Tomás Mena Architect

PORTFOLIO

ARCHITECT

SITE STUDIES AND ANALYSIS

Music School Final Career Project This is the final academic design project for my Architect degree located in Choroní, an enclave in the Henri Pittier national park (Aragua, Venezuela). The objective was to bring all the surrounding elements into an organic architecture language based on the observations and experiences that I registered using freehand drawing analysis during several visits. Digital and analog tools were combined to create a characteristic representation technic that was part of the design itself.

The buildings were placed in the terrain interacting with its form and reflecting the materiality of the surroundings.

Terraces with curved walls and transitions spaces seize the landscape adapting the architecture to the topography of the site. The school counts with an Amphitheatre, three main buildings containing classrooms and workshops spaces and a third building for rehearsal rooms and administrative offices.

AEREAL PERSPECTIVE

This work was published in the monthly issue Medio Informativo, FAU UCV. Tutor: Arch. MUD .Miguel Acosta FAU-UCV | Choroní, estado Aragua, Venezuela | 2005

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PLANS

PERSPECTIVE

ELEVATION FACADE

ELEVATION SECTION

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Crafts to architecture

STUDIES

This academic experience consisted in finding relations between crafts and architecture. Observation and freehand drawing served to analyze constructive aspects of 1:1 scaled objects. A pavilion was designed translating this logic into a habitable architectural scale which led to form an expressive language that were manifested in the modulation of new structural and spatial possibilities.

DETAIL

Tutor: Arch.MUD. Miguel Acosta Seventh semester FAU-UCV | Caracas | 2004

PLAN

SECTIONS AND FACADES

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Experimental housing Loft San Marino

PLANTA NIVEL 1

PLANTA NIVEL 3

The project consisted in the design and development of experimental housing unit Loft San Marino, led by architect Alejandro Haiek.

The construction system uses convertible components that provide the ability to expand or contract the program connecting the interior with the exterior of the building to make the building perfectly permeable to light and air.

Resulting forms were obtained in the process of editing polygons on a modular grid by different operations such as twisting, stratifying, and deforming. Modeling techniques and digital dissection were used to make a taxonomic analysis of the building. Structural calculation software was used to recognize the location and minimum amount of struts needed according to the slab deformation obtained when stress applied. This approach resulted in minimizing joints, visible structure and creating a free perimeter while reducing the number of the foundations and optimizing the structure.

Source: http://www. plataformaarquitectura.cl/ cl/02-50983/abstract-loftsan-marino-lab-pro-fab Assistant Architect Estudio G3 Arquitectura, Lab Pro Fab | Chief architect: Arch.MS. Alejandro Haiek Caracas, Venezuela | 2005

CORTE

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Preexisting Foundations

FACADES AND VOLUMETRY STUDIES

The project consisted in the adaptation of an existing structure to design a mixed program divided in two levels.

The upper level consisted of an apartment with three rooms, kitchen area, dining and services areas, and parking spaces with street level access.

On the lower level an Audio recording studio was requested, with audiovisual production set, storage, offices with separate access and parking space among the others.

The two would function independently while sharing a terrace with swimming pool. Topography allowed the spaces differentiation and set a challenge for the access to the studio due to heavy equipment and instruments are moved frequently, thus a ramp and an elevator where installed.

Currently the project is under construction.

Chief architect Client: Egea Family | Project 2013-2014 | Under construction | Caracas, Venezuela | 2014

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PLANTA NIVEL - 4,00 PLANTA NIVEL + , - 0,00

CORTE A-A’

CORTE B-B’

CORTE C-C’

CORTE D-D’

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Recycling materials and developing details in construction This experience had to do with the development and construction of a multifunctional partition wall that could be adapted to a musical production space in order to optimize the utilitarian benefits and also correct the area´s acoustics. The project aimed to reuse discarded construction materials by city public construction sites combined with specific materials used for acoustic design. It was entirely handcrafted and the outcome corroborated the acoustic calculations resulting inn very similar performance of the design.

Design Detail Development and Construction: Rafael Giner-Tomás Mena | Acoustics: Rafael Giner Barcelona, Spain | 2012

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Digital fabrication Acoustic Panel This acoustic panel forms part of the design exercises for a digital fabrication workshop dictated by architects Juan Pablo Quintero y Maria Teresa Leon in the fabrication shop Medio Design in Barcelona Spain. It was restricted to the use of one wood board and could not exceed its dimensions (1.22 m x 2.44 m), incorporating CNC manufacturing processes of two and half axes cutting machines. Digital fabrication design process and its logical methods where center to the project using software like Rhino and Rhino CAM. The panel design consists of several triangles assembled with adjustable parts that form a detachable complex surface intended to be used for acoustic diffusion.

Workshop instructor: Arq. Juan Pablo Quintero, Medio Design, Barcelona, Spain | 2011 Caracas | 2015

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© Arc.Tomás Mena