ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN DESIGN PORTFOLIO

PORTFOLIO

SOFIA VICTORIA GONZALEZ CABALLERO

Dear Oppenheim Architecture,

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to visit your studio with my cousin Samuel Guevara and see some of your projects. I was inspired by the innovative concepts of your designs and the way they interact with their surround ings, framing the landscape . I truly pictured myself being a part of your team. Back then, I was doing my Master in Contemporary project and Urbanism, which I finished last year. Now, I found myself again with a chance to apply for a position in your studio. I currently live in Madrid and was wondering if there is a remote position available at the time.

The architectural designs that I have selected for this portfolio are all community focused and study the spati ality of architecture integrated with urban strategies that promote positive transformations in complex territories. The projects are organized from the biggest to smallest, displaying my abilities to conceptualize both architectural and urban projects in a variety of scales. Working with you will be an enriching experience to my career, in which I would like to add value.

Cordially, Sofia Victoria Gonzalez Caballero.

SOFIA VICTORIA GONZALEZ CABALLERO

Architecture, Urban Design, Urbanism.

WORK EXPERIENCE INTERNSHIPS

FREELANCE ARCHITECTURAL DRAFTER

VDC Works, Miami, Remote 02/2022 - today

•I generate detailed plans for complex electrical systems for installa tion and fabrication.

ARCHITECT - DESIGN LEADER

Promotora Tántalo, C.A. Valencia, Venezuela 10/2018 – 08/2019

•I led architectural projects in Costa Rica, El Salvador and Guatemala, including conducting site surveys, design proposals, renders, technical plans, architectural details, descriptive reports, metric computations and technical documents.

•I presented projects to clients in an efficient, clear and organized man ner, complying with their specifications and the strict delivery deadlines of the company.

ARCHITECTURAL DRAFTER

IslaLinda Hotel Boutique, Falcon, Venezuela 06/2016 – 09/2018

•I drew architectural detail plans for service facilities and collaborated in the landscape design and interior design of the hotel.

CONSTRUCTION SUPERVISION

CITCAL C.A. Valencia, Venezuela 11/2015 - 05/2016

•I supervised the construction, made calculations, and compared ma terial budgets for La Cuadra Hotel Boutique in Valencia, Venezuela.

ARCHITECTURAL DRAFTER

ProyeCAD C.A. Valencia, Venezuela 07/2015 – 11/2015

•I drew technical plans and architectural details for the exterior spaces of the Guaparo Inn Hotel in Valencia, Venezuela.

EDUCATION

Madrid, Spain +34 605 94 7331 sofi.vgc@gmail.com

DISLOCAL DIPLOMA

Morón University, Online

LANGUAGES

SOFTWARE SKILLS

08/2021 – 12/2021

•I learned to conceptualize buildings and public spaces through a par ticipatory desing approach, to meet the needs the inhabitants of El Cal vario, a low-income neighborhood in Caracas, Venezuela.

MBARCH - DOUBLE SPECIALTY IN CONTEMPORARY PROJECT AND URBANISM

UPC - ETSAB, Barcelona, Spain 09/2019 – 10/2021

•I recieved a Honorific Mention for my outstandig Thesis (to be pub lished in a scientific paper).

•I learned a sensible approach to architectural desing that interlaces the intangible significance of place (old and new) and its materialilty, to create timeless interventions that adapt to contemporary needs.

•I learned innovative tools for multy-scale urban analysis, to provide coherent urban strategies with a multidisciplinary approach.

ARCHITECTURE

Universidad José Antonio Páez, San Diego, Venezuela 06/2013 –07/2017

Spanish (C2) English (C1) Italian (B2)

ArchiCad, Revit, Autocad, Photoshop, Ilustrator, InDesign, SketchUp, Lu mion, V Ray, Qgis, Office suite, IWork suite.and Google Workspace.

Teamwork, Leadership, Assertive communication, Rendering, Illustra tion, Graphic design, Creative Writing.

INFORMATION

INHABITING THE IMPOSSIBLE

Studying urban discontinuities in Caracas.

Master Thesis (individual work)

Year: 2021

Place: Caracas, Venezuela

Tutors: Eulalia Gomez Escoda Xavier Llobet

DESCRIPTION

The term barrio is used in Venezuela to refer to the self built communities that have been de veloped in the peripheries of the cities. These territories are characterized by their conditions of overcrowding, and the vulnerability that sup poses building in the least adequate lands of the cities, which at the same time have the most challenging topography. This research centers in bringing visibility and value to the barrios, trying to change the paradigm of the barrios as a neg ative place that is segregated from the city. To see the interstitial spaces between the planned and the spontaneous as a opportunity to gener ate positive interactions that can in turn promote a more just and cohesive city. By acknowledging the barrios as an essential part of the city, we can begin to embrace them as part of the urban tissue, letting them permeate through their bor ders and go down from the mountains and into the planned sector.

MOBILITY

This research seeks to analyze the discontinui ty of urban tissues between Petare and Urbina, analyzing the streets, public spaces and build ings; to generate strategies that equalize both urban tissues, creating continuity and common ground where the two societies can coexist

share in community. By analyzing the conditions that promote the discontinuity between Petare and La Urbina and how this translates into their urban fabrics and dynamics, a series of strate gies will be proposed to help generate continuity and equalize both sides of the highway.

FACILITIES AND MICROCENTERS

The proposal establishes a main connection route through a metrocable line in Petare that is reinforced by secondary pedestrian routes across the Francisco Fajardo highway which bring continuity to the streets of Petare and La Urbina The first station is located in the planned sector of the city, the Francisco Fajardo station, that has an important intermodal connection with the cabletrain’s 19 de Abril station, the second station is located in the Barrio 12 de oc tubre one of the densest and most topographic challenging areas of Petare.

INFORMATION DESCRIPTION

A FRANCISCO FAJARDO STATION

Conecting the barrio to the planned sector.

Master Thesis (individual work)

Year: 2021

Place: Caracas, Venezuela

Tutors: Eulalia Gomez Escoda Xavier Llobet

The location of the Francisco Fajardo station was strategically chosen because of the vicinity to the cable-train station in the east side of the Francisco Fajardo highway, and also due to its proximity to two small plots that are filled with two self build communities in the middle of the planned sector that are probably an extension of Petare.

The decision to locate the station one the west side of the Francisco Fajardo highway, in the planned sector has the goal to bring a facility that serves the barrios to the planned sector of the city, promoting the multiplication of micro centers within the planned sector of the city. Two bridges allow for continuity into the barrio and directly connect Petare with one of the plots with self built communities in La Urbina. The Fran cisco Fajardo station building was divided verti cally into two main pieces, that house different functions, the lower having a fragmented shape that adapts to the pedestrian flow generated by the transversal connection and the longitudinal path, also adapting to the scale of the self built houses in the west side on the Francisco Fajardo highway. The top volume of the station is merely for the engineering and functionality of the met rocable, connected to the lower main volume by a vertical circulation structure. The metro-cable volume is rotated towards the direction of the 12 de octubre station.

Irregular shape that allows pedestrian circulation

Connecting bridges across the highway

FRANCISCO FAJARDO STATION CONCEPTUAL DIAGRAMS FRANCISCO FAJARDO STATION SECTION

Top volume rotates towards the metrocable line

Top volume elevation through vertical circulation

At an architectural scale, the continuity strate gy proposes the crossing of the Francisco Fajar do highway through the two bridges and along the longitudinal public space that travels to the south, and into the two self built communities in La Urbina, promoting the development of activities and new businesses in the buildings that delimit this pedestrian paths. This leads to the improvement of these areas so that they are also traveled by the people who live in the planned sector.

INFORMATION

B 12 DE OCTUBRE STATION

Building infrastructure in a fragmented urban tissue.

Master Thesis (individual work)

Year: 2021 Place: Caracas, Venezuela

Tutors: Eulalia Gomez Escoda Xavier Llobet

DESCRIPTION

The main challenge that architects face when designing a building of any scale in the heart of the barrio is the fragmented morphology of the urban tissue. Essentially what was searched for in the conceptualization of the 12 de octubre metro-cable station in the barrio was to respect the surrounding houses as much as possible, reinterpreting the urban conditions of the bar rio. The strategy conceived to conceptualize the buildings of the 12 de octubre station consist ed in opening up the space inside that barrio to create a public square. This was achieved by re locating some of the houses in the intervention area. The square that was produced was an ir regular open space that was demarcated by the fragmented façades of the barrio’s houses. Big engineering works that are grounded into the city by architectural design such as metro-cable stations have the tendency to be of big scales that in this particular case, seemed enormous and out of scale when built in a place like Pe tare. This is why the conceptual proposal stud ied the fragmentation of the metrocable station building into two buildings that integrate with the existing houses. Also, by elevating the struc ture of the metrocable it is possible to generate a more fragmented architecture that adapts to the scale of the houses and the urban tissue of the barrio.

Relocation of existing houses to open public space

Fragmented shapes adapt to the new public space, and scale of the barrio

volume angles

adapts to the metrocable

The shapes of the two facility buildings respond to the fragmented forms of their surroundings by also fragmenting themselves into irregular shapes that adapt to the perimeter of the main public square that was generated; filling this space with activities for the community. The fa cility building to the south of the square func tions as a multi-use civic center and is conceived to become the center of the communal organi zation of the 12 de octubre barrio and some of the other barrios that surround it.

INFORMATION

INDUSTRIAL AREA REHABILITATION

Transforming unused buildigns into livable mixed-use residences.

DESCRIPTION

Workshop delivery (individual work)

Year: 2019

Place: Barcelona, Spain

Tutors: Xavier Llobet

L’hospitalet is one of the densest cities in Cata lonia, with an irregular distribution of the popu lation. The industrial area, also known as zona franca has the lowest density in the city, gen erating many urban voids and unused spaces within. This proposal adresses two of the main problems of this area which are the underuse of the territory -that leave this area lifeless and empty- and the difficulties to find affordable housing in barcelona. The question then was how to create a livable neighborhood that not only addresed the hous ing problems of the city, but that could also gen erate different activities to reactivate the area, so that it transforms the zona franca into a pro ductive, commercial, livable area with public spaces for collective use. It was then that the idea of multiuse buildings was concieved, this buildings, commonly used in Barcelona, are the one of the key elements to create livable neigh borhood. Because of this effective system, the citizens are able to develop their lives around a compact sustainable space. which pro- vides them with the activities they need in their every day life. One of the best examples of this are the “Superillas”, which is a model applied succes fully in different areas of barcelona and are de signed through a participation process with the neighbors.

Adding

Demolition Building rehabilitation

scales,

The spaciality of the proposed buildings, mix with the restored industrial wharehouses over posing eachother generating voids with aesthet ic qualities. The proposed buildings articulate with the existing in three scales, the first, adapts to the industrial wharehouses roof height, the second, hoovers on top of the ground floor build ings, leaving a free space in between the two generating fluid covers to the pedestrias that walk through the public spaces. The last scale, consists in tall vertical elements that frame the sky for residential use.

Project strategies:

1. Opening the existing buildings to create a per meable walkable city, 2. Impulsing productivity in the city by using the buildings’ basements as induatrial areas, 3. Creating a multiuse lov er floor area through the renewal of the exist ing industrial buinding structures to activate the neighborhood (commercial, cultural, cowork ing, facilities), 4. Densifiying the industrial area through a cohousing complex with social orient ed architecture that adapts to the users needs.

URBAN REVIVAL MASTERPLAN

INFORMATION

ARTURO MICHELENA HOSPITAL

Contributing with the least benefited communities of the city.

5th semester undergraduate (individual work)

Year: 2015

Place: Valencia, Venezuela

Tutors: Peter Albers

DESCRIPTION

The sector of Michelena in the city of Valencia is a poor community that lacks public services such as water, electricity and sewage, but one of the most worrisome things in this communi ty is that they do not have access to free well equipped health facilities.

For the hospital to function correctly it needs three main areas. The public module is the most hierarchical one, following with the semi private and private one, this is thanks to the number of people who attend to each of these areas. The main difficulty of the design is to make these areas work correctly without mixing them so that the operating rooms and the spaces that need more asepsis are isolated form the gen eral public for different health reasons. Taking this into account the building was designed in three modules with a free space in the middle that properly divides these main areas.

The three modules develop around a big cen tral space covered by a tensile structure that integrates the modules in an aesthetic way. The public can only access the hospitalization wing that is accessed through ramps that connect to the elevators, this can be seen in the left side of the section bellow.

The hospital faces north for optimal cross ventilation

Pedestrian access is an open space framed by the private areas of the building

A vertical volume allows users to access all floors

The green roofs contribute with the well-being of the patients

SHOWING THE SURROUNDING COMUNITY PARK AND GREEN ROOFS

This project not only provides the inhabitants of the Michelena neighborhood with a well equipped health facility, but also with a big public park that integrates de community and changes the way that a hospital is usually con ceived. The hospital passes from being a place of sickness to being a place of life and hope for the inhabitants of the area. The greenery also helps with the relaxation of the patients and to improve their overall health.