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Fourth Year Portfolio
California State University- International Program: Florence, Italy
studying abroad / verb
-an extremely challenging, but rewarding experience that has fostered personal growth and has expanded my architectural horizons
a story [RE]told-
Co-working Space
Renovation| Preservation | Restoration
Florence, Italy
Fall Semester Abroad 2016
co-working / noun
-the use of an office or other working environment by people who are self-employed or working for different employers, typically so as to share equipment, ideas, and knowledge.
Designing in Italy has it’s own architectural challenges as you try and integrate a new building within the historical city fabric of Florence. Our project is adjacent to Santa Croce Church and the Biblioteca Nazionale and will serve as a new co-working space for the people of Florence. As I performed the site analysis, I tried to answer the question, “What is Florence missing?” Florence, the birthplace of the Renaissance, has so much history within the city center, but I realized the site was missing was a story of the evolution of knowledge. As you approach Santa Croce’s facade, the doors and archways are so elaborate and tell a story, but when you approach the Biblioteca Nazionale you don’t know what’s inside or understand the significance of the building. The library is one of the most important libraries throughout Europe and houses copies of all of the books published in Italy, but the building does it no justice. The new co-working space serves as a reinvented cloister for the inhabitants of Florence to understand the evolution of knowledge as they travel throughout the space. Multiple disciplines work within collaborative spaces and as a result, the collaboration leads to new ideas and innovation.
Using the adjacent buildings for inspiration, I studied Santa Croce Church, Passivi Chapel, and the Biblioteca Nazionale and noticed the repetition of three’s that was used during the Renaissance. The repetition was found vertically or horizontally within the loggias or facades and so I divided my building into three different cores. Wanting to create a strong connection between the library and it’s new addition, I created an internal axis that cuts through my building and allows inhabitants of the Biblioteca Nazionale to move throughout my space. They can either choose to stay and work in the different types of co-working areas or continue onwards towards Piazza di Santa Croce.
The site is adjacent to one of Brunelleschi’s famous cloisters and after observing how people interacted within the cloister, I noticed that a lot of the interactions occur on the outside, but the center of the cloisters often remain untouched and underutilized. I reinvented the cloisters so within the co-working space, the center of the cloisters become the hub of activity for workers. As inhabitants walk along the internal axis, the size of the cloisters increase to represent the accessibility and growth of knowledge over time, and as a result, a story is told as people interact with the different spaces of the building.
Viale Belfiore-
Mixed Use Development
Past| Present | Future
Florence, Italy
Spring Semester Abroad 2017
Michele Triantafillidis and Almarine Kitchens
Click below to view:
co-living / noun
-a modern and futuristic housing type to integrate people of different backgrounds to share common living spaces, interests, and culture.
As more inhabitants occupy Florence, the historic city center is becoming dominated by tourists and locals are being forced to live farther outside of the heart of the city. To solve this growing problem, Viale Belfiore is a Mixed Use Development that is located across from the Proposed High Speed Train Station designed by Norman Foster. Having only six weeks to complete the project, working in a team of two, my partner and I asked ourselves what this corner of Florence needs and what the future of the city holds. We were inspired by the train station evolution in Florence and so as a result, the building “past | present | future” rejuvenates the area around Viale Belfiore by offering a dynamic piazza to connect the private and public. The internal focus allows new interactions to take place along the perimeter, while the piazza becomes the central hub of the site.
During our initial site analysis we were intrigued by the adjacent train stations and how the previous train station of the past, Stazione Leopolda has been transformed into an event space. The present train station, Firenze Santa Maria Novella, is at the peak of its use, but with the Proposed High Speed Train Station located nearby and projected to be completed in a few years, how will the present station be utilized? On a map, the past, present, and future train stations are able to be connected by a triangle and surrounds our site. We then used these axis lines to define the form generation of our various buildings.
The idea of past, present, and future translated into not only our building form, but also within the housing distribution. As I worked on the housing program, I wanted to provide various types of housing to allow a wide variety of users to occupy the space. The "Housing: Past" consisted of more traditional condominiums that had all of the living spaces within. As the housing types progressed from "Past" to "Future", the living spaces became more communal to encourage interactions within the inhabitants. Having more minimalistic living spaces, it forces people to get outside of their rooms and enjoy the dynamic piazza located within the central hub of the site. The "Housing: Future" apartments are divided up into neighborhood pods that provide you with a sense of community and focuses on the idea of co-living and community spaces.
The Proposed High Speed Train Station is built at the (-2) Level and so we designed an entry sequence that would allow people to move up from the platform level and into the ground level of our central piazza. From there, the public can then utilize the various programs found on the site including a local market, public and private offices, and a hotel. The public and the public are able to interact within and a new hub of activity is given back to the people of Florence.
Unframed
CSU- Florence 50th Anniversary Architecture Installation
Florence, Italy
Spring Semester Abroad 2017
Role: Project Manager
anniversary / ˌanəˈvərs(ə)rē/ noun
- the annual recurrence of a date marking a notable event
For 10 months I had the incredible opportunity to study abroad at CSU's study center in Florence, Italy. Being abroad during the 2016-2017 school year, I was able to be a part of CSU's 50th Anniversary Celebration. For three days, we had events that helped showcase the role CSU has had within the heart of Florence. Architecture is one of the first majors that came overseas to study in the heart of the Renaissance and so we had an exhibition to showcase all of the work from the past 50 years. Cristiano Toraldo di Francia of Italy's internationally renowned Superstudio was one of the founding professors of our program. Inspired by Superstudio's "Il Monumento Continuo," the Unframed Architecture Installation intersects the main room of CSU-Florence and is based on a 50 cm x 50 cm grid. The main grid is over 13 feet tall and within frames digital presentation boards and analog models from the past 50 years. Modular cubes are placed throughout the room for people to interact with the work and acts as stands for the models to sit upon.
With 28 architecture students from Cal Poly- San Luis Obispo and Pomona we had to design and engineer, purchase the materials, and construct the installation on time and within the budget. Finishing up our Viale Belfiore project before our Spring Break, we only had 10 days upon our return to construct the final architecture installation. Coordinating with so many people proved to be extremely difficult so I took up the role as the Project Manager. I divided up everyone within our studio into a different committee. There were 4 different committees: Installation Design, Curation, Graphic Design, and Construction. Each committee had a lead that was assigned to manage the various team members and make sure the expectations were met and that everything was clearly communicated. We then scheduled weekly studio wide meetings to provide updates and make sure everyone was on the same page for the upcoming week.
As the Project Manager, there was a lot of coordination between different committees, but in the end we were able to finish everything on time, under budget, and meet our project's expectations. Calculating preconstruction costs, doing various takeoffs for the construction materials, and finding supplies in Florence proved to be extremely difficult and it was making me miss the convenience of Home Depot. Creating cut lists, various 3D Models, and overseeing the construction was time consuming, but was such a rewarding task as I was able to put my Construction Management Minor and Preconstruction Experience to use. In the end, our entire studio was able to come together and create an installation that has now become a permanent architecture installation at our school.
Cristiano explaining a previous student's work from when he was a professor at CSU- Florence
