Architecture Portfolio 2022 - Chris Caballero

Portfolio

Chris Caballero

CV

Christopher Caballero

Multi-award winning RIBA Part II graduate. Particularly interested in how projects can be illustrated, how they inform surrounding space, and how core social issues may be addressed.

[20.02.1999]

London, United Kingdom

07982349891

chriscaballero@hotmail.co.uk

@sygnus.arts

EDUCATION

2020 - 2022 M(Arch) Architecture - RIBA Part II - First Class

Kent School of Architecture, University of Kent

2017 - 2020 BA (Hons.) Architecture - RIBA Part I - First Class

Kent School of Architecture, University of Kent

2015 - 2017 Four A-levels (Level 3)

Art (A*), Geography (B), Mathematics (B), Physics (C) The Campion School, Hornchurch

EXPERIENCE

2017 - present Freelance Graphic Designer and Illustrator

Taken various commissions for logo designs and traditional hand-drawings

2021 - 2022 KASA Create Exhibition Co-ordinator, University of Kent Responsibilities included selection and curation of collated student work for display and general advertisement of the Architecture Department

KASA End of Year Show Catalogue Head Co-ordinator

Organisation of student submissions and liaising with staff members and stakeholders for the overall curation of the KASA EoYS Catalogue 2022

Stock Counter, Retail & Asset Solutions Ltd. Part-time role. Worked as part of a stock counting team for various retail companies

2020 - 2021 Stage 4 Student Rep, Kent School of Architecture Involvement in meetings with staff members and Division board members across the university, advocating for student voice and course improvements

ACHIEVEMENTS

2022 Hawkes Sustainability & Innovation Award 2021-2022

Unit 5 Prize - Kent School of Architecture M(Arch) Award

Shortlisted for Hays Writing Prize 2022 Shortlisted for RIBA Dissertation Nomination 2022

2021 Winner of Kent Law Review Logo Design Competition Postgraduate Peer Mentor (Kent School of Architecture)

2020 Eliot College Model Prize Nominee Invited to Theatres at Risk 2020 Register meeting, London

pre-2020 Undergraduate Peer Mentor (Kent School

01Makerspace Whitstable

Whitstable is a culturally rich coastal town in Kent with an ingrained maritime history supported by tourism and local manufacturing. Since the later 20th century, traditional crafts that the town were once renowned for have dwindelled due to the rise of automated machinery.

The reintroduction of these physical hand-based crafts would serve as a catalyst for the community’s identity as a town of pure creation. The proposal was a creative co-operative with multiple workshops for artisans and craftsmen. Located on a fringe site near the harbour area, the ‘makerspace’ was to serve as an extension of the high street, allowing the social fabric to tie in with its past.

“There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about.”

- Margaret J. Wheatley

The parti drawings indicate subject matters that the proposal were to address e.g., connection between neighbourhoods, permeability, future versatility, and general ‘life between buildings’. Above all else, the co-operative was to serve as a connection point for creators of all backgrounds.

EXISTING HIGH STREET CRAFTS

Looking at the town of Whitstable, the traces of traditional crafts remained in high street shopfronts and local workshops, with local products and services on offer. Traces of these ‘makerspaces’ could be aggregated together to inform a beacon for forgotten local traditions and craftsmanship.

The selected site for this makerspace was a fringe site located near the harbour area. The purpose of the project was to extend the creativity of the high street into previously derelict areas. A general makerspace co-operative for local artisans would help revitalise previously forgotten areas, and reestablish the town’s love for production.

HORSEBRIDGE ARTS CENTRE MOSAIC BOUTIQUE JEWELLERY

JACKSON PETER ARCHITECTS BARCHAM SEWING

CAROL FOSTER CERAMICS CANDLEWICK GREEN IRONWORKS

N

The landscaping for the fringe site selected took inspiration from urban renewal projects that encouraged people to stay around for longer periods of time. Some of the features included in the masterplan were designated masrketplaces, planted vegetation, seating, and a timber loggia for visitors.

In addition to the main building, a residential block was added for local craftsmen. With strong connections to the harbour and yacht club nearby, the proposal also features a glulam-framed canopy for boat hulls that are repaired and re-serviced for full usage under the creative co-operative. The combination of different crafts enables a hotpot of creativity unique the urban landscape of Whitstable.

The building features triple-glazing and passive ventilation strategies such as the stack effect. During the summer months, attenuated vents on the sides of the triple-height voids in the boat workshop allow for air flow. This can be controlled by a weather-watching system.

In order to address potential freshwater flood risk all year round, part of the hardscaping on site involves permeable paving. A sustainable drainage system (SuDS) is employed to locally manage stormwater run-off. The water is recycled and absorbed by planted vegetation.

North-facing skylights allow for natural daylight in areas such as drawings studios, minimising glare caused by direct sunlight.

Skybridge leading to residential tower

COLLECTED WATER FILTERED THROUGH TO VEGETATION

CARPENTER USING THE JOINERY WORKSHOP

The two buildings are connected via a footbridge leading onto a flat walkable roof for further communal shared space, combining communality with industry. The main building itself houses open workspaces where individual artisans can share their crafts and knowledge with each other, informing interlinked ‘microcosms’ of creativity

LOCAL ARCHITECTS MEETING IN THE DRAWING STUDIO

TECHNICIAN CUTTING METAL IN THE WORKSHOP

The open interior enables flexible usage, with enough space to suspend and work on boats from multiple angles. Triple glazing at ground level enables the public to observe makers carrying out their work. The space also benefits from the clerestory glazing and skylights.

OVERHANGING DRAWING STUDIO

DOUBLE-HEIGHT BOAT WORKSHOP

“The Whitstable Yacht Club make weekly visits to commission new boats for local fishermen and tourists. Mark and his team of handymen work with local volunteers to repair disused hulls and create new skiffs.”

“During the week, Kyle’s parents walk him down the beachfront promenade after school. On the weekends, they meet up with his aunt Beth, a textiles worker and local curator who likes to take their coffee break at the cafe.”

Exploring Hybrids

Expanding on Whitstable, it became clear that the town was one not only of ‘creation’ but of ‘aggregation’ as well. Within the coastal town, there were many examples of prototypical hybrid forms - built forms and spaces with more than one purpose. These examples ranged from beach huts and workshops, to studios and work-from-home dwellings.

When multiple work functions and purposes combine together, they can inform intense epicentres of community. This section explores hybrid forms in an abstract sense through the process of ‘aggregation’, and how these hybrids may change and evolve for their purpose. In turn, this can repair any divide between communality and industry.

“Nothing is as dangerous in architecture as dealing with separated problems.”

- Alvar Aalto

Traditional fish huts in Whitstable expressed a dichotomy as both dwellings and commercial hubs. This transient nature was further explored to produce a prototype hybrid with various affordances and functions.

The hybrid study led to the concept of an altered ‘beach hut’, that morphed form for multiple purposes. With the inclusion of stilts and basement levels, the temporal nature of this prototype affords itself plenty of opportunities for users of various backgrounds.

RESIDENTIAL

Beach hut vernacular

The enablement of prototypical hybrids enhances the sprawling nature of the existing harbour market further along the coastline, increasing socio-economic activity and communal interaction.

By aggregating together different prototypical forms off the beach hut, one can also stitch together the divide between communality, tourism, and industry expressed within Whitstable. This concept was explored further with the workshop hybrid.

COMMERCIAL

Pop-up

WORKSHOP HYBRID

Production and commercial hybrid

with conversion

Aggregation became a core theme when expressing emphatic spaces with various affordances. An algorithmic exercise was conducted to generate volumes with unique spatial qualities. This involved taking a primitive cube and extrapolating volumes from the ‘parent’ cube. These volumes were assigned verbs to which an action were to be conducted e.g., push, pull, implant etc.

Using this regenerative process, unique forms were manipulated, combined and assembled together to produce a cohesive workshop unit.

Terraced ceilings, alcoves, seating areas and openings all occupy the the space to suit the needs of the users. The result was a hybrid form for craftsmen to inhabit, work and sell their goods, while displaying their work to the general public - reiginting the concept of a work-from-home studio environment.

03Floating Villages

The following pages involve two seprarate projects that address the consequences of climate change in coastal urban areas. The first was located in Amsterdam and acknowledged the Dutch culture of land reclaimation. The second was located in Tilbury and expanded on the idea of reclaiming materials around the historic dockyard area.

Both projects explore the idea of ‘treading lightly’, environmentally and physically, while establishing unique off-the-grid communities that employ a circular economy.

Such methods and techniques that aid this way of living include hydroponics, aquaponics, renewable energy, recycling materials, and repurposing derelict spaces.

“If need be, we should re-think the very planet we stand on.”

- Lebbeus Woods

Project: OASE was a project based in Ijburg, an island of reclaimed land in East Amsterdam. It consists of a floating platform and main hub that would house local houseboat communities. The concept was inspired by floating homes that had developed an off-the-grid lifestyle, integrated with a self-sustaining circular economy.

The programme introduced hydroponics and aquaponics as methods of generating a market economy and environmental approach to food production. This would further supplement fishing communites around Amsterdam.

OASE: CIRCULAR ECONOMY

WALL PANEL

TIMBER

CLADDING

TIMBER

WOOL INSULATION

FRAME

INSULATION

HINGE DETAIL

COLUMN

FIXED TIMBER DECKING

TIMBER FLOOR STUDS

FLOOR PANEL (125mm)

MASTASHIELD

WOOD FLOOR

HEATING PIPES

FRAME

PLASTIC SHELL

WATERTIGHT

The ‘Floating Village’ was a project sited near Tilbury’s dockyard front along a disused, curved pier. The area had a rich industrial history before World War 2 and had since entered decline and dereliction.

The idea of this project was to revitalise the area by creating stilted housing that fed off regenerative public space.

Materials considered included local shipping containers, CLT and weatherboard, echoing the grain of Tilbury’s past.

Beside is a maquette showing the proposal for the regenerated pier. The old tracks that originated on the pier were kept as traces of the past, while greenery, market stalls, seating and public art spaces were introduced to establish a sense of new community.

Similar to Project OASE, green methods of energy generation and food production such as aquaponics and wind energy were also prioritised. The dwellings that jetty off the side of the pier adapt to the temporal change of tide, with a floating platform surrounding the stilts to create a temporary third floor.

SITE CROSS-SECTION FACING WEST

ELEVATION

ELEVATION

ELEVATION

ELEVATION

04The Voice of Margate

Margate is a coastal town once renowned as a getaway destination for domestic tourists from around London and Kent. Today, it is somewhat regarded as a husk of its former self, with many local businesses suffering from lack of tourism and a general decline in coastal town revenue over the years. The lockdown period compounded this further, with the local

‘Theatre Royal’ suffering especially.

The following pages showcase an undergraduate project where the theatre was extended to incorporate other events, with a light theme of music. The aim of this was to create harmony between residents and tourists through a unified dialogue. This opened up further opportunity for redevelopment on an urban scale, reigniting the social vibrancy of Margate.

“Music is liquid architecture; Architecture is frozen music”.

- Alvar Aalto

As of early 2020, the Theatre Royal in Margate was listed on the Theatres At Risk Register, meaning it faced potential of shutting down. This was mainly due to the local decline in tourism and lack of versatile, usable space. The theatre’s entrance was in an obscure location, often confusing visitors upon arrival.

The proposed extension sought to resolve these issues by introducing a new reception and entrance point along the south elevation. This would improve circulation throughout and enable a new front of house for musical events, new economic streams of revenue, and other activities. The concept sketches on this page outline the thought process for this new front of house and its relation with the original Victorian fabric.

In keeping with the theme of harmony, it was important to establish a sense of rhythm that echoed that of the theatre’s Victorian and Georgian surroundings. The vertical character of the street elevation is maintained in the extension’s design, with Kebony-clad strips expressing this. Stepped seating was also created to enable an outdoor space for vistors to convene. The extension is highlighted in blue on the floor plans and is designed to create space for multiple streams of income, in addition to selling tickets.

STREET LEVEL FLOOR PLAN GALLERY/ FIRST FLOOR PLAN

HAWLEY SQUARE STREET ELEVATION WITH PROPOSAL

In addition to the extension, the project included restoration and maintenance of some of the theatre’s features. The original ventilation system was under disrepair, for example. Attenuated vents were added underneath gallery seating and skylights were introduced in service rooms to aid air circulation. The vented ceiling rose was also restored to its full use. The original ground floor of the theatre was ramped which limited versatility for functions other than seating. With a newly flattened floor, seating configurations could be temporary and rearranged to suit multiple functions, further boosting the range of socio-economic activity.

In conjunction with the theatre project, there was the challenge of engaging people through the urban renewal of three surrounding squares. Without people, there is no activity; and without activity, the streets are left feeling lifeless. This study made me realise the importance of creating inviting spaces for people, to give the town life.

This approach was inspired by urban architect Jan Gehl, whose philosophy involved encouraging people to stay around for longer through humanscale design. Some of these methods included pedestrianising roads where possible, introducing more cycle routes, seating areas, and socially inviting spaces that enable life between buildings.

CECIL SQUARE

HAWLEY SQUARE

ADDINGTON SQUARE

05Various Works

A small selection of drawings gathered from sketchbook, design projects, and draft commissions taken online. All works span from undergraduate to postgraduate phase.

Drawing study of various textures, material combinations, and local vernacular around Sandwich, Kent (left).

The Campion School, Hornchurch Sketch drawing with Photoshop post-production

Dansey Place, Chinatown Ink on kraft paper

Elm Park Avenue, Hornchurch Outlining drafting process

Nuestra Señora de Las Lajas, Colombia Ink with brush pen

Kent Law Review Logo Design (Winner) Adobe Illustrator

Fawn Ink with waterbrush