Ricardo Muller - Sample Portfolio

architecture portfolio

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CONTENTS

Introduction

Alfred Hines Seaside Camp

Bindoon Leisure Centre

Gosnells Bowling Club

Dumbartung Aboriginal Corporation Museum

Victoria Park Pavilion

SuperStudio The Nest

Architectural Portfolio 2015 - 2021 about

I was born in Brazil and moved to Perth in Australia 12 years ago with my family in search of a better quality of life.

I believe architecture can make significant contributions to humanity and add value to our everyday lives. As a form of art, architecture moves us. education

Bachelor of Architectural Science Curtin University 2015 - 2017

Masters of Architecture Curtin University 2018 - 2020

The Alfred Hines camp is a holiday accommodation resort for children with physical and mental disabilities. As part of the ongoing Rockingham Mangles Bay developments, the Alfred Hines committee seeks to redevelop the existing camp into a fun destination for the children, as well as revitalize it into a touristic icon in the region. The new program will provide a mix of luxury and rugged accommodation, self-contained accommodation for visitors and staff, spaces for site management, and outdoor spaces.

The project was undertaken by our group of 3 people, and I designed the Plaza area which sits in the middle of the site. The Plaza focuses on providing outdoor spaces for social and recreational activities, as well as buildings for site management, amenities, community collaboration and learning.

The main concept behind the project was alchemy, and this is captured in the Plaza’s dynamic, energetic and transmuting architectural language. Within it, pathways and forms expand, contract, converge, diverge and intersect, showing many playful interactions. We move from open spaces to more contained spaces with sudden directional shifts.

ROOF SUPERSTRUCTURE

The addition of a secondary roof provides a common element that connects the segregated building volumes.

CONCEPT 9 10

BUILDING VOLUMES

In terms of buidling layout, we progress from 2 storey into 1 storey buildings and then an indoor, outdoor structure, alluding to a breakdown effect.

GROUND ELEMENTS

The Plaza comprises of unique garden beds and seating, as well as a pond, the showcase hub, rainwater tank and chicken coop.

PATHWAYS

Poured limestone delineates pathways around the site.

MIXED USE DEVELOPMENT EXISTING FOLIAGE

HYMUSSTREET

EXISTING RESIDENTIAL

FUTURE

INDIAN OCEAN

SITE ISOMETRIC | -

By incorporating Permaculture elements in the overall scheme of this project, such as a chicken coop, greenhouse, herbal garden, recycling workshop, rain water tank and composting bins, we enable a lifestyle around regenerative and sustainable strategies. If successful, this system can produce an abundance of resources, which can then be proudly displayed and given back to the broader community at the Plaza’s central wooden structure, the showcase hub. This magical lifestyle arising from Permaculture will create a sense of fulfilment from self sustenance and contributing to society, while improving the inhabitants’ self-image and unlocking their potential as people.

Insulation is made from the polystyrene of recycled plastic bottles, and interior finishes of most rooms consist of particleboard, two materials that have been repurposed from “waste to gold,” linking back to the theoretical position.

COMMITTEE BOULEVARD

THE ALLEY APPROACH

2nd Year Studio November 2016

Cnr

As part of the Wheatbelt region’s search for new architectural attractions, this project proposes the construction of a leisure centre targeted both at the local community and tourists. Since the Bell Hill Reserve is a secluded, peaceful and undisturbed site, it is an ideal space to relax.

This building allows for unique and immersive recreational activities such as yoga, meditation and pilates. Its organic and continuous concrete forms frame the spaces to accommodate the program, and invite people into the natural and quiet natural environment of Bell Hill Reserve. The main themes behind the building are harmony and wellbeing, where the calm atmosphere of the hill and distance from the busy metropolis of Perth allow the user to find temporary refuge and a stronger mind, body and soul connection.

Ridgetop Ramble and Forest Hills Parade (Bell Hill Reserve), Bindoon

The building is situated atop the Bell Hill Reseverve landscape, shrouded by vegetation from the street level. People who take on the journey up hill are greeted by its sinuous form.

FOREST HILLS PARADE

Seamless concrete forms emerge from and submerge into the landscape. The indoor studio and outdoor hill top area then become the two principal function spaces which provide grounds for different group activities and allow beautiful lines of sight into the well preserved natural spaces on the hill.

ISOMETRIC (ROOF OMITTED) -

OUTDOOR ACTIVITY AREA

INDOOR ACTIVITY AREA AND LOOKOUT

3rd Year Studio

June 2017

2271 Albany Hwy, Gosnells WA 6110

This project for Gosnells Bowling Club embodies a musical character. Lawn bowls is played at a consistent pace, and requires precise movements, therefore it is an orchestrated game. The architectural language is generated from “familiar chords,” represented by the rigid brick boxes, and a “grand melody,” represented by the gestural and free flowing roof forms. The “hooks” of each space are symbolize through the use of a motif, the wooden element, distinguishing the function of each communal space.

MELODY (CONCRETE)

CHORDS (BRICK)

SITE ISOMETRIC -

The structure of the forms in the project are informed by a time signature and its repeated beats on a stave. Private working spaces and amenities are contained within the brick, while the gathering spaces are contained in the indoor outdoor areas.

There is a clear circulation path that runs uninterrupted through the length of the bowling club, branching out into distinctive spaces. Smaller spaces “crescendo” into bigger spaces, as there is an evident change in “loudness” or levels of activity moving through.

ROOM LEGEND

Reception

Merchandise Room

Meeting Room

Male Change Room

Female Change Room

Lounge Room

Match Room

Bowls Equipment Storage

Stage

Female Toilet 1

Male Toilet 1

14. Bar Coolroom 15. First Aid Room 16. Furniture Storage 1 17. Bar 18. Office 19. Conference Room 20. Female Toilet 2 21. Male Toilet 2 22. Lift (Upstairs) 23. Cool Room 24. Kitchen 25. Furniture Storage 2 26. Dining

4th Year Studio

October 2018

295 Manning Rd, Waterford WA 6152

Dreamtime stories share the common theme that environments are created through movement. From my understanding of Aboriginal culture, the character and expression of the land can always be explained in relation to a spirit and how it flows through the space to manifest certain physical conditions and features across the land.

In this museum design for the Dumbartung Aboriginal Corporation, a spirit within the Clontarf campus guides people on a journey through the museum and all the way down to the river, catalysing a process of cultural reinstitution. As it travels through, it begins to carve spaces and interact with the built and natural environments. The spirit takes the user on a journey through the unique exhibits contained within the building and the outdoor eco-galleries.

Additionally, a dialogue is created where the built environment is being retaken or reclaimed by the land. The overgrown landscape subdues the built form by weaving around the openings of brick screens and crawling into the wall openings and an indoor outdoor area. Over time the natural environment will establish a greater presence in the project and the shape the interpretations drawn from it.

An alignment of mature native trees directed towards the museum was identified as a starting point for the emergence of this guiding spirit. What follows are the visual manifestations of the spirit’s flow both in the built and natural environments.

SITE PLAN | 1:5000

N

GROUND FLOOR PLAN | 1:200

GROUND FLOOR PLAN 1:200

An existing structure on site is modified to create the D.A.C. Museum. The interior of the building is reworked to accommodate unique exhibits for the display of cultural arts and crafts.

1st Year Studio

November 2015

266 Albany Hwy, Victoria Park WA 6100 (Catalano’s restaurant)

This project entails the proposal of a pavilion or parklet for Victoria Park, a sidewalk extension for an existing business along Albany Highway. This pavilion was designed by working alongside Perth artist “Twentyeleven” (or “TK”). Through analysis and abstraction of Twentyeleven’s work, a touchstone was designed and built, an object that distills imperative characteristics of his practice. Next, by drawing aspects from the touchstone, a pavilion was designed as a physical inhabitable manifestation of the artist’s work in a larger scale.

By taking one of Twentyeleven’s artworks and overlapping it with his Bookend bookshelf, there were clear lines that could slice through the artwork and form new shapes. Some of the newly formed shapes were then selected and assembled into the touchstone, an object that conveys the disjointed and disfigured nature present in several of Twentyeleven’s artwork.

In regards to the pavilion, shapes were then extracted from the touchstone and extruded, squashed, stretched, widened and carved. After testing and selection, these final forms were deployed in the final structure and configured to create seating, tables and an access pathway through its centre.

Twentyeleven’s Bookend bookshelf Shape extraction from the artworks Shape

Twentyeleven’s painting (Unnamed)

ALBANYHIGHWAY

This year’s SuperStudio competition required the proposal of a concept that addresses a social issue in our city. In conjunction with Sara Munaam and Samuel Dawson (two of my peers), we investigated how bad personal habits such as substance abuse can change people’s life for the worse, impacting their mental health, which in turn affects everyday life. With the Government investing a lot of resources in rehabilitating people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol, our team decided to propose a maze like installation that can be deployed throughout the city to raise awareness of the issue. The goal of this architecture is to prevent rather than cure.

Developing a destructive habit may be easy, and the road of recovery is full of challenges. In order to allude to this process of rehabilitation from substance abuse, our architecture begins with a funnel like entry that people are enticed into. Upon walking in, the structure becomes corrupted, with elements casting shadows that begin to scratch the walls and block the natural light. Suddenly we find ourselves in a gloomy dark space, symbolising the fall into addiction, and from that point we must continue forward and find our way out.

As people progress through the maze they become closer to society and closer to a normal life. Lights begin to break into the dark space, providing glimmers of the outside as we approach the “real world”, rewarding those who followed through with this recovery. Upon finding the exit, the structure fades away underground as we walk back into the world.

DEVELOPMENT

After designing our own reading rooms, forming groups, and selecting another student’s reading room design to be developed further and constructed in a 1:1 scale, our group built The Nest. I was part of the design team, and played a role in its redesign and pragmatical considerations.

The team incorporated bamboo, plywood and structural pine for the structure, while also allowing it to split into two main segments. These segments are modular and can be reconfigured to create different seating areas. In its site context, the structure could sometimes become concealed by being covered in leafs, only revealing the bamboo, adding a dynamic nature to the reading room.

INITIAL SCHEMATIC FINAL

DISCLAIMER: Differently to all other projects shown in this portfolio, the reading room was a team project, therefore I am not responsible for all of the material produced for this particular project.