WOMAN. MEXICAN. FEMINIST. ARCHITECTURAL DESIGNER.
Under Construction
Location: Dallas, TX, USA
Year: 2024
Visualizations: VER
Interior Design.
"Europe meets Guadalajara" was the concept brought by the clients (and friends) David & Gisela.
HOCKER, an internationally-recognized, award-winning landscape architecture studio based in Dallas, required a new office space for their growing team. The design challenge included adapting the program into an old existing industrial building, keeping construction at the minimum, maximizing the space for both individual and collaborative work, as well as gathering spaces for social interactions between the team and clients who inevitably become friends.
Simple and clean lines through the entire design, the millwork was conceived not only to store material samples, display books and objects, but also as space dividers to allow separation but keeping the ample feel.
The program includes a new open concept kitchen design, where team members will be able to take advantage of the newly installed appliances for cooking or heating up meals, as well as sitting spaces designed to embrace human interactions.
Tile and pendants designed by Cerámica Suro, a ceramics factory in Guadalajara where the most ambitious projects in the world of art, architecture, and design are developed and produced, will wrap the kitchen backsplash wall, adjacent walls along with one of the bathrooms, creating a tiled monolith as a statement, as an art installation itself.
Sitting and work areas, meeting booths for privacy, and a generous conference room are also part of the program.
Hexagon planters designed by HOCKER will bring nature into the space, and walls will be curated with painting from Dallas artist Christopher Stewart.
Under Construction
Collaboration with ai taller
Location: Guadalajara, JAL, Mexico
Year: 2022
Visualizations: VER & RAUM VISUAL
By far the most important residential project I have been part of. I worked along my good friends from ai taller designing this house for my sister and her beautiful family.
Located in the outskirts of Guadalajara, in a neighborhood where community and nature are the main focus, the house was strategically placed in the front portion of the lot, allowing a back garden where land art will be installed through time, as part of the SAAL Art Collection.
The project was conceived as a place for this active family to take advantage of all spaces, indoor and out, but also have the ability to entertain as they are incredibly close to their large extended family and friends.
A terrace and large openings erase the limits between exterior and interior, engaging daily activities with the natural environment surrounds. Corridors not only communicate rooms and spaces, but also create an experience as you traverse them as they open up to the trees and patios around the house. Tall ceilings with grounded materials and furnishings allow for the spaces to feel ample but scaled to the end users.
Project Competition
Location: Pessegueiro Island, Porto Covo, Portugal
Year: 2019
Visualizations: VER
The experience begins when departing land, crossing the water and arriving to this isolated territory surrounded by the sea. The Fort is visible from afar but the walls containing the contemplative space are barely seen since it is placed in a specific topographic level, behind the highest curve, allowing the Fort and Roman ruins to remain as the protagonists of Pessegueiro Island.
After the encounter with the Fort, it’s weight, texture and all the history it recreates in your imagination while walking through voids and its remains, the contemplative space’s walls become visible behind the Fort. Discretely extruding from the land, these volumes are located in a certain way to generate curiosity while dialoguing with the Fort’s materiality and placement. When approaching what seems to be the entrance, the first wall slightly blocks your view to the ocean and invites you to continue the guided path between a wall that emerges horizontally from the earth, and another one that seems parallel to it. With the need to discover what is found after this limit, the journey begins through these walls which seem to get taller as you walk down in the natural terrain, while they are getting narrower, creating a feeling of compression, reminding us how small we are compared to this world, forcing us to return to ourselves. The tension between walls, besides producing this humbling sense, is an homage to the quarry located in the north side of the island.
Once the space between barriers is almost too narrow, you are finally set free to a plain where your sight is guided directly into the ocean by the extended horizontal wall, and a vertical one, framing your view and relating you senses with the freedom of water. The vertical wall facing south becomes a counterpoint with the horizon, as well as a symbolic boundary in the contemplative space, containing you with its presence and its shadow. Only a fragment of stone is found -inside- this space in order to create an elevated sitting area.
The sound of water crashing on the rocks from the island’s erosion, the smell of the natural environment, the breeze, and the ocean view, after experimenting the introspection through the walls, creates the perfect atmosphere to contemplate and return to ourselves.
We are in a constant wait in which expectations become unconsciously continuos thoughts, waiting for the future to happen. But we are aware of this feeling only when we do not have control of time; when we have “extra time” between activities or commonly said “some time to kill”, making us conscious about the empty interval that we are experimenting, while the next episode begins. The transition between walls, while walking from the entry towards the contemplative space, has this precise objective; make you be present while waiting to reach the end of the tunnel. Preparing your mind while your body experiments time and a compression feeling, making the end of this path even more -awaited-, increasing the sentiment of liberation once finally achieved. Visiting Pessegueiro Island with the addition of this contemplative space, reminds of the Portuguese word saudade. This word refers to a type of nostalgia where memories that remain in our -heart-, rather than only our memory, are brought to the present accompanied with a comfort feeling. The experience now travels through memory, present, and silence.
This project is part of the ENLACES 2019, LiA AIA exhibit.
Project Competition
Location: Dallas, TX, USA
Year: 2020
Visualizations: VER
In an attempt to uplift the area, downtown Dallas residential developments have increased in the last decade. Rather than downtown being hectic during business hours, and a ghost-town during the rest of the day, recent developments have turned it into a mixed use district. As the entire area is revitalized, the need for public spaces is increasing in order to balance the construction with the voids. Implementing neighborhood spaces helps to generate human connections, develop a sense of community and belonging and, as a result, increases the safety and identity of the area.
The park’s intent is to fill in the absence of public spaces and recreational areas in the core of the city by providing a high-quality environment where under-privileged locals can also take care of their hygiene needs. In what should be one of the most vibrant areas of Dallas, adjoined by historical buildings, this project proposes turning a parking lot (surrounded by more parking lots) into a diverse park providing residents, visitors and tourist with accessible, human-centered, quality spaces for multiple activities. Or, just to take a break under the sun with some fresh air.
The location of the different elements of the park dialog with City Hall’s plaza, by connecting the diagonal that starts in the northwest corner and ends at Mirilla St. and Browder St., continuing then to the sidewalk towards Canton St extending all the way to the picnic area giving a sense of continuity with both public spaces. This integration of places of interest and public spaces must be implemented also with bike-lanes, friendlier sidewalks and street crossings, with the purpose of sewing the city together instead of isolating areas.
In the midst of a global pandemic, inefficient governments and healthcare services take center stage, highlighting systematic racial injustices and economical gaps in our society. In a desperate and much needed call for equality, diversity, acceptance and inclusion, the park extends a hand to promote coexistence and inclusion with spaces to exercise, meet, socialize, gather and relax in a secure, open space for all.
LEGEND
1. Amphitheater
2. Restrooms & Showers
3. Administration building
4. Community garden
5. Picnic area
6. Food trucks
7. Playground
8. Gym & Basketball area
9. Chess & Picnic area
10. Community Labs building
11. Sculpture
Project
Year: 2019
Visualizations: VER
”…I wouldn’t like to make a house that says, “I’m much better than you idiots all around”. Maybe I will design a house that says, “I like to be here.”…”
- Peter Zumthor
Built
Collaboration with DEMESNE
Location: Fredericksburg, Texas, USA
Year: 2019
Visualizations: VER
Worked alongside Jamie Ali during the Schematic Design, through the creation of Construction Documents.
Built
Collaboration with DEMESNE
Location: Moab, Utah, USA
Year: 2018
Worked alongside Jamie Ali during the Design Development process, developing Construction Documents.
Project Competition
Collaboration with Luis Aldrete Arquitectos & Dellekamp Arquitectos
Location: Mexico City, Mexico.
Year: 2016
Visualizations: VER
High density project developed in a optimal location in Mexico City, situated a few blocks away from “Nuevo Polanco” where Carso development is located, including Soumaya and Jumex Museums, and Antara shopping mall. The project's objective is to incorporate part of its ground level to the lineal park in the Railroad to Cuernavaca, generating a wider public space offering commercial premises to activate the area. The rest of the bottom floor includes amenities for residents tied to an intimate garden. Another amenity of the complex is the roof garden with one of the most privileged views in the city. Parking is found underground allowing a clean, car-free bottom floor and facade. Only six apartment typologies, along the 303 units, are designed in order to make its construction and marketing more efficient. Each one of the typologies is thought through to make all residents’ space unique, by playing with heights and distributions, thinking differently from generic approaches.
Low maintenance materials where selected in order to decrease constant expenses. Vertical circulations were concentrated in three points along the building allowing more square meters to be used for the apartments. Both windows and walls in the facade have uniform dimensions, making it a modulate and organized building.
Project Competition
Collaboration with Luis Aldrete Arquitectos
Location: Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico.
Year: 2015
Visualizations: VER
Vertical development.
Situated in Guadalajara’s historic district.
Integrating an apartment building into Guadalajara’s city center and reutilizing existing structure from two houses designed by Carlos Ramirez Macias, this project adapts itself respecting the urban’s morphology from the street level. It was very important for this project to create a facade that respected its context by not standing out but at the same time not trying to repeat what had been done decades ago. Designing this development became a challenge that we solved by creating a timeless feel project, respecting existing and significant architecture of the area.
The development’s distribution allows every space to have a view and each apartment to have cross ventilation. Low maintenance materials where selected in order to decrease constant expenses. Vertical circulations where concentrated in one point allowing for more square meters to be used for the apartments. Service areas are placed strategically making maintenance and functionality more efficient.
Built
Collaboration with Luis Aldrete Arquitectos
Location: Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico.
Year: 2015
Remodeling and adaptation of offices to existing construction.
Situated in Guadalajara’s historic district.
Guadalajara’s downtown has a very special and particular personality, filled with modern, regional, and eclectic architecture. This office building is located in its main street, Hidalgo Avenue, and serves a corporation as well as an art gallery. It was a challenging project due to the original state of the three houses intervened and fusioned into one single project, and the adaptation of an office program into it.
The design process started once the decision of turning all spaces unto the three existing patios was made. Several offices, meeting rooms, and collaborative areas are found along the project. Respecting most of the existing walls and distinguished elements, the patios allow a fluent and peaceful walkthrough into the entire project, generating a break between solids, emphasizing voids with peaceful landscape, water mirrors and fountains, and sensorial transitions, making it all feel as a common place. The use of vitroblock for windows was due to privacy necessities, allowing each room to have a skylight to ventilate and have an extra light source, generating a light game depending of the time of the day.
www.luisaldrete.com
Project Competition
Collaboration with Jorge Tejeda Arquitectos
Location: Tlaquepaque, Jalisco, Mexico.
Year: 2015
Vertical development.
Mixed use, landscape, public space.
Mixed use development housing 1,370 apartments. The placement was decided based on the location of existing trees and vegetation, mainly in one of the land’s quadrants, in order to respect nature. The idea of generating a dialog between buildings, nature and public space was planned in search of allowing a better quality of life to inhabitants, as well as creating a green, private microenvironment that promotes cohabitation and outdoor activities.
The complex has a higher vertical element in which different amenities are proposed for common use in the first floors, and housing on the rest of them. This volume acts as a reference in the area, as a landmark that distinguishes it from the rest of developments.
An important piece of the project is the Salmasis fountain that generates sensorial experiences, integrating buildings and public space, becoming a marker of the whole development.
Project Competition
Collaboration with Jorge Tejeda Arquitectos
Location: Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico.
Year: 2015
Religious housing.
Voids and solids, landscape.
Harmonic complex that houses the Religious Congregation of the Mercedarian Sisters in Guadalajara. The development allows different ways to inhabiting the space. In Pope Paulo VI words, a house should be “home, enclosure, studio, shelter, workshop, residence”; these words guided us through the conception of a multipurpose project. The most important purpose is to emphasize the relationship between open and closed spaces, through landscape and contemplative areas which are essential to understand the project’s spirit. It would be impossible to comprehend this project without the gardens and meditation spaces, located in every floor. The various areas, such as patios and chapel, allow each woman to live the complex in a very personal way, having the possibility to reflect, read, pray, accompanied by quiet green gardens and water mirrors, inspiring each one to spend an intimate time throughout the day.
Under Construction
Collaboration with ATELIER ARS
Location: Acatlan de Juarez, Jalisco, Mexico
Year: 2013
Industrial plant. Entrance, Offices, Residency, Laboratory, Warehouse, Memorial, Landscape.
The project is the development of a large campus for a corn company. Due its size, this industrial commission first led us to think about the possible relations of a set of buildings on the landscape, but soon we realized that we had to understand the project as a landscape where the buildings, the open spaces and the countryside needed to be considered simultaneously. The master plan shows the character of the site, the geometry of its plot and the layout of buildings. The layout of the campus is related with the processes of harvesting, transportation, sorting out, packing and storage. If we talk about the history in European Romantic Tradition paintings, using examples like the work of Caspar David Friedrich and William Turner, we can highlight the relationship between men and nature. But we can also observe the process of abstraction in painting, for example in the painting entitled “The Monk by the Sea”, where Friedrich places a viewer in front of a landscape whose definition has become blurred but appears as a very strong force. Our proposal for the campus recalls the idea as a way to return to the subject of the landscape, but not as a painting matter but as spaces between buildings and nature; this is the reason why buildings have the condition of limit in the countryside, acting as large abstract solid volumes that determine outdoor and indoor spaces.
"VOID IS ALSO A PLACE"
Project Competition
Collaboration with ATELIER ARS
Location: Orange County, California, United States
Year: 2013
Steel, concrete, water, totems, landscape.
According to its etymology, the monument is a building built in memory of someone or a particular event. For us, it is not just its architecture. The monument is the interaction between people and the constructed object, the emotional moment that we seek to produce in the viewer through a temporal and spatial experience. Our proposal of memorial uses two central ideas: one referring to the universal, and another to the individual. To build a universal memory we resort to 2 typical forms of monuments in architecture: the mound and steel. The first is a topographical elevation announcing a place of sepulcher. Steel is the monument per excellence in the culture of our ancestors and the present, which announces the foundation of the places created by men, making reference to the vertical condition of the body which belongs only to humans. To give the memorial an individual character, we proposed to build a void, a sacred place between steel that allows each person to give their own interpretation to the proposed atmosphere. The emptiness represents the absence of all those who are no longer present due to the crime, creating a spiritual sensation through the reflections in the bronze interior of the walls, the murmur of the water that runs through the mirrors of water that contain the pyramids with the names of the people and the odors of the proposed vegetation (lavender); creating a completely sensorial atmosphere.
Project Competition
Collaboration with ATELIER ARS
Location: Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico.
Year: 2013
Classrooms, workshops, auditorium, terraces, offices, open areas
Project proposed for a very traditional - family oriented neighborhood, giving it a recreational space where different courses, workshops for all ages can be imparted. The reception is a large area which has the function of an auditorium as well, and all terraces will have garden views.
Construction system includes boveda and steel beams, generating a rhythm, and a game with textures giving the Cultural Center a unique personality. The pedestrian entry and the street are at the exact same level, hiding all automobiles completely, offering priority to people over cars. The establishment will have an underground parking garage, comfortable for users.
One of the goals is making the neighbors feel identified and proud of having a center with such quality, space versatility, that brings life to their people, making them build relationships and a bigger sense of community.
Project Competition
Collaboration with ATELIER ARS
Location: Tlaquepaque, Jalisco, Mexico.
Year: 2013
Theater, editing rooms, collaborative areas, observatories, photographic studios.
In greek cities public plazas were called Agora, which constitute the center for democratic life of that particular society because of the assemblies happening in them. From that idea of public space, accessible to everyone where communication was its main value, the proposed building was conceptualized.
ITESO is well known for its landscape beauty and wealth meaning the land where the project was proposed has numerous trees which were respected in their entirety by separating the program into multiple buildings. This way, between the construction areas, a public space system is generated becoming the Agora: a colonized platform with existing trees and small gardens organized around it.
The whole project was designed in a 1.20 x 1.20 m grid, standardizing modulation, with an economic advantage, flexibility, as well as a visually harmonic organized space.
