ROBERT MOJICA | Work Excerpts

ROBERT MOJICA WORK

TOP-DOWN

Several large parcels are intended for industrial users who can bring jobs and economic development to the community. Inspired by existing collaborations between FedEx and Nourishing USA, future industrial users will be required to partner with non profits in the community, adhering to sustainable business practices, mitigating health impacts on the community.

BOTTOM-UP

Smaller parcels are reserved for higher density mixed-use development. Through place making, South Bronx community groups are invited to occupy and program these parcels, crating interim uses and destinations and help shape the new neighborhoods identity. The place making program is intended to transform interim tenants into permanent ones in future development.

A re-designed street network connects the new neighborhood to the existing residential community to the north, as well as Randall’s Island to the south.

Design requirements for new buildings ensure transparency at street level, promoting vibrant and active public spaces.

SOUTH BRONX FREE WATER EDGE DISTRICT The design proposal for the South Bronx Waterfront provides socioeconomic, cultural, and spatial conditions that incentivize and nurture the full realization of its residents in equitable and sustainable manners. The proposal for the new neighborhood provides jobs, community amenities, and access to the waterfront with different size parcels that encourage both bottom-up and top-down development. The intervention acknowledges the city’s goal to promote economic growth in the industrial zone and the community’s desire for participation, access to the waterfront, and health care.

A revitalized Gowanus can become both core and periphery, fostering cooperative relationships among the many nuances that exist within its urban system. Through interactions between the polluted Canal, the communities within the area, and the introduction of new systems of educational research and development, the environmental catastrophe can become a catalyst for a symbiotic revitalization.

Gowanus Canal was once the industrial core responsible for the development of early Brooklyn and metropolitan New York, at one time becoming the busiest waterway in the United States. Today, Gowanus Canal has declined into an overlooked periphery: a derelict toxic site of dispute. Within the polluted landscape, however, there is latent potential.

The potential collaborations that can arise between the business and residential communities through the introduction of an educational component can lead to the creation of innovative systems of environmental re-mediation and awareness, systems that can be locally manufactured and ultimately deployed to other polluted sites.

re_SEARCH GOWANUS

The evolution of radial cities and the Viennese periphery segmentation due to infrastructure.

1548 [Fortification]

1704 [Linienwallen]

1857 [Ringstrasse Built] 1873 [Gurtel Built]

1976 [U-Bahn Built]

2001 [U-Bahn Extended]

2010 [U-Bahn Extended]

Existing networks/nodes of industry, ecology, and waterlines.

Relationship between the node Potential synergies between nodes to create a hierarchy and core. The size/thickness of connections. represents level of recent growth.

Consolidation, and extrapolation, of the existing patterns of open space and circulation. This would become a “parti� diagram - the framework used to inform both, program placement and allotment of open space as well as new public and private circulation routes in the process of stitching the site to its context. Within this framework, nodes of possible continuation through the U-Bahn line are discovered to inform further development.

PH-1

PH-2

PH-3

Private Circulation

Semi-Public Circulation

Public Circulation

DEN D EN B BOGEN-SPANNEN OGEN SPANNE

FINAL BUILD-OUT

The design approach app intends to physically weave w we ave together togethee urban fabric that has been ssegmented egmented and an separated by infrastructure.

The proposal uses a mix of residential, ccommercial, co mmercial, and industrial programs, cconnected co onnected by green g multi-use public spaces to sstitch st itich together disparate fabric, redeveloping uunder-utilized un der-utilized areas surrounding the infr in f astructure. The fr T site is transformed into a new infrastructure. uurban ur rban experience experienn and a duplicable model for a uunited un ited periphery peripherr and a new icon: Der Bogen.

Den Bogen-Spannen is a conceptual link between segmented pieces of the periphery. Districts that share similar qualities and characteristics can then be stitched together to promote cross-lateral relationships. The potential of these similarities justifies investments in multiuse developments and integrated transportation sectors. This allows Der Bogen to become a magnet, promoting even growth for Vienna as a whole and reconnecting the previously separated communities.

Model of a unified periphery.

Objective: to subtractively develop three rooms within a volume, while thinking about the architectural experiences that these spaces provide.

The design studies how the perception of the same room can be drastically altered by its interaction with light and shadow.

All three rooms are the same basic shape with similar dimensions.

How light enters each room, however, is what allows for a unique experience in each one.

3 ROOMS

Objective: to design a habitable wall that reveals a condition of exchange.

The wall represents a common thread among all the exchange that occurs on campus: a lifeline.

The constant addition of experiences increases the density of the wall, forming a “complete� person that eventually fades away. Untreated materials support the idea of constant passage of time.

THE WALL

Objective: to design a university and community outreach center.

The design focuses on the creation of multi and specific use areas that interact with the site with the use of specific views. The design of the structure was conceived with the basic shape of the lake side in mind, visually becoming part of the site. The mesquite act as an extension of the ceiling, framing views of the lake.

WAY STATION

Objective: to subtractively develop three rooms within a volume, while thinking about the architectural experiences that these spaces provide.

The design studies how the perception of the same room can be drastically altered by its interaction with light and shadow.

All three rooms are the same basic shape with similar dimensions.

How light enters each room, however, is what allows for a unique experience in each one.

The design of a site that considered a public / private partnership between Arizona State University and a private owner, as well as contextual issues related to changes in the immediate area, such as transportation and increased density through proforma. Density and inter weaving of activities and programs were the main issues in the approach of the design: an exercise in mixed development that manipulates the urban edge of the site into a formal representation, capturing its connective vitality to the urban thread, elevating it, and incorporating diversity into the structure.

PRO-FORMA: COM - MIX

Objective: to design an entry sequence to a preserve, and to provide access over a wash.

Three structures were created using the shape of the wash itself as inspiration. By manipulating and transforming that basic shape, each unique piece interacts differently with the wash, offering distinct views and experiences.

TERRA / FIRMA

The investigation of an Arizona State University living learning hall to be located on campus, combining classrooms and a leaning “forum” conceived as a flexible space for intellectual collaboration and support. The proposal reacted to the peculiar shape of the site by magnifying the relationship to the street, creating an urban edge that connected the spaces to its context. At the same time, a cantilevered auditorium provides a shaded outdoor area that is both an extension of the forum and a secluded space for the surrounding dorms, as well as an outdoor auditorium.

LIVING LEARNING HALL

The design of an architectural firm that reflects my values, architectural and otherwise.

The mission of the firm is not only to create buildings and landscapes that respond to their surroundings, but to craft environments that are concerned with the cultural and economic contexts of each specific site. The hope is that this consciousness about the work’s relationship to context will enhance the surrounding environment and give something positive back to the community. The building is designed to represent many of the complex contextual forces that layer the site, illustrating how those forces merge into a singular form that paradoxically placates and emphasizes these forces while at the same time creating synthetic connections between them through the architecture.

MY FIRM

MAYA

3D MODELING

RHINOCEROS | GRASSHOPPER

Bridging Facades The project explores the idea of the facade as a transformative component.

Visualizing its capacity as a protective surface that can expand to accommodate new activities, the facade crosses the boundary set by the building floor-plan, creating new outdoor spaces. In some instances, the duplication and agglomeration of the facade components unfolds beyond the site boundaries, connecting to surrounding structures and creating a new urban connection above street level.

REVIT

Alternate Facade

Self Expansion

Connective Tissue

RENDERINGS MAYA RHINOCEROS PHOTOSHOP In DESIGN ILLUSTRATOR ARC-GIS