Antonio Fernández - Portfolio

Antonio Fernández

CONCEPTS SELECTED PROJECTS

Email: antoferva98@gmail.com antonio.fernandez@aaschool.ac.uk Phone:+(44) 7777 483598 LinkedIn: /in/antoferva1998/

CONTENTS

Antonio Fernández Vargas Curriculum Vitae EDUCATION

SELECTED WORKSHOPS Venice Studio - 2025 OMA Studio

MArch in Housing and Urbanism Candidate - 2024-2026 Architectural Association School of Architecture London, United Kingdom

Humanitarian Architecture - 2021

Licentiate in Architecture - 2016-2020 Universidad Véritas

Econova Institute of Architecture and Engineering

San José, Costa Rica

RCR Summer Workshop - 2020

Taught by R. Aranda, C. Pigem, R. Vilalta and A. Ortega

Baccalaureate Degree - 2003-2015 British School of Costa Rica

Space Syntax Workshop - 2019

San José, Costa Rica

Taught by Msc. Sofía Hoch

WORK EXPERIENCE

PROFESSIONAL PROJECTS UNDISCLOSED GENSLER PROJECT #1 / 2021-2022 ................................................................................................................................4 Professional Project

Participated in concept and schematic design in shopping centres, retail, aviation, government, sports (stadium) and high rise residential projects. Co-operated with London, New York, Dubai, Bogota and Austin offices. Participated in site visits- locally and abroad. Work developed mainly with Revit, SketchUp, Rhino, and Adobe Suite.

Delivered conceptual design for commercial and residential projects. 3D modelling, mainly with SketchUp to high level of detailing. Supervised graphic design for presentations and developed typologic, operational and programmatic diagrams.

UNDISCLOSED GENSLER PROJECT #2 / 2022-2023 ...............................................................................................................................6

Worked on urban commercial and residential project design in Tamarindo, Costa Rica.

Co-edited concept booklet for commercial project. Designed luxurious residences (of approximately 500m2) for sites with complex topographical conditions.

BENITO VILLAMARÍN EXPANSION / 2023-2024.............. .........................................................................................................................7

Drew as built plans and designed adaptive reuse project from a former Coffee Processing Plant into a commercial space. Digitalized original plans, organized and designed presentations for international conferences in Argentina and Spain.

Professional Project

Architect - 2021-2024 Gensler - San José, Costa Rica Junior Architect - 2021 Studio Anónimo - San José, Costa Rica Assistant Architect - 2020-2021 [Plup!] Studio - San José, Costa Rica Assistant Architect - 2018-2019 FoRo_Arquitectos - San José, Costa Rica

Professional Project

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

ACADEMIC PROJECTS URBAN MUTATIONS (THE ENCLOSURE) / ALAJUELA / 2020 .......................................................................................................................8 Academic Project

Unit 8 - Repurposing La Galera With professor Víctor Murillo

Teaching Assistant - 2021 Universidad Véritas - San José, Costa Rica

Unit 5 - Elements of dwelling With professors Daniel Hidalgo and Juan Diego Cárdenas

Teaching Assistant - 2020 Universidad Véritas - San José, Costa Rica

NIMBU (THE WINDOW) / GUANACASTE / IC 2019 ..............................................................................................................................................14

AWARDS

Academic Project

EDGELANDS (THE COMMUNITY) / ESSEX / 2025 ...........................................................................................................................................16 Academic Project

ANNEXES docexdoce COMPETITION - 56 HOURS / 2020 .....................................................................................................................................18 Competition

BRNO HYDRO - AA + Brno University of Technology / 2025 .........................................................................................................19 Workshop

Gensler Regional - Competition With Carlos Fernando Caro, Alex Fernández and Uli Peinado docexdoce Latin America - Special Edition Competition With Jorge Barzuna Facade design for Edilex - Competition With Alejandra Fernández and Daniela Rumoroso

First Place - 2023 Save the Children - Itinerant Classrooms - International First Place - 2020 Amigos Solidarios Honduras - International First Place - 2019 A landmark for Barrio Escalante - Universidad Véritas - Local

PERSONAL STATEMENT I am a passionate architect who strongly believes how design has the potential to improve and shape people’s lifestyles. My experience is convenient for mixed-use projects since my professional background and my interests fluctuate around the quality given residential developments can give to urban spaces. I would bring fresh insights that I have learned during my masters for projects involving urban environments where contemporary needs, mainly socially and economically viable projects are required. Being a strategic thinker, and good communicator I am capable of working in teams or by myself.

01 - Gensler

UNDISCLOSED PROJECT

Access from park. Property of Gensler©

LIFESTYLE STUDIO Cities and Urban Design 2019-2022 | COLOMBIA Footprint Area: 3Ha

Mixed-use development adjacent to a major city park, comprising a theatre, cinema, hotel, two residential towers, and two office towers. The project aimed to replace a street with an open public space, enhancing urban life through high-quality design. I contributed to

3D modelling (facades, cinema, parking, and storefronts) and client presentations/renderings. This experience deepened my understanding of large-scale, multiuse projects and the complexity of interdisciplinary collaboration.

Interior space bridged by continuity of corridors and roofed to create active urbanscape. Property of Gensler©

Facade studies for office buildings. Done in collaboration with Sustainability team. Property of Gensler© 4

Urban arrangement. Mixed uses and typologies condensed into two linear blocks. Property of Gensler©

02 - Gensler

LIFESTYLE STUDIO Cities and Urban Design 2022-2023 | GUATEMALA Footprint Area: 2Ha

UNDISCLOSED PROJECT

Project #2: Non-disclosed location. Mall access park. Property of Gensler©

The project consisted in the expansion of a high-end mall featuring a new food court, food hall, bowling alley, and retail spaces. The design aimed to create a central anchor and dynamic circulation using locally sourced materials. I was responsible for client presentations, 3D modelling (garden wall, food hall, and food court), and exploring shopping centre typologies through sectional design. I also managed team coordination and client communication throughout the project.

Project #2: Non-disclosed location. Photos and render are property of Gensler©

03 - Gensler

REAL BETIS - BENITO VILLAMARÍN STADIUM EXPANSION

SPORTS STUDIO Cities and Urban Design 2023-2024 | SPAIN Footprint Area: 5Ha

Benito Villamarín Expansion. Seville, Spain. Gensler and Rafael de la Hoz.

The project was worked in collaboration between Rafael de la Hoz Arquitectos and Gensler (Austin, London, and Costa Rica offices) for the expansion and upgrade of Real

Betis Stadium in Seville. At Gensler, I analysed and optimised stadium sectors including access routes, restrooms, service stations, and seating areas. I conducted visual

and accessibility studies, developing a booklet detailing access times, routes, and turnstile distribution, which I also translated from English to Spanish.

Bowl Section. Commercial spaces and service areas are located in multiple levels along spaces of multiple heights.

7

9

01 URBAN MUTATIONS

PROF. CARLOS UMAÑA & WALTER LEONE GRADUATION PROJECT (HONORS THESIS) 2020 | ALAJUELA, COSTA RICA 48´000m²

SCALE: XL More than 25% of shopping malls were to close in the United States by 2022.

In Costa Rica, the massive closure of malls began in the 2010s (a delay compared to the United States, which began in 1990s). There are more than 1’400’000m2 of shopping malls in the Great Metropolitan Area (Costa Rica), so it is urgent to find alternative uses for them before they become empty.

Since the mall is defined as an enclosed, private, guarded, exclusive and impermeable space, the questions arise: can a space designed for a particular use become its own antithesis?

Access and roofed plaza

Ramp arrival and connection with walkway

Handrail details

The mall wall

To carry out the project and answer this question, I studied the International Mall of Alajuela, a building that once housed the most important commercial space in the province and can now described as a postmodern ruin.

Spatial/service band weaves. Allow multiple uses and urban accidents.

Urban Striations. Merging urban grains.

Topography unevenness, and free section along service bands and urban space.

11

These ruins have contaminated the context in such a way that it can be categorized as a Terrain Vague (de Solá Morales). Therefore, the damaged fabric must be regenerated. This property activated the main entrance to the city since 1993, and was completely displaced by the arrival of the City Mall in 2017 -at just 50m away.

Being left as a ghost mall, the project seeks to turn it into its antithesis, and make it an urban generator capable of maximizing relationships with its context. To achieve this, I first had to define the mall through its program and the spacial features it had.

Then I defined what its anthisesis meant. open, public, free, inclusive, permeable Consequently I decided to eliminate the parts of the building that gave it introverted characteristics and deprived it of its surroundings.

closed, private, guarded, exclusive, impermeable

By operating directly on the building, it was possible to open it up to the public realm.

To make these changes to the site, Rem Koolhaas’ free section and the programmatic strips of the Parc de la Villette were studied.

By applying these concepts, a programmatic instability that

facilitates urban accidents was generated. This allows spontaneous activities to occur without being completely manipulated by the architect, thus allowing the building to respond to urban needs and the times of the city. All this is facilitated through mechanisms that allow it to mutate over time.

Cross Section

01.

Current mall: ravine in poor condition to the north surrounded by abandoned lots and houses in poor condition.

02.

Built section is eliminated and opened up to the neighborhood, using the existing level difference to create public space.

03.

The modules are offset to create shadows with the eaves. The flows of the city towards the public spaces are traced.

04.

Passive techniques are used to allow natural lighting and ventilation. The auditorium receives the flows coming from Alajuela with green areas.

13

02 HOTEL NIMBU

PROF. JOSÉ VARGAS & DANA VÍQUEZ UNIT X 2019 | GUANACASTE, COSTA RICA 3´400m²

Roofing

SCALE: M Hotel Nimbu, in Playas del Coco designed around the concept of the window, framing views between the beach and a nearby mangrove. The layout centres on a triple-height lobby that organizes circulation along this main axis. Groundfloor rooms “float” above an artificial mangrove, preserving the natural ecosystem, while elevated corridors on the upper floors immerse guests in the surrounding vegetation.

L2 - Spa, rooms

Ground Floor

L1 - Restaurant, admin, rooms

GF - Lobby, reception, pool, bar, rooms.

Facade concept - The big roof covering the room volumes

The framed access: View towards the mangrove

First Floor

Isometric - Hotel Components by Block Second Floor

Transversal Section

15

03 EDGELANDS

PROF. ELENA PASCOLO & JORGE FIORI AA Housing & Urbanism MArch 2024-2025 | EAST TILBURY, UNITED KINGDOM 10 Ha

Project developed with Fabio Chica, Daria Aleshina, Irmak Yelok, Prakrithi Prassanakumar, Muskan Sethi, Xinyi Min, Tianyu Huang, and Xiaoqiu Qi.

Section of the rowhouse. Sheared with green house living.

The design reinterprets the rowhouse and shed typologies to foster social interaction and communal food production.

Shared structural bays and open volumes create flexible spaces and varied privacy levels, while rooftop and exterior areas support collective activities. The proposal also considers implementation through local cooperatives, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), and public partnerships, using the East Tilbury site as a prototype for resilient, community-based urban agriculture.

Community Plan View

Scale: XL This project addresses food security by proposing a sustainable growth model for Green Belt communities vulnerable to future flooding. It integrates agroecological practices inspired by Dutch systems—combining renewable energy, automation, and efficient land use—to promote community self-reliance. Passive strategies such as rainwater collection, solar energy, and local materials enhance sustainability.

Rowhouse permeability in the ground floor.

Striation, chequerboard and grouping morphologies allow to clearly link green market with school through central armature.

Communities of the Edgelands. Hand drawn cross-section

17

04

56 HOURS - DOCEXDOCE COMPETITION

ANNEXES

Special edition for “Amigos Solidarios-Honduras” - 2020 First Place

The goal for this 56-hour competition was to think of new ways to reuse the fuselage of abandoned aircrafts. The competition’s requirements were an image and a text explaining each teams searches.

In our case, we explored how these objects could maintain their purpose as a structure capable of transporting migrants through international borders. I was in charge of most parts of the image and part of the text.

The aircraft no longer flies.

How do we preserve its capacity to transport if it remains static?

The democratization of its parts is proposed in order to maintain its character as a mediator between nations separated by imaginary limits. These spaces question the border, promoting migratory flows through walls conceived to be inaccessible.

Team: Tarini Bala Priyanshi Rajesh Bagadia Chun-Yung Chuang Prithvi Desai Antonio Fernández Elene Gzirishvili Tianyu Huang Namrita Mathew Xinyi Min Ramid Salimov Jiaqi Sun

This workshop consisted in a 10day collaboration exercise between the AA and the Brno University of Technology. Radical modes of living were proposed by flooding an area of the city and simultaneously giving

BrnoHYDRO. Term 3 Workshop 2025 | BRNO, CZECHIA

Tutors: Barbora Ponesova Adithya David Stephen Sinclair Szymon Rozwalka

use to abandoned industrial facilities by making them habitable. In an international team of 11 members, my tasks mainly consisted in exploring the potential of a common housing typology in Czechia, such as the

Pavlac. The proposal sought to offer community spaces while bringing the cities past as an example of radical living where water and more than human life constantly forms part of the built environment.

Pavlac Typology. Drawing by Yung Chang.

Brno Hydro. Drawing by Yung Chang.

Illustration and text for “56 hours” First place with team member Jorge Barzuna 2020 - docexdoce Competition

Housing exploration. Drawing by myself.

Spatial exploration to find multi-level connection possibilities. Drawing by myself.

19