Rafael Merino Architecture Portfolio

portfolio“A spider conducts operations that resemble those of a weaver,

and a bee puts to shame many an architect in the construction of her cells. But what distinguishes the worst architect from the best of bees is this,

that the architect raises his structure in imagination before he erects it in reality.”

–Karl Marx

architecture + designselected works 2007 | 2014

, M.Arch

*. Structure for Master’s Project, Art Museum in Shanghai

*

art museum in shanghaiMaSter’S ProjeCt, april 2014The aim of my Master’s Thesis/Project was to develop a Contemporary Art Museum proposal for People’s Square in Shanghai, China. The first step was therefore to describe and analyze the location, for which I drawn the urban context in the first place and decided what position was the most suitable.

art museum in shanghaiMaSter’S ProjeCt, april 2014

Different diagrams depicting function and interconnection. Realistic visualization of the proposal.


Infographics about Art Market in China, along with some extra information about the city itself.

art museum in shanghaiMaSter’S ProjeCt, april 2014Cutaway drawing of the building, located next to the Amusement Park of People’s Square. Two different

cross-sections are simultaneously depicted, and some facade an rood elements have been taken away as well.

art museum in shanghaiMaSter’S ProjeCt, april 2014Analytic explanation of the structure, showing the ramp system that runs across the whole building, along with the different ‘patios’, the worm-like holes from bottom to top that hold the vertical loads, and the basement.


The building’s complex shape does not allow for a regular representation of floor plans, given that there

is only one single floor, folded and rolled around itself. The drawings here are hence a deployed version of

art museum in shanghaiMaSter’S ProjeCt, april 2014Interior view and cross section.

art museum in shanghaiMaSter’S ProjeCt, april 2014Environmental strategies and facade detail.


Finite element analysis performed with SAP2000, along with the sizing an detailing of

foundations and a typical slab.

art museum in shanghaiMaSter’S ProjeCt, april 2014Conceptual discussion on different paradigms and ideas.


Early stages of the proposal, while working with rheotomic surfaces, topological models and the Catmull & Clark

algorithm.

basque culinary centeraCadeMiC ProjeCt, nov 2009

The first step in this project was to choose a built paradigm to work with.

This comic is an explanation of the Sendai Media-theque, assuming the identity of Toyo Ito himself to make it clearer. The message is not entirely specu-lative, but based on various interviews published in

the Japanese magazine GA.

basque culinary centeraCadeMiC ProjeCt, nov 2009The idea for the Basque Culinary Center comes from a type of topolog-ical that I refer to as Cain & Abel house. This object divides any given volume into two different spaces, A and B, which are nondetachable and interwoven despite being totally independent. This idea is linked to the rheotomic surfaces in projects like the Taichung Metropolitan Opera designed by Toyo Ito, but reshaped here in a more rational fashion.


The idea for the Basque Culinary Center comes from a type of topological that I refer to as Cain & Abel house. This object divides any given volume into two different spaces, A and B, which are nondetachable and interwoven de-spite being totally independent. This idea is linked to the rheotomic surfaces

The idea for the Basque Culinary Center comes from a type of topological that I refer to as Cain & Abel house. This object divides any given volume into two different spaces, A and B, which are nondetachable and inter-woven despite being totally independent. This idea is linked to the rheotomic surfaces in projects like the Taichung Metropolitan Opera designed by Toyo Ito, but reshaped here in a more rational fashion.



The idea for the Basque Culinary Center comes from a type of topological that I refer to as Cain & Abel house. This object divides any given volume into two different spaces, A and B, which are nondetachable and interwoven de-spite being totally independent. This idea is linked to the rheotomic surfaces

in projects like the Taichung Metropolitan Opera designed by Toyo Ito, but reshaped here in a more rational fashion.

basque culinary centeraCadeMiC ProjeCt, nov 2009The building is placed over a sloping lot, adopting the inclination of the land in the ground floor, but retaking the horizontal plane for the rest of the building. The upper floor is made of a series of interconnected pla-teaus, while the basement floor is hidden beneath the exterior ‘B’ space. All the holes in the conceptual model have been spitted in half by the perimeter except for the central one, that remains as an abstract court containing the vertical communications. The structure is made of con-crete until the plateau level, with post-stressed slabs resting over regular reinforced walls. Over that level, a light rib structure made out of OSB boards retakes the shape of the underlying concrete structure, avoiding stability issues derived from the special geometry of the building.


The building is placed over a sloping lot, adopting the inclination of the land in the ground floor, but retaking the horizontal plane for the rest of the building. The upper floor is made of a series of inter-connected plateaus, while the basement floor is hidden beneath the exterior ‘B’ space. All the holes in the conceptual model have been spitted in half by the perimeter except for the central one, that remains as an abstract court containing the vertical commu-nications. The structure is made of concrete until the plateau level, with post-stressed slabs resting over regular reinforced walls. Over that level, a light rib structure made out of OSB boards retakes the shape of the underlying concrete structure, avoiding stability issues

topological walkthroughStudent CoMPetition, may 2014

Topology is the study of shapes. It is concerned with the properties of space that are preserved under continuous deformations including stretching and bending, but not tearing or gluing. This includes such properties as connectedness, continuity and boundary.For this proposal, I tried to materialize a continuous path, a walk-through, conceived as topological enti-ty. A very simple polygonal model was transformed through the Catmull & Clark algorithm until it fitted the desired, smooth looking shape.There is a pattern design for a paper model as well.

Topology is the study of shapes. It is concerned with the properties of space that are preserved under

continuous deformations including stretching and bending, but not tearing or gluing. This includes

such properties as connectedness, continuity and boundary.

For this proposal, I tried to materialize a continuous path, a walk-through, conceived as topological entity.

A very simple polygonal model was transformed through the Catmull & Clark algorithm until it fitted the

desired, smooth looking shape.There is a pattern design for a paper model as well.


Topology is the study of shapes. It is concerned with the properties of space that are preserved under continuous deformations including stretching and bending, but not tear-ing or gluing. This includes such properties as connected-ness, continuity and boundary.For this proposal, I tried to materialize a continuous path, a walk-through, conceived as topological entity. A very simple polygonal model was transformed through the Catmull & Clark algorithm until it fitted the desired, smooth looking shape.There is a pattern design for a paper model as well.


met(h)avolumeart ProjeCt, june 2009

roof structureaCadeMiC ProjeCt, dec 2010For this assignment I created a light, large span roof, and analyzed it’s structural behavior under different load cases using SAP2000. The final design takes as inspiration Shigeru Ban’s cardboard structures, using waterproof pipes as arcs and rods. The starting points of the arcs and the joints between elements are built in a slightly more techy way than those of Ban’s structures, more expensive but probably easier to mount. A second order structure of steel cables has been added in order to ensure rigidity.

collective housing in carabanchelCollaboration, jan 2011

I made this image for Eduardo Vadillo, architect. It depicts a proposal for a collective housing competition in Madrid, representing the vertical communications in the inside and the colorful facade in the same picture.

little chapelPerSonal ProjeCt, aug 2009This little chapel, made just for fun, is the resulting combination of two different spatial strategies. On the one hand, there is a subtractive process starting from a solid box. On the other hand, there is a dematerialization of that solid, making transparent the exterior faces. Those faces are also the only vertical ones, so it is easier to build them with glass. The purpose of this partial dematerialization is to make the piece legible from the out-side, while keeping the monolithic perception of the space from the inside.

research facilityaCadeMiC ProjeCt, nov 2008

This research facility was conceived as a low impact, high visibility building, located over a very representative outcrop in the landscape of Madrid. The structure consists of a series of extruded polygonal shapes, elevated over the ground with oblique metallic piers, and accessible through suspended stairs and lifts.

research facilityaCadeMiC ProjeCt, nov 2008

This research facility was conceived as a low impact, high visibility building, located over a very representative outcrop

in the landscape of Madrid. The structure consists of a series of extruded polygonal shapes, elevated over the

ground with oblique metallic piers, and accessible through suspended stairs and lifts.

research facilityaCadeMiC ProjeCt, nov 2008This research facility was conceived as a low impact, high visibility building, located over a very representative outcrop in the landscape of Madrid. The structure consists of a series of extruded polygonal shapes, elevated over the ground with oblique metallic piers, and accessible through suspended stairs and lifts.

illustrationhand drawn, april 2011

ParaMetriC, july 2012

This concept art was created in collaboration with Victor Villalba, illustrator and comic artist, as part of a medieval fantasy setting.

This drawing is the result of a moment of boredom, playing with random pop-ulation, Delaunay triangulation and hierarchical coloring in Processing.

parametric projectaCadeMiC ProjeCt, june 201oIn this assignment I designed an educational facility, very simple from the functional point of view, focusing over the generative process. Slightly inspired by the Johnson Wax Building made by Frank Lloyd Wright, I used here a Voronoi tessellation to define the underlying diagram, and loft surfac-es to generate the roof.

parametric projectaCadeMiC ProjeCt, june 201o

In this assignment I designed an educational facility, very simple from the functional point of view, focusing over the generative process. Slightly

inspired by the Johnson Wax Building made by Frank Lloyd Wright, I used here a Voronoi tessellation to define the underlying diagram, and loft surfac-

es to generate the roof.

collective housing in vallecasaCadeMiC ProjeCt, jun 2008

For this assignment I was asked to design a collective housing project for over 700 families. Placed in a new

urban area near Vallecas (south of Madrid), this project takes as inspiration the well-known Gifu Kitagata Apart-

ments designed by SANAA. I also tried to to re-elabo-rate the perimeter block type, so widely used in Spain since the first contemporary developments in the 19th century. The footprint of the buildings was algorithmi-

cally generated under preset parameters, starting with a pseudo-random hexagrid and repositioning the tiles

through an attractor field. The apartment’s plan also takes the SANAA project as example, in this case focusing over spatial versatility vs. typological diversity. Every apartment

consists of two well defined areas: one is next to the corridor, and therefore to the entrance, containing the

kitchen, the bathrooms and the servant space; while the other area is a simple rectangle divided into three equal,

undefined rooms. The adjacency diagram is such that one of this spaces, while being equal two the other two,

can easily be integrated into the other package in order to satisfy different necessities.

collective housing in vallecasaCadeMiC ProjeCt, jun 2008

townhouseaCadeMiC ProjeCt, dec 2009This townhouse was designed over a narrow urban lot, surrounded by party walls. Along with the usual spaces, this house contains a little pottery workshop and a rehearsal room for two young musicians, both located in the ground level. The common areas are located in the basement and lit up by sunken courtyards on both sides. The rooms are located in the first and second floors, along with some double height spaces.

national courtCollaboration, april 2012This set of drawings was made for Francisco R. Partearroyo and Anto-nio Rivière, depicting a refurbishment proposal for the National Court of Spain. The works are currently underway.

convoluted spacePerSonal ProjeCt, oct 2011

This conceptual model, developed for my Master’s Thesis, comes in two flavors. In the first place there is a description of a non-simply con-nected object that can be topologically assimilated to a Moëbius strip. It can also be compared to a double helix, since it provides two differ-

ent, independent promenades for the same continuous space. This apparently complex shape is nothing but the remeshing of the more

simple and architectural object in the second image, closer to the looks of my thesis project. To jump from one to another state of the same topological entity, a Catmull & Clark algorithm was used recursively.

collective housing iiCoMPetition, dec 2011I made this image for Francisco R. Partearroyo, architect. It depicts a proposal for a collective housing competition, explaining the air flow inside of the apartments disposed on both sides of a corridor.

set design proposalCoMPetition (1st Prize), nov 2012This proposal to produce Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci was created along with director Rafael R. Villalobos, creative producer Marta Delatte and costume designer Sara Roma, and it was honored with the European Opera Directing Prize 2013, probably the most important award for young artists in this category. The main concept of the proposal is embedding one opera into the other, redrawing the entire network among characters in the most meaningful way possible. The action takes place in a narrow street behind a church, a very distinctive space in Mediterranean towns. The characteristic elements of religious architecture, such as buttresses, irregular perimeters and rose windows, are reinterpreted here deprived of any superfluous feature, paying attention just to the spatial configuration and to any possible symbolic leftovers.

CoMPetition (1st Prize), nov 2012

The characteristic elements of religious architecture, such as but-tresses, irregular perimeters and rose windows, are reinterpreted here deprived of any superfluous feature, paying attention just to the spatial configuration and to any possible symbolic leftovers.

set design proposal

set design proposalCoMPetition (1st Prize), nov 2012Paper foldable kit of the previous set design proposal, made for travel purposes.

thank you!www.rafaelmerino.net

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Rafael Merino Architecture Portfolio

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