PORT·FOLIOLuis Gómez Barquín Lanne-Lenne

* (lat. portare ‘carry/porter/portar’ · folium ‘page/page/folio’ )

Excavated architectures, understood as the most primary of the refuges, and the special sensation that one has inside these places are both inspira-tion and fascination for my practice: spaces, objects and subtractive actions that provide an instinctive protection. Driven by tangible experiences and irra-tional emotions, evocative literature and hands-on experiments are intertwined continuously with my personal life occurrences to serve as basement for my own searches and my own answers.

This portfolio illustrates some of my most represen-tative works, showing a wide range of my design and spatial skills. Moreover, it depicts my expan-sive conceptual, social and realistic thinking. First of all there will be a representation of some of the projects which I developed during my Master stud-ies at the Design Academy Eindhoven, starting with my Graduation work on Social Design. There will be also a description of my Degree thesis for my Bach-elor / Master studies in Architecture at the School of Architecture of Seville, and a selection of my professional work as designer and architect during my freelance practice. The final part of this portfo-lio, a section called ‘process’, are experiments and hands-on try-outs that come to show the way I think and perform my work.

This document must be complemented with an at-tached resume and also with my personal web page www.lanne-lenne.com for an entire overview of my practice.

PROLOGUE / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

* Previous page: drawing I made at the age of 5.* Following two pages: mood cloud.

Graduation thesis project / Master of Social Design / Design Academy Eindhoven / 2011-2012.

Usually creating an object involves the addition of material; in this project it’s the other way around. It is all about removing the excess to slowly tailor it to individual preferences. My graduation thesis project for my Master studies in the Social Design programme at the Design Academy Eindhoven, deals on the inspiring topic of creating by taking away, resulting in a family of objects and a thesis book gathering the complete research.

Ancient architecture was purely for protection. Against weather, animals or human enemies. It was done by removing soil or excavating rocks. Ancient garments were also made by removing. A fleece from a sheep, a bark from a tree. These were remade, all this needed focus and dedication. But today’s dangers and lifestyle are more complex and subtle, so products as well as garments are way be-yond those ancient pieces. However, we lost the skill of removal. We constantly add. But we can learn, and remove. Focus again, reflect, commit. That’s why I have designed pieces that will become ours by removing material from them, ‘objects that ask for an action’, I call them, for it’s part of the ques-tions we have to ask ourselves: what do we really need, what can go? I have applied this method to a chair and a blanket, but stress that the idea can be applied to almost anything. This process has been designed to take time. Lots of time. I believe that relatively simple, repetitive tasks have a heal-ing effect. People nowadays think too much. Every time you physically remove something from these objects, it’s like getting rid of some mental clutter. The blanket is too thick to wrap yourself comfortably unless... The chair has no room to sit on unless...

UNLESS YOU REMOVE: OBJECTS THAT ASK FOR AN ACTION / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

Commercialized by Neutra Ediciones / Exhibited at the exhibition ‘Up Close, Wide Open’ in Eindhoven in October 2012, at ‘JustMad 4: emerging art fair’ in Madrid in February 2013, and at the show ‘Diseño a Secas’ at the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporá-neo in Seville in June 2013 / Featured on July 2013 issue of VISION Magazine, China.

One of the objects resulting from the research is a blanket, a piece which starts off as a heavy, inflexible, thick mound of woven textiles. This big accumulation of material impedes the blanket to be normally used in principle. Its original thickness does not allow to have a soft and flexible textile rug to wrap yourself with it, but when matter is slowly taken away, the blanket starts to gain movement, losing its stiffness. By picking away at the cloth, it is transformed into a functional blanket. In the same way the chair, the other piece resulting from the research, in the beginning is not a chair yet. It simply has the potential to become a chair. It is a cube made up of layer upon layer of thin perforated wood. Only by removing material of the layers, does it slowly ‘degenerate’ into a chair since the chair itself is virtually inside; using your hands, breaking and taking away, the volume generated will change with every removal action, and the chair will begin to appear as this manual action is performed.

Commisioned project / Product design / Hands-on manufacture on metal / 2010.

When living in small rooms or apartments, it is not easy to host a friend and make their short stay more comfortable. This temporary small bedside table for our guests allows to place the travelling guide and light a candle before falling asleep after a long tourist day. It is made out of thin white steel sheet, bent several times in friendly shapes like a piece of paper.

The object must be necessarily attached below the guest’s mattress, otherwise due to its particular shape it does not stay still, thus its function is lim-ited to its use. When it is not attached, this is when the guest is not over the mattress, the object can be close and saved apart. Evoking the cross sections of metal beams which are self-supporting construc-tion elements, I manufactured this piece in white steel sheet, bent carefully by hand, getting the most neutral object that fits every different personalities of our guests, with a circular bas-relief that fixes the candles. The bedside table creates a comfort-able temporary enviroment around itself, making a spot that is only for our guest, his/her small per-sonal space inside our house.

BENDING A PIECE OF PAPER / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

Commercialized by Neutra Ediciones / Exhibited at ‘Diseño a Secas’ at the Centro Andaluz de Arte Con-temporáneo in Seville in June 2013.

Commisioned project / Textile design / Silkscreening patterns / 2010.

The effect of the Spanish light inside a room is quite characteristic, due to the blinds every window has to protect the inner space of the room from the Sun. But when living in cities where the Sun is not as present as in Spain, we can miss it. This quilt cover has a silkscreened printing that emulates the traces produced by the Sun passing through the Spanish blinds.

Instead of designing a source of light that repro-duces the Sun of Spain, I have decided to play with its effect. Two different patterns are silkscreen-printed in a plain bed linen, patterns that each one is made out of two kind of paint, sun-sense and glow-in-the-dark. Using inks which react with light or with the lack of it, the presence of the sunlight and its potential is much more perceptible, since one of the layers is only seen when direct light is pointing at it, and the other one when there is no longer a source of light on. With this silkcreened bed linen, the Spanish sunlight feels much closer, for it produces the sensation given by the shadows of the blinds, essential protective objects in Spain to calm down the Sun inside the rooms.

SPANISH SUNLIGHT / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

Commercialized by Neutra Ediciones / Exhibited at ‘Diseño a Secas’ at the Centro Andaluz de Arte Con-temporáneo in Seville in June 2013.

STRATIFIED FABRIC / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

Self-iniciated experiment / Textile’s craft / Hand-made woven cloth / 2012.

A textile meant to remove. A two-dimensional de-sign asking for a taking-away performance, where the traces of the removal actions to-be-made re-minds to the quartering patterns of cloth makers or to the detailed floor plans of an architecture piece. I wove this piece of fabric in a manual loom by hand inspired by the layers of those primitive materials that humans use for protection -soil where caves are carved and skin that is protected by cloths.

Layers of threads, in a range of thick and thin yarns, evoke the stratums of compacted soil, the epidermic components of our skin. I make and design the fab-ric to give this visual suggestive, reminiscent and expressive impression, by adding and interweaving matter; therefore, provided this canvas, the action of the user carries all the removal connotations. The diversity of thread thicknesses visually attracts but also guides and engages the user in his or her re-moval making process; this does not mean that the design of the fabric is decreasing the effort the user has to make to do it easier; rather it makes this task more attractive and not too exhausting.

Featured on July 2013 issue of VISION Magazine, China.

MATERIALITY / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

Commisioned and self-iniciated research / Material design / Study, creation, production / 2013-2014.

Material creation is essential for architecture, in-teriors and design projects. This personal research has served for clients such as Dior Parfums, Neutra Ediciones and Prada among others.

The versatile use of found fabrics with brand-new personal textile designs, in combination with other different type of matters, produce very personal and well-orientated results acording to needs, identity and function. A game of transitions, fadings, foldings, textures...

GEOMETRICAL REMOVALS / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

Self-iniciated project / Conceptual research / Sub-tractions from graphics to textiles / 2012.

These charcoal drawings are the result of my word-less attempts to express the concept of ‘taking away’ and its extended meaning that goes beyond eliminate. This is shown by starting from a com-pact black block composed by a pile of horizontal lines drawn with a piece of charcoal; the concept of ‘removal’ is then expressed by applying the simply action of displacing some lines, one by one, from that previous block, getting geometrical shapes as a result, and expressing therefore my personal be-lieving that ‘removing’ means way much more than just ‘eliminating’.

These drawings find inspiration on my grandmoth-er’s way to decorate her tablecloths, a traditional handmade technique called ‘hemstitch’ or ‘hem-stitch’ (known as ‘vainicas’ in Spanish) where threads are removed by hand from the piece of fab-ric to decorate the resulting loose areas. Following these previous drawing samples, I felt curious to try the effect of this process on textiles. Testing the same idea on a piece of fabric, different effects are achieved, but in this case, due to the material itself. Removing or simply moving lines in the piece of fa-bric changes the configuration of the tissue. When moving only several threads within the piece of tex-tile and leaving the rest in their normal position, new surfaces, shapes, textures and alterations of its previous two-dimensionality appear in the weft.

Exhibited at ‘Diseño a Secas’ at the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo in Seville in June 2013.

Self-initiated project / Installation design / Express-ing concepts without words / 2012.

What sort of protection does a person need nowa-days? A physical one? Or a more psychical and sub-tle one? Trying to give response to these questions, I set this textile installation at home serving as practical scenario to get inspired and provide per-sonal hands-on conclusions. The trip on protection that men has been seeking, from dug architecture to garments, reaches its other extreme point and is completed by a mental protection that one is able to find, stated as probably our current most effective and virtual means to feel safe and calm again.

But it is a mental place not easy to build; it is not a place that one gets immediately, but a constant intensive practice is needed to reach it. The only way to achieve this place is by means of deleting one’s worries, problems, distractions, restlessness... which I consider a mental diligent removal action. This non-rapid task is always present, and necessary I would say. An effort -physical to carve caves in mountains or mental to empty our mind- that we must make to get a personal result. An effort that implies a personal dedication of time, energy and commitment that is important and crucial in order to consolidate a stronger link, a special emotional connection, between person and state. One reaches that state as a result of one’s personal effort.

MENTAL HOME / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

Final degree project / Bachelor+Master of Architec-ture / School of Architecture of Seville / 2007-2008.

Unitary and partially excavated, this intervention in the earliest neighborhood of Alcalá de Guadaíra, a small village in south Spain, gets inspiration in the history of ancient caves surrounded by crops that spotted this quarter, to create a set of six houses (self-supported by six crop-farmer families) along with a landscape regeneration of the surrounding area.

My diploma project for my Bachelor / Master stud-ies in Architecture in the School of Architecture of the University of Seville, takes place focusing in the hillside of the nowadays known as ‘old quarter of the castle’, remarkably guided by the highest-slope line of the hill, and detailing on the partially carved housing set that I erect leaned against an ancient wall that descends from the castle finding the Guadaira river. A house-scale intervention with a housing sets of six units, combined with new small urban squares to contemplate the new cultivated landscape. These houses will merge a residential use with a commercial land-farm activity thanks to the new cultivated spaces that get to expand the living of these houses toward these grounds which are outside the houses. With this union between residential and commercial uses, the baker’s house, the fruit seller’s house, the greengrocer’s house, the florist’s house... are the result that helps to increase the commercial activity of this isolated suburb.

TAKE OFF / PUT ON: 6 HOUSES IN A MOUNTAIN / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

Finalist in the International Award for Architecture Diploma organised by ACXT-IDOM, in 2009.

The new houses occupy several adjoining plots con-nected underground; the outstanding quality of the rock soil allows to work with carved architectures, not only to create spaces and patios inside the houses as caves, but to make also the connections between plots. The houses also have a built volume emerging from the soil that perfectly fit within the existing weft. The new public path run combined with the built pieces, playing and giving way, pass-ing underneath, touching the ancient walls, emerg-ing towards a small square, creating viewpoints...

Commisioned project / Architecture design / Build-ing and urban planning / 2007.

In an completely vacant plot, without any sort of ref-erences or previous urban traces, this project com-bining a set of financial buildings with public areas within, is settled arranged by auxiliary lines that are drawn from the boundaries of the plot in order to focus the views from the empty inside towards out-side attractive beautiful or unusual landmarks in the surrounding environment but also towards the new landmarks that will appear inside.

These guide lines start to give shape to the inner areas in the project: the free spaces, the new build-ings, the accesses to the complex... Close to a busy motorway, the new buildings are thought as formal-istic, dark grey and systematic-like industrial tower constructions, designed to be build by means of several horizontal plates which let a free organiza-tion for each of the floors. These horizontal plates change into a vertical position in the lower zones of the buildings, close to the public ground to serve as business advertising panels easily visible from the highway, and keep their horizontal position in the upper levels.

BUSINESS COMPLEX WITHIN A ROUGH INDUSTRIAL AREA / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

SEWING CONNECTIONS / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

Commissioned project / Graphic design / Visual and web identity for YO SOY MODA / 2014.

YO SOY MODA, spanish for I AM FASHION, a pioneer event for the fashion sphere, takes place for the first time in Andalusia to connect, to share and exchange knowledge among all the leading agents belonging to fashion in every of its fields: from production to design, wholesales, critics or users.

A thread, the smallest physical element fashion can be reduced, serves as a visual tool to define the event identity, its logotype and every supporting material. An element that also helps us to navigate throughout the website, that drives us along the written documents, that links every single piece playing a important role in this game: from participants to logotype letters. An element used virtual and literally to draw, write, sail, and mainly, to connect.

HAND-MADE IDENTITY / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

Commissioned project / Graphic design / Visual identity for CIUVIGLO / 2010.

CIUVIGLO is an organization formed by and for young people, the main aim of which is to recreate in high-education institutions a parallel simulation of political, social and economic Models that take place all over the world, such as the Model of United Nations, the Model of European Union, or the Forum of Disabled Youth among others, aimed to university students that want to get to know how the world is actually run. To design its own and its events’ visual identity, I have identified their image easily with the main official Models.

In order to get this direct visual association, the logotype of each event is assimilated to the one of the actual Model, drawn in a schematic and hand-made way that show the lower hierarchical range respected to the original Models, as if an unexperienced child starts to write but his lines are not as perfect as the adult’s ones. As these are events where each student must defend the official stance of an assigned nation facing other country delegates, having therefore opinions that will be subtly or totally different on a certain discussion topic, the supporting material of the events (posters, notebooks, placards, etc.) is inspired by this ‘game’ of distinct visions; a kaleidoscope, an object that when it just slightly turns, it provides completely different views, comes to serve as metaphoric reference producing graphic tapestries from the freehand logotypes of each event.

CURVACEOUS / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

Commissioned project / Package design / Limburg curved asparagus / 2011.

Nowadays we just see perfect vegetables on the market because the imperfect ones stay in the farm, although taste and quality are the same in both cases. The ‘de Poshoof’ family farm just set up a Bed & Breakfast in Maastricht so they can give the delicious but imperfect curved asparagus to their guests inside a cozy and home-made package to have a snack during their visits around the town.

A package that the guests receive as a business present from the ‘de Poshoof’ farm to be used af-terward in their daily life as often as they want since it can be cleaned in the washing machine. By transferring the shape of the harvesting land into the package, the curved asparagus become more sculptural when they are faced to the straight lines and surfaces of the wrapping, a wrapping made out of two sewn layers -a polypropylene plastic foil as a dish and an organic cotton fabric as a napkin-, helping people to re-discover again what nature re-ally produces.

Exhibited at ‘Landscape in perspective’, organised by Naim/Bureau Europa and Province of Limburg, in Maastricht, 2011-2012 / Featured on the ‘Atlas of Limburg’, book published by Marres: Centre for Contemporary Culture in 2011.

Commisioned project / Research design / Graphical storytelling on daily consumerism / 2011.

One day I just put one step on my street and saw a huge pile of garbage in front of my house. From that moment on, I kept walking my way but looking care-fully at all the pieces of garbage on the street. This graphical research has been driven by the inspiring first day pile of waste.

Analyzing my relation with my/the garbage every week during three months, the scenario was usu-ally the same but its content changed every single day. Once I even took part in the ‘cleaning’ task of my street, like Joseph Beuys’ ‘Sweeping Up’ public performance but with a vacuum cleaner, treating the street like my home, and taking care of it. There was a crucial moment when the containers in my street were broken so I was forced not to throw away anything and live with it inside my apartment. I an-alyzed every piece of waste I produced to be aware of the amount of garbage I create normally. The idea of keeping my waste next to me drove me to think in a different way to storage it. Using a vacuum bag system, the less volume the garbage can have let me be able to check the amount of waste I produce in one month, in one year...

THE STORY OF A PILE OF WASTE / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

PROCESS / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

The final part of this portfolio comes to depict experiments and hands-on try-outs that are meant to show the way I think and perform my work.

Conceptual charcoal drawings, experiments with textiles, paper cutouts as diagrammes, results of manual techniques’ explorations, social probes, public performances... It is also interesting to show the processes within the projects and not just their final results.

Feel free to visit my website and online blog that gather my last design works and personal inspira-tions respectively:

(W) www.lanne-lenne.com(B) www.seed-s.tumblr.com

All works © 2014. All rights reserved.