Architecture Sample Works

MARIA INES SAAVEDRA [email protected] (315)-708-3663

Commons Building 1 Long Section 1”:64’ 1 entry 2 auditorium3 study lounge4 study lounge 5 conference room6 conference room

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Location: Potsdam, NY, USA. The project is conceived as a campus within a campus that creates a down-hill promenade overlooking the adja-cent body of water. A series of terraces carve into the terrain and host different activities that celebrate the path to the housing units. The common spaces are located in the center, reinforcing the connection between inside and outside and allowing opportunities of social interaction among students. A major challenge for this project was the integration of sustainable systems within housing units. A core system that combined heating and plumbing was the main organizational compo-nent of the entire scheme. It divides the program, placing living in the front and service in the back.

POTSDAM UNIVERSITY DORMITORIES

Media Used: AutoCAD, Illustrator, Photoshop, Rhino and V-Ray for Rhino Design and Production in collaboration with K. Thompson

Maria Ines Saavedra [email protected] 315-7083663

Short Section 1’:1/8” a. hotel room e. water fountain / ice skating rink b hotel room f. market c. restaurant g. parking d. plaza

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SOCIAL SPACE DETROIT Location: Detroit, MI. The Scheme performs as a support for a current project called “Get Fresh Detroit.” Detroit is a shrinking city that is better known as the food desert.“Get fresh Detroit” offers a possibility to turn unconventional service spaces into opportunities for easy access to healthy foods. The site is proposed as a social corner where a mixed-use hotel and a farmer’s market merge in order to allow social interaction. The idea is to create an inte-rior world that opens up to the adjacent streets in order to create an elevated plaza where the activity occurs. Easy flow of people and visual connections are a key aspect of the project. The connections between inside and outside are also a key aspect in the design. The boundaries between interior and exterior programs start to blur in the moments when the skin turns into exterior furniture. Media Used: AutoCAD, Illusttrator, Photoshop, Rhino and V-Ray for Rhino



Media Used: AutoCAD, Illustrator, Photoshop, Rhino

STUDENT CENTER Location: London, UK

STUDENT CENTER Location: London, UK

STUDENT CENTER Location: London, UK Media Used: Photoshop, Rhino and V-Ray for Rhino


PERSONAL WORK Designed and built sculptures and furniture exploring media and scale combining both digital and manual work. Description of pieces from left to right: 1. Torso: Rubber casted over a mannequin 2. Sculpture: Cement sculpture over wooden base 3. Stool: Iron base (manually constructed) and laser-cut plywood for the top. The furniture piece was constructed in full scale. (12 in diameter x 24 in). 4. Lamp: Modelled in 3D using Rhino. The lamp was constructed by adding layers of laser-cut chipboard and plexiglass. (16 x 6 x 7.5 in).


PROFESSIONAL WORK Renderings realized for Mathias Klotz & Asociados.. Media Used: SketchUP, V-Ray, Photoshop.


ACADEMIC THESIS

The incorporation of Green Belts as an urban tool has helped stop sprawl and protect farmland around cities. But what happens when the pressure for growth is so big that it surpasses the boundaries of the Green Belt? In Santa Cruz, Bolivia, development pressures have resulted in expansion of the city beyond the Green Zone, with a second city center developing on the city’s hinterlands. New transit lanes that connect both sides of the city have become the gates for illegal settlements, which have caused major deforestation and land degradation, challenging the Green Zone’s original function: to protect the city from flooding. This project explores how the inhabitation of flooding infrastructures can help reconnect the city with the waterfront by creating a series of public nodes that program the city’s largest green zone. Studying the intersections between engineering and architecture has been a great tool in order to understand current flooding infrastructures and be able to re-design them. Also, combining Architecture and Landscape Urbanism has been key in developing new methods that allow visual and physical connections to the water while protecting the city from flooding. By re-thinking flooding infrastructures as multi-functional systems that encourage the inhabitation of the water edge, people will be able to re-connect with the environment and learn from it.

RE-THINKING THE GREEN BELT: SUSTAINABILITY AND DEVELOPMENT IN GROWING CITIES Location: Santa Cruz, Bolivia

Green Belt

Green Areas

River

Deforestation

Future extension of roads into the hinterlands

Proposed public nodes

Flooding infrastructures

Olimpic Villa and Soccer Club

Commercial Avenue

Cultural/ Main SquareCultural/ Main Square

Main Educational Facilities

Site

Contention:

The incorporation of Green Belts as an urban tool has helped stop sprawl and protect farmland around cities. But what happens when the pressure for growth is so big that it surpasses the boundaries of the Green Belt? In Santa Cruz, Bo-livia, development pressures have resulted in the expansion of the city beyond the Green Zone, with a second city center developing on the city’s hinterlands. New transit lanes that connect both sides of the city have become the gates for illegal settlements, which have caused major deforestation and land degradation, challenging the Green Zone’s original function: to protect the city from flooding. This project explores how by re-designing flooding infra-structures we can help reconnect the city with the waterfront. By creating a series of public nodes that program the city’s largest green zone, a new network of open spaces that connects the city from north to south and east to west would be created. This network supports recreational, educational and cultural activities and becomes the organizer of the next wave of neighborhoods growing along the riverfront. Combining Architecture and Landscape Urbanism has been key in developing new methods that allow visual and physical connections to the water while protecting the city from flooding. By re-thinking flooding infrastructures as multi-functional systems that encourage the inhabitation of the water edge, people will be able to re-connect with the environment and learn from it.

RE-THINKING THE GREEN BELT :SUSTAINABILITY AND DEVELOPMENT IN GROWING CITIES

GREEN BELT

RIVER

DEVELOP-MENT

POPULATION GROWTH

URBAN EXPANSION

FLOODING

WATER INFRASTRU-

TURE

PROTECTIVE ZONE

DEMAND FOR BASIC SERVICES

INCREASE OF DIS-TANCES

NEED FOR WATER

WATER RUNOFF

NEED TO GREEN URBAN

ENVIRON-MENTAL LAWS

CUTDOWN CONSTRUC-

TION

“ BETWEEN 2007 AND 2050 THE WORLD’S POPULATION IS PROJECTED TO INCREASE FOM 6.7 TO 9.7 BILLION, AND MOST OF THIS GROWTH WILL OCCUR IIN URBAN AREAS OF LESS DEVELOPED COUN-TRIES. ”

(United Nations,2008)

THIS MEANS THAT CITIES ARE GOING TO GROWMORE

how do cities grow?

Internal Pressure(Development)

External Pressure (Green Belt)

External Pressure (Green Belt)



External Pressure (Green Belt) gets bigger

CITY AS A BALOON

what is the impact of the Green Belt on Development?

what is the impact of Development on the Green Belt?

RIVER + GREEN BELT + CITY

The river, the Green Belt and the city don’t interact in a physical or spatial manner. Instead, they are presented as different layers of space and material that are located next to each other. How can we integrate them spatially to create a physical experience on the River Edge?

PATTERNS AND LAND ORGANIZATIONSeries of Pattern Studies that explore the interaction between: water infrastructure programmed green spaces natural green spaces

Pattern 1 The pattern continues the current proportions of the blocks in the urban fabric, creating a density towards the river edge. Both architectural infrastructure and programmed green spaces are altered with natural green spaces and start to frame them. This creates a natural green space zone in the middle that allows the continuous interaction with the natural landscape.

Pattern 2 The pattern inverts the current structure of the city and uses programmed green spaces as the blocks. Infrastructure continues the streets’ proportions and direction. The infrastructure is seen as series of inhabitable walls that interact directly with the programmed green spaces, creating a promenade towards the river while serving as

Pattern 4 This pattern also continues the current proportions of the blocks in the urban fabric, creating a density towards the river edge. Both architectural infrastructure and pro-grammed green spaces are altered in order to create density towars the River edge. Programmed green is puhed to the middle zone in ordet o allow a continuours promenade to the water.

Pattern 5 The pattern inverts the current structure of the city and uses programmed green spaces as the blocks. Infrastructure frames the programmed green spaces and creates series of

Pattern 6 The pattern continues the current proportions of the blocks in the urban fabric, creating a linear axis towards the river edge.

Pattern 3The pattern continues the density of the city into the flood plane and uses the second flood barrier (dike) as a public urban space. Instead of breaking the access to the green zone, the dike becomes the entry point, which welcomes people to a series of programmed and unprogrammed green spaces that create a promenade to the river edge.

INFRASTRUCTURE GREEN BELT

RIVER

1. Current Condition: Dike divides the Green Belt and the city. It blocks the access to the river edge.

2. The Re-interpretation of the dike as a void would activate the Green Belt’s edge to the city and would allow the inhabitation of it.

3. The Surface of the dike is treated as a public staircase that allow the access to the Green Belt and act as an outdoor theater that overlooks the city and the river.

4. Introduction of stairs on the river edge allow direct contact with the water

5. Manipulation of the landscape to increase water storage capacity when flood occurs. The depth of the slopes is 3m, which is the maximum rise of the water level per day.

6. Introduction of terraces for sports activities use the edge of the dike as seating area.

7. The core within the dike operates as an invisible flood wall, which is a temporary flooding infrastructure that is hollow and holds water during flood. It uses the weight of the water as structure. Having the circulation core as method for water storage allows people to experience flood in the interior of the building as well.

8. Connections between the interior of the dike and the landscape allow the water stored during flood to be released back into the landscape after the flood risks have passed.



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Expansion of Educational Facilities

The Site chosen is where the next bridge that connects the city center and the new developments on the city’s hinterlands will be built. This project proposes to expand the educational axis into the site and use it as an opportunity to inhabit the Green Belt and re-establish the dialogue between the city and the river. The program proposed is an Arts and Crafts Center. The Educational program not only relates to the existing surroundings but also refers to the seasonal changes and the differences in water levels. During the dry season (fall, spring and winter) the project will function as an arts and crafts institute and during the flood season (summer) the educa-tional facilities will remain unoccupied and will welcome the flood, allowing people to occupy only the permanent program (library, auditorium and permanent exhibition spaces) . After the flood is gone, the remaining earth and clay will be cleaned out of interiors spaces and used as materials for pottery.

1. Private University 2. Public University 3. Municipal Library



J F M A M J J A S O N D

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Water Cleaning

115 117 89 63 66 48 37 25 46 81 98 139

Precipitation in mm

Temperatures in C

Trees with expiring leaves

Trees with everlasting leaves

Trees with expiring leaves

Palms

School Year

Botanical Garden

Natural History Museum

Sports Area

Fruits

Fruits

Orchids

Flowers

Wetlands

-Constructed where space is limited

-Break the view and access to the river-Costly-I-Walls greater that 6 feet in height may not provide complete protection.

-Concrete

Dike Type Advantages Disadvantages Materials Section Pictures

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Dike Type Advantages Disadvantages Materials Section Pictures

Flood Wall Type Advantages Disadvantages Materials PicturesSection

Basic I-Wall

Dike-Pond System-The fertilizer, water and soil can be readjusted automatically,

ties can be prevented, so that the inferior land can be made fertile-Increaes variaty in plants and animal species.

Earthen Dike -3 to 1 ratio creates a mantain-able slope. -Doesn’t break the view to the river.-The Top is �at, in order to accomodate equipment and additional sandbags.-Cheap to create and to mantain.

- Cut the access to water because the slope is to steep.-Can’t be inhabited-Water seepage is possible through the dike if it is in poor condition or not built properly.

-Earth -Sand bags-Rocks

Crest Drainage Dike

-minimizes erosion on the innterside of the dike-Lasts minimum 50 years-they have great bu�er capacity to to handle larger overtopping volumes per wave-Operates in large scales

-It is a hard structure and will not b e able to connect to the clay dike- Costly

-Steel-Concrete

-Constructed where space is limited

-It can be lowered to a horizontal position to form a walk, or to �t �ush to existing ground or pavement.-Costly

- Pre Cast ConcreteButtress Retaining Wall

-Can be �ooded-Uses the weight of water as structure-Temporary Structure: Can be installed when water threaten, and easily taken away when the �ood is gone, leaving the riverfront view without obstruction.-Leaves the beauty of the riverfront intact-Easy construction

-Costly -Hollow aluminium planks-Ruber Seals

Invisible Flood Wall

Rubber seals

Aluminum planks

-Very Stable-Slope can allow access to the water

-Breaks view to the River - ConcreteGravity Wall

Rubble Dam -Cheap-This method has the advantage of adjusting the height of the dike easily by pumping or releasing air or water into the rubber bags

-It can go only up to 6 m high

-Rock-Pre-Cast Concrete

Mix-Type Dike -Reduce settelment-High Stability

-It can’t be inhabited -Rock-Pre-Cast Concrete-Geotextile bags-Crushed StonesHydraulic Fill

(Changes) (Changes)(Changes)

- 2.70 +1.30 +3.00 0.000.00

150 15 350 8 30 40

Current Section

- 4.70

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8.0 30.0

Current Section Detail Dike. This Barrier is approx. 15 km long. It is composed of pressed earth and is 3 meters higher than the city.

Proposed Section Detail Dike. This Barrier is approx. 15 km long. It is composed of concrete and covered in grass. It is 7 meters higher than the city

(Changes) (Changes)(Changes)

- 2.70 +1.30+7.00

0.000.00

150 15 350 80 30 40

Proposed Section

- 4.70

80 30.0

+1.30 -3.00

15.00

Months

Current Condition doesn’t allow the access to the River Edge

Proposed condition uses the flooding infrastructure as a catalyst between the city and the river

Re-connect the City with the River

Site Plan


Flooding infrastructure’s module during dry season



Flooding infrastructure’s module during flood




Exhibition spaces during the dry season


Exhibition spaces during flood


For more information contact: Maria I. Saavedra

319, Euclid Ave. Apt 2E Syracuse, NY 13210

(315)-708-3663 [email protected]

Documents

Architecture Sample Works