JOAO ALBUQUERQUE

ARCHITECT

WORKS

COLABORATIONS

PROJECTS

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

Colaboration with Jakob Henke

BOX (es)
CTS HOTEL FACADE
Y Design (Principal)

TRANCOSO BUS TERMINAL

MAGOK PROCESS
Sta APOLONIA SQUARE

Colaboration with Nuno Galvao

SHENZHEN
KENNY HEIGHTS
ORESUNDSPARKEN

BIG, Bjarke Ingels Group

THE BATTERY
PARCEL H + D5 - VERSION 1&2
SINGAPORE RESIDENTIAL COMPETITION
HAIER PAVILLION - OLYMPIC GAMES

MAD Design

TOKYO ISLAND
SAMPLE BOX
HORROR VACUI - URBAN IMPLOSIONS

ReD, Research + Design

IMPERIUM
SKY SHELVE
75TH LISBON BOOK FAIR

JOAO ALBUQUERQUE
MARCOSANDMARJAN

INTERNATIONAL FAIR

CURRICULUM VITAE

CV

Joao N. Palaio Albuquerque

Architect
//81.12.07 (Coimbra - Portugal)
//albu@inbox.com
//+45 40761536(DK); +351 914295107 (PT)

EDUCATION

2008

Ingression in the Architecture Faculty of Sciences and Technology of

the Coimbra University, Portugal
Grade Average: 18 (0-20)

//International Design Competition for the Magok Waterfront (Y

Design Office)
Competition promoted by Seoul Metropolitan Government and SH
Corporation
Seoul, South Korea

Erasmus Program
Bowkunde: Architecture University_Delft, Netherlands

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

1999

2002/2003
2004-2005

Final Thesis
Theme: Digital Design Processes in Architecture
Title: Dis[curso]
Grade: 18 (0-20)

2005

Graduation in Architecture
Architecture Department: Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the
Coimbra University, Portugal
Grade Average: 15 (0-20)

INDEPENDENTE PRACTICE
2008

Founder or the HongKong based Architecture Office Y Design (with

Howard Jiho Kim and Tony Yam)
www.ynotwhy.com
//Bus Terminal - Design Stage (Y Design Office)
Comissioned by the Trancoso Townhall
Trancoso, Portugal

(INDEPENDENT) COMPETITIONS
2005

//Iberic School Competition - PLADUR (collaboration with Alexandre

Pedro)
Competition evolving Portuguese and Spanish Architecture Schools
1st PLACE
Madrid, Spain

2006

//Transitions: Light On The Move (collaboration with Jose Santos)

Competition promoted by Philips and COAM (Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Madrid Oficial College of Madrid Architectcs)
Madrid, Spain

2007

//City Interventions (collaboration with Nuno Galvao)

Competition promoted by the Lisbon Architecture Trienalle and the
Lisbon Townhall
1st PLACE
Lisbon, Portugal

2005

MarcosandMarjan - London
[principals: Marcos Cruz, Marjan Colletti]
www.marcosandmarjan.com
//75th Lisbon Book Fair - Lisbon, Portugal
//NURBSTER V - Lisbon, Portugal
//International Fair (inserted in the exhibition LAtalante) Azores,
Portugal

2006-2007

ReD, Research and Design Barcelona/Oporto

[principals: Marta Male-Alemany, Jos Pedro Sousa]
www.re-d.blogspot.com
//ZM2 House (Detailing stage)
//SkyShelve (Structure for a six meters height structure shelve)
//IMPERIUM La Fura Dels Baus (Consultancy)
//HORROR VACUI Urban Implosions (Dutch Exhibition for the Lisbon Architecture Triennale) Nai, Netherlands Architecture Institute
//SampleBox (1st Prize) - VitraKem Competition Lisbon,Portugal
(Project Leader)

2007-2008

MAD Beijing, China

[principals: Ma Yansong, Yosuke Hakano, Qun Dang]
www.i-mad.com
//Tokyo Island The World, Dubai (Project Leader)
//Singapore Residential Competition
//Parcel H+D5 > Sentul East Complex Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
(Project Leader)
//HAIER Pavilion > 2008 Olympic Games Beijing, China
(Co-Director of MAD Research Group)

2008-2009

BIG Copenhagen, Denmark

[principal: Bjark Ingels]
www.big.dk
//The Battery Copenhagen, Denmark
//Oresundsparken Copenhagen, Denmark
//Kenny Heights Facade Design Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (Project
Leader)
//CapitaLand Housing Shenzhen, China (Project Leader)

PUBLICATIONS -Texts

2006(March)
Um Molusco Habitavel(An Inhabitable Molusc),in Jornal dos Arquitectos (Vrus) N.222, Lisboa.
2006(December)
Processo (Processes), in Revista NU, N.29, Coimbra.
2007(July/August)
Da Forma ao Componente na Era Digital_NURBSTERS (From Form
to Component in the Digital Era_NURBSTERS), in Arquitectura e Vida
N.84, Lisboa.
2008(July/August)
Um Novo Terminal de Autocarros para Trancoso (A New Bus Terminal to Trancoso), in Arquitectura e Vida N.95, Lisboa.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2006

Assistant of the Tutors Marta Male-Alemany and Jose Pedro Sousa

Workshop in Digital Fabrication - Software: Rhinoceros
Escola Superior Artistica do Porto (ESAP Oporto)

2007

Jury in master classes reviews at the IAAC Institute of Advanced

Architecture in Catalonia (Barcelona, Spain)

WORK PUBLISHED
2007

//http://trienal.blogs.sapo.pt/9514.html
//http://trienal.blogs.sapo.pt/23335.html
//Lisboa inspira Intervencoes na Cidade, in Construir, N.101 (p.1112), Lisboa 2008

2008

//Um Novo Terminal de Autocarros para Trancoso (A New Bus

Terminal to Trancoso), in Arquitectura e Vida N.84, Lisboa.
//Radio Interview Antena 1 (Portuguese Radio Station) _ Portugal
em Directo: National Radio Program with the goal of divulging new
talents in different areas.

WEBDESIGN
2006

www.ociodocao.com
www.albu.do.sapo.pt (Student Portfolio)

SOFTWARE

Rhinoceros + Grasshopper; Maya; Autocad; Illustrator; InDesign;

Photoshop; Ecotect; Freehand; Flash

LANGUAGES

Portuguese; English;Spanish; French

BOX (es)

REFABRICATION OF INDIVIDUAL BOXES

4.MAXIMUM VOLUME

[Colab.] - Commision
//Coimbra, Portugal
//Exhibition Pavillion
//35 sqm
4.00 m

The design of this pavillion provides simultaneously and symbioticly the existence of a Exhibition Area and a Conference Area.
These properties emerge from a previous negotiation between Form and its materialization.
This research is therefore developed with the aim
of manipulating any variable and irregular geometry, retrieving it to become an inhabitable surface,
and a practible buildable one as well. From regular
and similar components (produced/manufactured
as series), it is then assembled together in different and singular pre-defined positions throughout
the cartesian space.
This Design/Structure emerges as a variable heterogeneous composition of a homogeneous modular element, which flocking as a variable system,
regeometrise principles generating geometries
and spaces that would embrace the desired program.
The module of 30cmX30cmXh (h as a variable) negotiates from the size of a regular stairs step size
(30cm X15cm),until the assemblage of two units
(60 cm) to provide a sitting place.
Geometry and Component are then solved in one
unique scale, as one symbiotic embodiement, providing different programatic spaces with Uniqueness and Sameness simultaneously.

5.EXHIBITION AREA

ASSEMBLING COMPONENTS

6.PRESENTATION AREA

WIRING ALL LEDS TO MAIN CONSOLE

7.BACK WALL

8.BACK WALL TILTED

CLOSING BOXES WITH PLEXI BOTTOMS

9.GRID DRAPE
1 - OVERALL AREA

2 - RULED OFFSET

10.COMPONET APPLICATION

3 - ADJUSTABLE OFFSET
30 cm

30 cm

WIRING PAVILION TO POWER SUPPLY

CTS Hotel Facade

SHADOW RANGE

[Y Design Office] - Commission

//Beijing, China
//Facade Treatment
The Design of a Facade for an Hotel under construction in Beijing - CTS Hotel - emerged as the
possibility to explore Analitic Climate Softwares
as well as its translation of information into the
skin behaviour.
This was performed over the predefined rigid
volume of the Hotel. Here the Pattern achieves
an adittional 3dimensional volumetric mass
due to the reaction on the amount of incidence
of Sun Exposure over the multiple facades. The
whole skin is then materialized out of window
frames , which varie from width, height and
depth, depending on the amount of radiation in
the specific area of the frame.
Through this process and diagrams, the usage
of the amount of material becomes optimized,
driving the pattern shape to be exclusive to this
specific sittuation.
The existing building mass was analysed according to two criteria: Sun intensity along a year
(Solar Acess Analysis) and predominant shaded
areas in the faade (Shadow Range Analysis).
In the SHADOW RANGE ANALYSIS, we obtain
information that allows us to know wich areas
were able to reduce the need for solar protection.

In the SOLAR ACESS ANALYSIS, the colected information informed the design on which elevations are more exposed to higher temperature.
The information retreived from Ecotect informs
a second surface - a variable offset of the base
surface - on the depth needed for every frame in
order to achieve a balanced shading.
Therefore, the frames respond parametrically
to this distance, and its this same value that
shifts and scales the component, from sittuation to sittuation.

SOLAR ACESS

SKIN OFFSET ACCORDING ANALYSIS VALUES

Bus Terminal

[Y Design Office] - Commission

//Trancoso,Portugal
//Transportation
//2500 sqm
The opportunity to design of a Bus Terminal in
Trancoso, city with a relevant historical patrimony in Portugal, emerges as a space to reflect
over one of the most responsible systems
among the contemporary society development,
the Transportation.
A bus station is a part of network that webs
various places together and lets people to travel. This project reveals a congregation between
multiple programs of multiple speeds, allowing
people to circulate, sit and watch the busses,
moving or stopped.
Here there is a primordial goal of enhancing
circulation and visibility. The distorted display
of the terminal promotes a notion of spatial
amplitude that does not block the visibility towards the exterior, while the circulation reveals
as continuous and independent, both for people
and busses.
In the end, the intension is for the bus station
to become a successful public space. To attract
a public crowd, the roof terrace is designed to
be a large open space looking out towards the
castle and connecting the cafe. These public
spaces are literally a continuation of a sidewalk
from both sides, allowing an easy uninterrupted
circulation throughout the building. Despite its
non regular geometry, the building is integrated
among the surroundings, negotiating the proximity between the Citys medieval defensive
walls alls and the surrounding buildings. Its
scale outcomes out of these impositions (with
a max. constant height of 9 meters) and its
geometry from the researched circulation diagrams, intending to germinate a coherent public space.
The programmatic functions needed to the operation of a Bus Terminal are contained on the
ground floor, like ticket offices, waiting rooms
or boarding decks, always oriented towards the
Castle. On the upper level was developed with
this same orientation a square, a public open
space that serves also the cafeteria (facing
south, with view into a natural existing vale).
Simultaneously with the external access circulations, there are also established internal connections that allow for the building to work as
a whole, connecting the ticket areas, entrance
and waiting room directly with the cafeteria.

CONVENTIONAL CIRCULATION

OPTIMAL CIRCULATION

Magok Process

[Y Design Office] - Competition

//Seoul, South Korea
//Transportation
//450000 sqm
The Design Competition for the Seoul Waterfront intended to promote the design of an
leasure area, a park that is beeing inserted in a
defined Masterplan that contains Business and
R&D blocks.
This design should contain also a Floodgate,
Marina, Convention Center, reconsider an existing Sports Center currently located in the center
of the site and propose additional program.
CONCEPT
Surviving a painful war, Seoul was left with
empty battlefields, zero economy, and conflicting governments. To recover from this aftermath, it focused on cost-effective construction
plans to balance the needs of a regenerating
city - It was inevitable that the structures of
standardized assemblies were mass-produced
to keep up with the ever-increasing demand of
a crowding society.
These generic features drive the modernized
Seoul to become more homogeneous.
Acknowledging this societal homogeneity, our
vision is to design a park that celebrates diversity in many ways. The Magok region is located
in the West end of the city and embodies one
of the last existing farms in Seoul. From these
conditions of the site, we envisioned to have an
urban farm (producing energy) as well as a waterfront acting as a traditionally styled Korean
gate to blur the clear lines between two typical sets of conflicting values the traditional
versus the modern and the natural versus the
artificial. It is our intention to juxtapose these
contrasting ideas in a public space of diversity
from which an eclectic society can emerge.

PIEZZO FIELD // harvesting energy from human flow

Seoul today has expanded through the old city

boundary and exists as a complex network of
subway stations, large complexes, and metropolitan cities. Nodes of thresholds connected
to other nodes are emerging into an open system that is inherently borderless allowing for
continuous flow of various idea, energy, people,
and goods to enter/exit the city. The traditional
significance for a gate preserving valuable social message has been lost.
SIMULATED
CIRCULATION

FLOW IN AND
OUT OF SEOUL

WATER FLOW

MARINA

Sta Apolonia SQR

[Colab.] - Competition _ 1st Prz

//Lisbon, Portugal
//Transportation
//11000 sqm
This Competition purpose, while inserted in the
Lisbon Architecture Triennale (Urban Voids)
was to engender solutions and interventions
for lost or chaotic spaces in the city of Lisbon.
Our proposal leaned over the area in from of the
older Lisbon Train Station, Santa Apolonia.
The project relies over the reinterpretation of
the concept of the Square, focusing on giving
this space, currently occupied by cars, busses
and taxis (either circulating or parked) a dignified nature relying on an exclusive pedestrian
usage of this space, at street level.
The program is the existing one, but restructured on fluid logic. The crossing existing road
passes diagonally under the square, conciliated with car parking and a space designated
for taxis. This Taxi area, open and folded to the
exterior, emerges half a meter higher that the
rest of the square, responding on two different
concerns; the first one, visibility for this public
transport and second one, defending a qualitative space for taxi drivers, being comfortable
and protective, and simultaneously open to
the exterior.
On top, the square topography suggests crossing and resting areas.
This morphology reveals
a more cosy and empiric
appropriation of the public space, with various organic nuances, easily and
differently occupied by
each user.
Aware of the complexity
inherent with these nonregular geometries, one
of our aims was also do
develop it constructively
and demonstrate that was
buildable, using CNC Laser
Cutters for the metallic
structure, and milling machines for the casts of the
concrete floor slabs.

EXISTING CIRCULATION

PROPOSED CIRCULATION

TAXIS
PARKING
CARS/BUS

Shenzhen

GROUND LEVEL

[BIG - Project Architect]

//Shenzhen, China
//Transportation
//390600 sqm
This Design is based on a 3d connective system,
where the buildings connect amont them at different levels,
creating a structural continuum throughout the
building(s).

[A]

MID LEVEL

This system of distribution and connectivity is a

symbiotic organization throughout all the multiple programs, at the upper floors in Houses and
Offices, adn at the ground and underground floors
with at the Retail and Park Level.
[B]

a)
Its developed a branching unit.
The module sets on a fixed core with 6 elevators,
and a branch of 22 meters, able to support one or
two Housing Units.
b)
The branching is spread 3Dimensionally (Each
Building is able to connect in 6 Directions).
The geometry morphs from a circular plinth on the
groundfloor level (with no housing enhancing privacy), into the Tripod shaped Plan and so on...

UPPER LEVEL

[C]

c)
Sequence of Plans
This Sequence shows the Elevator Cores Spreaded
Throughout the Building without interfering with
the Geometry.
d)
From the 60 degrees connections its established
a grid which will then organize the groundfloor
and the Park.
This groundfloor space is generated from replicating in each crossing of the grid an circle with the
same radius sa the bottom of each tower.

[D]

Kenny Heights

[BIG - Project Architect]

//Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
//Facade Design
This design questions the predominant and conventional balconies display in Housing high-rise
Buildings.
Kuala Lumpur, being Malaysias reflex of Economical growth, has become one of the most
explosive examples how a financial crescent may
have a positive influence in the society, providing
several investments on real-estate that enhance
life quality.
However, space is often provided not as a
fully usable as inhabitable space, particularly in the specific
cases of High-rise
Buildings.
The Design for the
Kenny Heights Towers focuses on this
specific sittuation.
The morphology of
the common highrise balcony is here
questioned,
and
re-interepretated
towards a better human usage of space.

SHADING PATTERN BASED ON SUN EXPOSURE

The long and narrow balcony is converted into

a fully balanced proportioned balcony: a circular
balcony becoming a external room for the appartment - an outdoor terrace with fully panoramic
over the surroundings..
EXISTING PLAN

PROCESS
1 - The Average area of the existing balconies is
calculated.
2 - Three typologies of balconies are defined
matching the same amount of area as the long
narrow ones.
The area of Type A balcony plus Type B balcony
provides the same area as the long existing balcony.
The are of Type C has the same area as the existing balcony.

PROPOSED PLAN

resundsparken
[BIG]
//Copenhagen, Denmark
//Housing
//145000 sqm

resundsparken is an Urban Planning Design

Competition won by BIG. It was comissioned posteriorly for further development.
The initial Design was based on several Row
Houses displayed along kinked lines setled on
existing site conditions. These Row houses contained paralelepipedic volumes on top as additional Housing units.
PARAMETRIC MODEL

My participation within this design was do develop those same upper volumes.
Within a design presetted on Existing contitions
and rules, the upper volumes followed the same
principle.
They were originated parametrically, by obtaining an maximum envelop based on Danish Laws,
which define, according to an equation, the maximum height of a building in relation to the proximity towards the neighbour buildings.
As such, a maximum volume for each row was obtained. From that maximum volume, the process
was driven throught the partial subtraction of the
maximum volume, regulated with precision on
the amount of area required by the Client.
These Typological variations obey both to the predefined Area Ratio and Maximum Volume (from
the Maximized Plot Volume)
The Rule H=Ax0,33 +3m is here applyed both on
the upper limit (height) and lower limit, introducing a new parameter.
The row houses becomes fully optimised in this
sittuation, taking advantage of maximum height
and span (width), without jeopardizing the lower
dwellings views nor light conditions.
This Desingn has been approved by the townhall
as Definitive Urban Planning , not withing conventional parameters defined bidimentionally, but as
a maximum threedimensional envelope to be followed for further hounsing developments.

h = a x 0,33 + 3m

DIAGRAMATIC TOPOLOGICAL SECTION

SHADOW RANGE

Battery

[BIG]
//Copenhagen, Denmark
//Housing
//124000 sqm
This project is about integration; It seeks to integrate all aspects of city life into a unified environment; apartments, offices, shopping, child care
provision, sports facilities, cultural institutions
and a mosque; It seeks to facilitate the cultural
integration of Islamic and Danish culture, by incorporating the first mosque ever built in Denmark.

MOSQUE GENERATION ACOORDING

THE 5 PRAYING HOURS

Inserted withing this ongoing project, my primary

task was to explore and redesign several facades
within the multiple Buildings with variated programs.

Due to the formal and programatical complexity

of the project, we researched and explored facades over multiple building typologies - Housing, Hotel, Mosque, Offices, Library, Retail.

The main posterior participation within the Battery Project was, thereafter, the refinement of
the Mosque Geometry, Program and Facade.
The main Geometry of the Mosque is generated
through the overall Formal Generative Process,
but its posteriorly subjugated to a deliberated
rotation towards Meca. Thereafter, its spatial exploration is subtracted from the Five main Muslim Praying Times.
According to these orientations, a brick pattern
was explored, with gaps between the bricks allowing light to get in.
The display of the bricks have 5 orientations. Oriented towards the sun. the frame the solar incidence at the time of each Praying.
This allows 5 different intensive illuminated moments at the praying times.

FACADE STUDIES

Parcel H+D5

DESIGN PROPOSAL A

[MAD - Project Architect]

//Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
//Housing
//120000 sqm

UPPER L.

This design for a Residential Complex for Kuala

Lumpur in Malaysia was inserted in an urban
master plan for luxurious residences that has
been being realized in several stages - the briefing demanded around 900 units, with the maximum height limit of 30 stories, plus commercial
and parking area.
In the first design proposal, since it was a luxurious residential complex and due to the proximity with the Petronas Towers, it was established
that all apartments should have visual contact
towards these towers.
Maximizing the width of the site, as well as the
height limit, the layout emerged from obtaining
the maximum area maintaining visual contact
with the tower creating a single block and
then shredding it into multiple towers. Within
the towers display, distance, light/shadows and
prevailing winds were the factors that organized
them and anchored them in the squared shape
site.
The commercial area was situated on the ground
floor, underneath a surface topography. Above it,
this clothing surface behaved as a natural forest
landscape, where the towers engaged as organic
vertical organisms.
Since the view towards the towers was a priority,
all apartments were on one side, pulling vertical accesses like elevators and stairs towards the
back.
Expelled to the exterior, the elevator offers a
panoramic view to the dwellers while acceding
to their apartment. Formally, these elevators
behave also has a back spine, from which were
applied several vein or leafs pattern, bifurcating
and creating variable balconies in the body of the
tower, attributing it a sense of variation while the
dwellings floorplan remains the same.

DESIGN PROPOSAL B

PATTERN

MID L.

GROUND L.

The second proposal was sustained through a modular principle, where two dwellings (duplex) formed one Unit, containing a common interstitial corridor in-between them.
Once the module defined, its array, through established
parameters, would work as a form-finding process, where
the form would be the outcome of a functioning building
meshwork.
The dwellings Display Rule sets the larger group (8 Units
= 16 dwellings) to be closer to the ground, in order to have
larger open spaces at the same level - the ring building and
its inner space becomes permeable; at the middle (variable)
level, the grouping is more fragmented (becoming groups of
3 units), and at the top level it becomes a continuous solid
ring.
Within this system of rotation and translation of the units,
six of them are defined as static, for vertical accesses (elevators and stairs.
The outcome result emerges from orienting/arraying the
pre-defined units through a ruling system, organizing the
dwellings display and circulation, while creating several formal nuances and relationships.

BASE UNIT PROPAGATION

Residential
Competition
[MAD]
//Singapore
//Housing

This competition consisted on the re-design of an

existing tower in Singapore - the original project
was a regular tower with concrete structural vertical blades that visually marked the building.
For the new design, this characteristic was enhanced, variating, increasing and merging vertical fines (resulting from adding structure and
cantilevering the existing fines), adding another
aesthetic value to the structure itself and using it to improve and increase the areas of the
apartments. The top of the building is also used
to create a roof cafeteria, a leisure space carved
throughout the density of the vertical fines structure that shape and defines the building.

Haier Pavillion

[MAD - Project Architect]

//Beijing, China
//Exhibition
//6500 sqm
Haier, a brand for TVs, Computers, ACs, etc, was one of the
main sponsors of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. As such,
they requested an ephemeral pavilion for Chao Yang Park,
that could be representative of sustainability while containing exhibition, VIP areas and other for promotion of the
brand itself.
Within sustainability, Beijings pollution and material waste
situation, the project re-uses Water Gallons, daily used by
millions of people, recycling them for creating skin/structure
of the building itself. Through a weaving locking system inbetween the gallons, its created a self-loading sustainable
structure that varies according the morphology of the overall
shape.

Tokyo Island

[MAD - Project Architect]

//The World, Dubai
//Resort
//32000 sqm
The design for the Tokyo Island, for the master
plan The World in Dubai, requested a resort program apartment units to be rented.
From a demanded number of units and a limited
height level, the design optimized the by doubling the island platform, generating a second
island surface that contains residential and commercial program.
This secondary surface, that thickens and becomes thinner according to commercial program,
works as a meshwork of circulations and visibility
towards the sea, either on top of it or underneath.
The system is defined through a radial display,
ruling the generation of the apartment units,
which are expelled from the island surface, inbetween the circulation and visibility paths.
This same circulation ruling system defines the
extensions oversea of the island itself. Answering
for a different typology of dwellings requested
(inserted within the water), the same system defines and establishes these relations and connections as a whole, unifying different programs and
accessibilities.

1 BEDROOM APPARTMENT
2 BEDROOM AP.
3 BEDROOM AP.
RESTAURANT
CLUB HOUSE
COMMERCIAL AREA

Sample Box

[ReD - Project Architect]

Competition _ 1st Prz
//Lisbon, Portugal
//Exhibition
The design of the Sample BOX serves two simultaneous goals: to show the potential of the
material Vitrakem for architecture (working as an
exhibition of the multiple variations of the material), and to be a reference point for the people
that pass by the Airport.
Conceptually, it has two main simple statements.
First, it represents, in the literal sense of the
name, a sample box of a specific material Vitrakem. It is a ceramic material with 53 colors
available in catalog, and these are the colors that
the design contains and exhibits in its interior.
Second, as a display object it has a defined exhibition space - an airport, a space for circulating
and resting.
Negotiating these two assumptions, it results in
a simple box that is carved through varying circulation paths and nesting/resting areas, revealing
its colorful interior and the material in display.
Besides the vertical display elements, the anthropomorphic conception of the circulation paths
generates a topographic floor variation, contributing for a more interesting experience, either for
the ones pass through it, either for the ones outside, observing someone varying in height while
crossing it
Constructively, the exterior walls are constructed
with layers of panels that form a sandwich one,
composed by a wooden agglomerated and a Vitrakem sheet. The interior boards, with singular
individual geometries, are CNC Water Jet cutted.
Regarding to the floor, it consists in a series of
individually milled MDF blocks according to the
specific geometries in the digital model, assembled to form the overall ground surface.

Horror Vacui

[ReD] - Commission
//Lisbon, Portugal
//Exhibition
For the Dutch exhibition on the Lisbon Architecture Triennale, the NAi (Netherlands Architecture
Institute) reached ReD to design it.
Under the theme of the Triennale itself, Urban
Voids, the commissioner Hans Ibelings defined a
sub theme, HORROR VACUI, as an analysis of the
urban growth of the Dutch cities, which do not expand their area, but instead are occupying every
empty space inside them.
Under this theme, the analysis of the Horror Vacui relies on the fear for empty spaces. On painting and sculpture, it translates on the fulfilment
of every space left in the canvas or material.
Sharing the same principle, this exhibition relied
on the occupation of the space designated for the
Netherlands exhibition. This space fulfilling was
translated by the presence of buildings in a city,
volumes of different heights that occupied a grid
of a a reticule of 1.2 metres , inserted in the dimensions of the space.
The volumes were variable in heights, with differences of 40cm, from 2.40m till 0.40m. On this
rule, this six sets of buildings filled the space,
depending on circulation areas (main - the empty
space in the grid - and secondary ones) and on the
exhibition spaces for panels and models.
This space and hypothetical city became then
defined by the silhouette design of the volume
buildings. The outline was a single closed polyline
that defined space by contouring the edges, establishing different areas, spaces and groups inside the exhibition.
The 300 meters polyline was materialized in 196
aluminium profiles, sectioned in varied directions, depending on the shifts of the line while
designing the space.

Imperium

[ReD] - Commission
//World Toural
//Theater Cenario
The Spanish theatre company La Fura Dels Baus
recurred to ReD for consultancy for the design of
a reconfigurable pyramid, for the show IMPERIUM starting the world tour in May07, in Beijing.
The composition of the object as a pyramid (to
be climbed) would have to be achieved in the final part of the show, symbolising a struggle for
power.
On the other hand, the purpose along the show
was to dissimulate it, being separated in parts
with different shapes, performing along with the
actors, supporting and participating as different
sets in the development of the narrative.
This formal dissimulation was also reachable
through the pyramid outer shell. The possibility of creating a non-regular skin, parallel to the
reconfiguration of the rough geometrical shape
led to the creation of a exterior membrane that,
despite being variable and non-regular, provided
steps in order to be climbed and allowed rebating
numerous parts of it, achieving multiple reconfigurations.

PYRAMID STUDIES

SkyShelve

[ReD] - Commission
//Oporto
//Furniture
The SkyShelve is a structure for a House, in a 6m doublehight space. This shelve has a few restrictions, like having to
be clear on one of the sides in contact with the floor because
of an existing corridor.
At the same time, it reaches to a sky-light window, performing a twist along this wall, like an organic living being trying
to reach luminosity. For the effect of being abook shelve, it
provides as well incorporated steps along its body, allowing
the users to reach book in higher places. The books on the
upper part might be reached from an upper corridor on the
left part of the images.

Lisbon Book Fair

[Marcosandmarjan]
//Lisbon, Portugal
//Amphitheater/Cafeteria
//1000 sqm
The project was the centrepiece of the 75th Book
Fair, which is every year located on the
highest point of the Parque Eduardo VII in Lisbon.
The park, built in 1943, is a protected
area within the city, standing out for its clear geometric layout, inclined topography,
points of perspective and extraordinary views
over the city. This created an ideal setting
for the building to be sited on the north-west
edge of the park, projecting its main
volume into the most exposed area of the central
grass meadows.
The building was a low-budget temporary construction that included two independent
structures: an auditorium for a minimum of 150
people linked to a self-service cafeteria,
and a separate information pavilion. Differently
from previous years, the proposal combined
the auditorium and the cafeteria through a large
outdoor staircase, which allowed
the seating area of both cafeteria and auditorium
to be extended to the outside. This
solution created an amphitheatre-like condition
that permitted users to experience the
cultural activities in the auditorium from the outside, while using the cafeteria and at
the same time appreciate the views of the city
through a large window behind the stage
inside.
For this project was also designed a sitting facility to support the Fair, inserted in a series of pieces designed by Marcosandmarjan named NURBSTERS. Build out of CNC laser
cutted MDF boards, it emerges from a 3D equilibrium between form and function. With the intention of providing a
place for people to rest, the study of this structure led it to
become an inhabited wall, draped on the human body and
providing different sorts of accommodations.

International Fair
[Marcosandmarjan]
//Azores Islands, Portugal
//Exhibition Fair
//14000 sqm

Inserted in an Exhibiton called LAtalante, coorganized with the Azores Islands Government
and aiming for promoting new ideas for this archipelago, Marcosandmarjan had the possibility
of designing an International Fair for S.Miguel
Island.
Inserted on an area with a significant slope, and
considering that the exhibition spaces required
were large (6000m2, 3000m2, 2000m2), both
diagrammatically and in confrontation with the
site, the spaces became gradually absorbed as
craters incrusted in the hill, with circulation systems over and through them.
Within the program was also an Enterprise Nest,
a Cafeteria and Administration area. These were
raised to the top level, into this intricate circulation system, forming an inhabitable roof for the
craters, were the cafeteria would come out, like
the head of a mollusc grabbed with his tentacles
to its shelter.
The entrance level contained only ticket offices
and ramifications for this complex circulation
system, either up to the multiple services, either
down into the craters. When entering in these
ones, according to the event, one could have the
possibility of incoming on each individual space
for separated exhibitions, or if the exhibition occupied the whole space, the area became one as
well, with a different circulation route.