects and materials of the house, and use them to create different spaces that extrapolate the experiences I’ve had in this house, amplified through a slightly more fictional lens.

The new space is a long corridor that passes through four distinct spaces, each one inspired by sounds, smells, materials, objects and memories that I have. However personal the motives are behind my design, they are also supposed to evoke a reaction or feeling in the user that is completely detached or independent from the house’s history and past. The goal is to create a series of surreal spaces that can exist freely detached from the context I used to create them, allowing them to exist in a metaphysical place that is both familiar and unfamiliar to any user.

04.1 THE WINDOW

About a year ago I developed a passion for textile making through crocheting and knitting. I began exploring the different possibilities that these techniques have to offer in the making of textiles, patterns and garments, and became deeply obsessed by the idea of textile making as a form of 3D modelling. I found it incredible to have the capability of thinking of a shape and “3D printing it” as I go with nothing but some yarn and a hook.

As part of a university course, I was asked to take an inspiration of mine and transform it into an architectural form, so I naturally turned to textile making. As part of this research I created sixteen samples made out of four different types of yarn and four different types of stitches to see how each one differed from each other. I photographed as part of a light study, testing their opacity, and ability to cast shadows.

My research led me to design a window composed of different pieces of textiles stacked upon each other, creating an organic mesh that varies in opacity and pattern.

04.2 WEARABLE PIECES

As part of my exploration through textile making and crochet, I also experimented with wearable textiles. The following photos are of a few of these pieces I have created.