Architectural Portfolio

1. CAMPOS ALANIS
luis gerardo
PORTFOLIO

2. ·1·CONTENT ·6··2· ·7··3· ·8··4· ·5·
border texturethreshold objectfabric materialbond place

3. border
13460 · tlahuac · MX · 2013
How to wash out a physical limit given by the site? The project was
planned to be inserted in a context where it is almost rural, in the
outskirts of Mexico City where the main problems are social and
economic. With this in mind we questioned the approach of the
project, this was meant to be a public library and a park in 3,000
m2 with an architectural program rounding almost as much as the
ground extent. The ridiculousness of trying to create public space
through the creation of a border between social context and ar-
chitecture was just unacceptable for us, in response to the irony
of the situation we created a concept in which we would try to
wash out this borders through open space which connected every
corner of the context to the center in which we had the library. As
a result, we created 2,500 m2 of public space and so much of
500 m2 of built environment, giving power to the people in order to
appropriate space instead of alienating them from it.

4. Thespace
opens
toit’s
context
the BORDERS
WASH OUT
Through the connection of different activities
By connecting the existing built
environment

5. threshold
81371 · münchen · DE · 2013
A building which seemed to be lonely, surrounded by higher ones
and almost in abandonment was the first thing I saw after we ap-
proached the place. This building had nothing special to it but the
surroundings did, few local restaurants, a fish market and some
local stores gave the area a certain familiarity almost like a feeling
of being at home. The aim of the project was to help regain the
soul of the place through the people that worked and passed by
every day, we devised a strategy in which several steps should be
taken in order to create the place they were expecting. The build-
ing became like a threshold that you could go in and the life with
in it was completely different from the outside, as well the inside
could be seen from the outside connecting it to the context and
thus creating a synergy from the inside to the outside. As a result,
people now could use this place as a meeting point where they
could eat, drink as well as buying local produces, a modern market
combined with public space.

6. STAGE #1
space rearrangement
STAGE #2
linking cover
STAGE #3
essengarten
STAGE #4
sidewalk restoration
STAGE #4
connection between
markets
STAGE #5
open street market
GRAb and
STayGRAB N’ Go
not
CONnECT
The Community
re-usearchitecture
to
reclaim
urban life
recyclearchitecture
to
regenerate
space
reducearchitecture
to

7. fabric
04510 · unam · MX · 2015
Segregation of a city is a very common problem within them, the
parts that result of the lack of cohesion through a community create
poor communication from one another thus problems start to gen-
erate. Mexico’s National University is a very big one and throughout
the years many parts of it have been partitioned in order to fit more
students and to add more activities to them; the result has been a
fractioned social tissue that little by little starts to alienate students
from the social connections made at the campus. For this project,
we had the task to try and re-generate these connections through
public space, physical connections and architecture; we planned
strategies that would re-establish the lost social connections and
the appropriation of the students to the campus. We composed a
new layer of the fabric in order to create a more open experience
for students where social encounters could be easily made and
student life could benefit the interaction with urban mobility.

8. “Connection
between two
of the mayor
areas”
“Public Space
regeneration
between people
and transport”
“Aperture to
the immediate
context”

9. bond
10100 · unidad independencia · MX · 2015
What does it mean to live within a community? For my bachelor’s
thesis, I made a research of the human interactions towards the
built environment and public space, within a community living in a
social housing project. In general, social housing projects focus on
offering cheap and practical solutions where people can live, but
sometimes they offer just enough for the community to grow and
develop. The opportunities left for people to make some changes
and the appropriation of inner and outer space create interesting
outcomes, from changes in the architectural typologies to changes
in the internal economy of the community. I found that these out-
comes cannot be measured by any means, they change as the
people come and go and create the social fabric, a bond between
people and the physical space.

10. “Itisonlyinpopular
environmentslikethese
thatwecanfindplacesthat
fosterunexpectedencounter,
opportunity,discovery,
innovation”
ThisWasPublicSpace!
Opportunityformore
NEWADDITIONS
RoofGarden?
It was here where we found that people trans-
formed its environment; where architects had just
left walls and roofs. the process of development
of a place is up to the people who live there, to
the men, women, children and elders that wish to
live differently than they are supposed to do. The
social fabric of a community changes through the
cultural an economic possibilities of a given time,
and in consequence the urban and architectural
landscape changes with it .

11. place
52480 · chalmita · MX · 2015
We often found that the place where a building is going to be
is one of the main concepts to approach the solution, the place
gives you technical information on various things, sun trajectory,
climate, among many others. For this project, we considered all
those things but we wanted to go deeper in the sense of “place”
we wanted to make a house that would actually feel as it belonged
to the mountains where it was inserted. Our main concerns were
the history of the place in order to understand how the community
of the area had built for many years and also the way it should be
placed within the ground so that the house would easily feel as if it
was part of the environment. With this in mind we were answering
solely to the place by respecting the environment, context and
history.

12. + +
=
SENSE
OfPLACE
topography
Adapting to
local materials
Use of
localhandwork
Implementation

13. texture
54900 · tultitlan · MX · 2013
In the outskirts of the city there is an industrial area in which streets
are wide, sidewalks are narrow, the noise is overwhelming and
there are insecurity problems. We faced a project in which we
needed to rebuild the façade of one of the factories of the area, the
issue centred itself in two main points security and economy; we
needed to design a high façade with little money. We noticed that
there are a lot of people who go by the factory every day and by
dusk the area gets very dark so the insecurity problems rise, with
that in mind and the condition of doing it with the least resources
we could, the façade turned out to be a lattice wall that blends with
the context, provides security to the factory and the outside, and
uses half the material of a normal wall. We created a new texture
for the area, a new aesthetic and a new meaning of security.

14. 1 2 3 4
Themodulerepeatsitselfinordertocreatethetexture
throughoutthewholefacade.
Theinterventioncreatesanewmeaningforthe
area,providingitoflightandsecurity

15. object
07870 · vallejo · MX · 2017
The small scale has an exceptional approach towards design
thinking, the details in which things are put together gives you the
opportunity to re arrange the way we think; seeing things from a
meticulous point of view lets you pay attention to things we often
do not think about. For this project, we were asked to transform
the flat of a young couple, for which we suggested to re design
the furniture. The project centred its concept in the handwork of
wood and its process, understanding completely the implications
of wood working, from its acquisition to its final form. Getting in-
volved in the process taught not only how to work with wood but
to understand the material and its properties.

16. The materiality
Of the different kinds of
Wood changes
The way each piece is meant
To be joined
“
“
”
”
The process of the handwork
Gives the objects
MeaningThrough the laborof people and the properties of the material

17. material
01900 · pedregal · MX · 2017
Material composes the reality of architecture, all the components
which are put in one single place in certain order make possible
what we, as architects can imagine. This project is located in Pe-
dregal a place with big history, were the first stones of modern
architecture are placed; for this reason, we decided to guide this
project through the materiality of those times, respecting some ma-
terial elements, proportions and ideas that made this a vanguards
place of modern thinking. Developing spaces through the material
lead us to the creation of more rough but significant spaces, where
there is a sense of home, history and honesty. Understanding how
materials work and interact with each other gave us the opportunity
to take advantage of their characteristics thus resulting in a place
of its own atmosphere, a place with shared ideas but with its own
voice.

18. FAMILY
SALA/COMEDOR
SERVICIO
COCINABAÑO
BAÑO
SALA/COMEDOR
Theuseofthe
asareminderofthepast
andoriginsoftheplacematerial
Filledwith
FORNATURETO
RECOVERIT’SOWN
PLACEopenspace
=
concrete
black stone
wood
white