This document summarizes Andrea Mantecon Guillen's 2018 portfolio from the Master of Architecture in Collective Housing program. It presents a variety of individual and group projects covering topics such as re-purposing abandoned factories, rural living, and the relationship between architecture and nature. The portfolio demonstrates the program's intensive workshop format led by guest architects, focusing on housing at various scales. It explores collective housing as a way to study and support current and future societies through architectural problem solving.

1. MCH 2018 Portfolio
Andrea Mantecon Guillen

3. The following compilation of works shows
all projects developed during the Master’s
workshops and four chosen projects resulting
from specialty seminars. A combination
of individual and team work is presented.
Contemporary topics like the re-purpose of
abandoned factories in Detroit or the idea of a
return to the countryside accompany rigorous
architectural researches such as unit depth
and the function of the envelope in current
construction. A personal objective weaves the
projects together: a quest for positive change,
principally in our approach to leisure, work,
privacy and nature. An urge to rethink our
processes and an invitation to question our
relationship to nature and to each other,
particularly in a society that demands not only
a change in thought but a change in action.
Through the following projects, collective
housing is understood as one of architecture’s
biggest opportunities to study, embrace,
support and reflect current and future societies
and furthermore architecture is understood as
a problem solving discipline.
The Master of Architecture in Collective
Housing, MCH, is a postgraduate full-
time international professional program of
advanced architecture design in cities and
housing presented by Universidad Politécnica
of Madrid (UPM) and Swiss Federal Institute
of Technology (ETH). The program
develops through an intensive series of one-
week workshops complemented by specialty
seminars. The topic and approach for every
workshop is different and the methodology is
dictated by the invited architect. Sometimes
focused on punctual aspects of housing,
sometimes on more broad forward-looking
topics, the workshops require an ability to
take quick decisions and pursue them in the
search for a clear idea by the end of the 5 days.
Amongst others, the MCH’s 2018 Edition
had as workshop leaders architects such as
Dietmar Eberle, Anne Lacaton, Anette Gigon
and Andrea Deplazes, who presented a variety
of design briefs ranging from the unit to the
urban scale.
Master in Advanced Studies in
Collective Housing
ETH/UPM
MCH 2018

4. Workshops

5. Service spine/
Elevated circulation
Living space Community spaces Agricultural land Roads
Concept Master Plan
Redensifying the countryside
Hrvoje Njiric
w/Eve Vervelidou
Statistically, 50% of the world’s population lives
in the countryside. Furthermore, we can trace an
exodus of urban population toward rural alternatives,
motivated by radically different living conditions, by
the economy of giving over their city dwellings to
tourists and by the possibility to pursue the dream
of an Arcadian welfare. This project proposes to
create infrastructural spines from which inhabitants
can grow their compact units. The spines containing
the bathrooms and kitchens, also serve as elevated
streets to allow the soil to be productive. The
elevated streets also assure views of the landscape
and quick communication between different points
of the settlement. Roads are provided for vehicles as
needed but minimized by the idea of the elevated
pedestrian streets. Compactness is achieved through
height and through the idea of an interior life
strongly complimented by the exterior space. A
community which commits with agriculture and who
looks for a better relationship with nature is hosted
in this development which provides community
spaces, private niches and public infrastructures in
accordance with a common objective of redensifying
the countryside with a new conscience of the
resources.

6. Concept Section
Service Spine
Additions. Level 1
Additions. Level 2

7. 40% Density
60% Density
80% Density

8. Re-jungle
Felix Claus
The city of Madrid, as many others, present a clear
lack of wild nature. Manicured parks every number of
blocks mimetize playgrounds more than ecosystems.
An appreciation of nature as recreational rather than
as functional has prevented it from working beneficially
for cities and their inhabitants. The advantages of a
better relationship with nature are obvious: better
air quality and better weather response and their
consequential benefits for health, not to mention
its contribution to the city’s perception. This project
proposes the idea of rewilding the city through it’s core
unit: it’s housing blocks. The block’s voids become an
urban jungle organized by the building’s profile: in
the street, the building recedes creating a green urban
enlargement and in the interior, an increasingly open
patio becomes a cascade of greenery and terraces.

9. Building Section

10. Master PlanCluster Plan

11. Catching up
Amann Canovas Maruri
w/Miguel Angel Valverde, Alejandra Delgado
An existing neighborhood is stuck in time, it’s brick
buildings create a monotone urban setting in which
the pixelated shapes contribute to a sense of chaos.
This proposal focuses on the intervention of the
neighborhood with the objective of catching it up
in time and injecting it with new possibilities. The
intervention comprises mainly three strategies: (1)
Ground ordering and programing. Green capsules
complete and rationalize the building shapes which
are then used programatically as backdrops to
communal activities: a sunken basketball court, a
projection space, and leisure areas work along with
the agricultural pockets. (2) Redensification. The
existing towers grow in height, join each other and
create not only new housing opportunities but icons
for the area. (3) Roof Occupation. The roofs of the
existing buildings are a perfect opportunity to create
leisure and production space for the dwellers with
atelier-like spaces open to customization.
The three strategies are meant to result in the
revitalization of the neighborhood and it’s
transformation into a mixed use neighborhood
characterized for it’s relationship to cutting-edge
technology. Recreational, productive, technological
and quotidian activities are meant to find new settings
intertwining to create better living conditions.

12. Roof plan
1Agricultural pockets Market space Public plaza Playground Basketball court
Sunken theater2
1
2

13. Section

14. South Facade Section
Inhabitable screens
Cino Zucchi
w/Manuel Sanchez
In the expansion of the nineteenth century, building
facades were designed as simple backdrops of
the urban scene. The functionalist attitude of the
following century, dismissed previous practices as
“formalist” and denied any figural autonomy to the
vertical envelope of residential buildings, considering
it the natural consequence of the correct resolution
of a “typical” apartment unit. But the scale of the
single living unit and the one of the city, are not able
to dialogue directly without a mediating element.
Focused on this dialogue, this project looks to profit
from the building’s envelope to create two extra
rooms with different conditions from the interior
ones. A front porch-like space serves as a resting place
for groceries, or as a place for boots in the winter, but
also as a place of mediation between neighbors. On
the back, a private exterior room provides space for
quotidian outdoor activities. These transitional rooms
create a dialogue with the city both from the interior
and from the exterior. They form a relationship
between the residents and the city but also between
the public and the building through nuanced
transparencies and small insights into the building’s
life but also through an overall configuration formed
by the rooms meant to address the urban scale.

15. Typical Plan
50 15 30 45

16. North Facade Elevation
North Facade Section

17. South Facade Elevation
South Facade Interior Elevation

18. Transparency/Services
Orthogonal
Directional
Typology Plan Vertical Circulation Corner Condition Ensemble
Urban Fix
Andrea Deplazes
w/Rosario Pastore
Plaza Mayor is a 12,000 m2
public space in the middle
of the highly dense city center of Madrid assured by
6 meter deep, three story high residential buildings.
The housing stripes have one blind facade to the back
of the plaza, to which other housing buildings attach,
creating city blocks interrupted to give access to the
plaza through arched cuts in the 6 meter housing
block. 237 balconies face the Plaza creating a dialogue
of the dwellers with the public. Inspired in Plaza
Mayor, this exercise explores further urban potential
of a 6m dwelling typology. Understanding a range
of openness that goes from having one entire blind
facade, to having complete transparency, two kinds
of hypothetical units are conceived: orthogonal ones
and directional ones. A matrix of transparency and
direction is the base for combinations which originate
a series of urban scenarios meant to address current
issues in the city. Redensification, preservation and
efficiency are the subjects explored through this idea
of a flexible linear housing block.

19. Redensifying sprawl diagram
Redensifying sprawl
Encasing infrastructure
Encasing uses
Occupying urban voids/
Assuring public space

20. Facade Treatment

21. Buenos Aires opaque supermarkets
Guadalajara’s unused train tracks
New York’s unused piers
Beijing’s residual plots
Madrid’s modern urbanism
Mexico’s favelas remaining free space

22. Volume, core, facade
Dietmar Eberle
This proposal is based on the premise that a project’s
response should be based on the duration of each
element’s impact. The buildings volumetry, for
instance, will potentially last more than 100 years
and its repercussions on the city more than 200,
yet the interior partitions are something that will
likely change within one generation. Based on this,
a correct volumetric response is the first order when
designing a new project, followed by a core that allows
future change and a facade that can adapt to interior
reconfigurations. The plot, in the old city of Madrid
is at the end of a picturesque residential street which
in the original Texeira plan of the city was meant to
be a tower yet, a 4-story building is in place. From
a volumetric stand, the following proposal aims to
generate a dignified and climatic ending to the street
whileholdingatightrelationshipwiththeneighboring
building. The slant, mediating between the existing
buildings and the new tower creates an opportunity
for mansard windows. In terms of core, it’s location
allows it to expand and contract to react to floor size
and use. From the envelope’s approach the building
holds on to the resilience of it’s rhythmic openings to
assure flexibility both in present and future interior
configurations.

23. Ground floor plan
Upper floors Typical Plan
Lower Floors Typical Plan
Penthouse Floor

24. M A D R I L E A N P L A Z A S
S I T E R E S P O N S E T O S I T E
M A S S I N G D I A G R A M
1
U R B A N N I C H E S
M A D R I L E A N P L A Z A S
I D E A L F O R M AT S F O R F U T U R E U R B A N L I F E
S I T E R E S P O N S E T O S I T E
M A S S I N G D I A G R A M
1 . P l a z a
2 . C o - w o r k s p a c e
1
2
2
2
2
3
Volumetric process
Ideal Urban Formats
Alison Brooks
w/Yasemin Yalcin, Manuel Sanchez
In old city centers, the mismatch from one
building to the next is what forms niches where
life is generated. Small cafés nest themselves
in this imperfections and urban art decorates
the smaller crannies. Yet, in new developments
where blocks are designed single handedly,
many times these opportunities are missed. This
project aims to recuperate the idea of different
scale breaks which can be the setting to new
urban activities.

25. N O RT H E L E VAT I O N
W E S T E L E VAT I O N
E A S T E L E VAT I O NEast Elevation
West Elevation
North Elevation

26. HOME
Anette Gigon
Designing a project for home is always a task close
to the heart. For this project, the chosen plot is a
street bordering a park near my grandparents house.
With lush nature available, this street is a parade of
abandoned buildings, improvised fences and opaque
industry facades sprinkled with a few informal
merchants set in tables and vehicles. The project
proposes a rescue of the street through much needed
housing projects. On the park side, the slim housing
strip is meant to be standing on a high arcade
serving as an entry to the park which is currently a
patchwork of different fences and parking lots. The
units above will have loggia balconies facing the park
and entrances through the street side. On the other
side, the housing strip, sitting in the same arcade, is
meant to have commercial spaces and entries to the
parking lots behind. The parking lots in this side are
meant to serve both strips of housing making them
work as one building with a slow traffic street in the
middle. A system of parking, commerce, housing and
the beautiful existing park and its cultural facilities
are meant to create an ideal urban setting.

27. Existingfactory
Existingpark
Ground Floor Plan
Typical Floor Plan

28. Detroit
Anne Lacaton
w/Carlos Chauca, Candelaria Caceres
100 years ago, the city of Detroit was the industrial
center of the world, but in 2013 it filed for the largest
municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. Detroit’s
populationdeclinedfrom1.8millionto700,000,living
tens of thousands of abandoned buildings, vacant lots
and unlit streets. The Packard Plant was an innovative
building of its time, meant for car production which,
like many others, was abandoned after the crisis.
Packard #10, designed in 1905 by Albert Kahn
was specially progressive for its reinforced concrete
system which allowed 9.15m spans, resulting in a
nave 98.15m long and 18.30m wide. This proposal
focuses on the reuse of the abandoned Building #10
thinking of a post-industrial society for which the
boundaries of living, working and playing blur and
form new relationships. The current re-valuation of
craft and new ways of distribution and mobility allow
a different use of space which no longer corresponds
to linear processes but to personal journeys, and as
a response, this typological exploration proposes a
collage of collective and private spaces meant for
production, leisure and living. A minimal quantity
of fixed walls allow users to control privacy from the
interior and to take as much part as desired of the
collectivity, and a strong vertical circulation connects
ground, middle and roof in a systemic cycle.

29. Axonometric Diagram
Longitudinal SectionShort Section
Ground floor Typical floor Roof plan
Working lobby
Shared production
space
Living Terrace
Gym
Tanning area
Pool
Auditorium
Party room
Shaded terrace
Commercial
Commercial
Commercial

30. Specialties

31. Hanging infrastructure
Urban Design
w/Elena Congui, Eve Vervelidou
The square of Callao is located alongside the Gran
Via in Madrid. Since 1985 and until 2006, it was a
transportation hub which consolidated into a Bus
Central. In 2009 local authorities decided to relocate
the bus routes and make the square pedestrian in
response to its strategic location. Originally meant
as a multipurpose gathering and circulation space,
the plaza did not include any shaded areas, fountains
or benches. The plaza, a completely free space, is
occupied differently in response to events. Nowadays,
the high traffic of tourists, visitors and locals is in
clear need of a resting pocket from the ever flowing
Gran Via and the temporary installations in Callao
seem more of an obstruction than an addition to
daily life. This proposal looks for a creative way to
respect the plaza’s flexibility for special events and
still provide the necessary daily infrastructure. In
an aim to integrate the street, the sidewalk on the
other side and the plaza, a responsive shape has been
thought as a light linear canopy from which different
urban modules can be hung catering to the activities
which develop in the space. In this elevated structure,
art can be hung, curtains which can divide the space
can be fixed, selling modules and hanging benches
can be under the shade or under the sun, and all of
it can be taken down for a completely free square lit
in different ways.

32. Typical configuration
Context influence
Flow influence

33. March
Movie premiere
Holiday market
Art show
Summer day
Typical day

34. Jaipur
Energy and Sustainability
w/Prajakta Gawde
Designing a space from the interior out requires a
thorough analysis of inhabitant’s traditions, activities,
and behavior. With the objective of designing a
sustainable housing complex for Jaipur in India, we
studied the response of locals to the weather. We
observed how the kitchen played a central role to
their culture. In the winter, cooking warm things and
staying close to the source of fire was a way to cope
with cold. In the summer, cooking outside in the patio
was preferred to let the heat scape and keep homes
cool. Inspired in this analysis this project thinks of
a machine-kitchen, a corner module which can be
used from inside or outside and which functions as a
central module for heating and cooling. A chimney-
like space is connected to the kitchen and in the
winter, the heat is conducted upwards through this
vertical shaft. In the summer, the chimney can be
opened letting hot air scape. Alongside the kitchen,
a screen of clay cones can be used in the summer
as a zero energy air conditioner. The shape of the
homes, responds to the way in which air travels inside
and its masterplan arrangement creates a series of
courtyards, roof spaces and patios which can also be
used according to the season.

35. Typologies
Masterplan
Kitchen-machine

36. Total area of tower:
187.5 sqm
Area of fireplace:
0.80 sqm
20,000 - 60,000
BTU’s
5° C
22° C
20° C
35° C
25° C
Section BB
40° C at 10 m/sec
26°C at 4 m/sec
40° C
Section AA

39. City Island
Landscape Design
w/Luis Marthi, Candelaria Caceres
A Madrilean neighborhood is bordered on one side
by a river and in the other by a noisy highway. Across
the highway, a park which is barely accessible to them
extends and connects to a newly constructed park:
Madrid Rio. This project identifies parked cars in the
neighborhood as an opportunity for noise protection
and it proposes to consolidate all parked cars in an
infrastructure on the highway border. Consequently,
the car-free ground floor of the neighborhood would
be turned into a park to extend Madrid Rio through.
The infrastructure would also include a series of
bridges connecting to the park, outlook points and
shared usable spaces: classrooms, terraces and work
spaces can oversee the park hosting activities like
dance classes, game nights, parties and workshops.
On the other border, the new park will connect to the
river replacing the street with a promenade in which
commercial and leisure opportunities will emerge in
the river front.

40. Analysis and Concept
M-30 highway
Manzanares river
Madrid Rio
Casa de Campo
Residential, commercial, cultural,
sport, educational and religious
facilities
Roads and parking

42. Layers
Riverfront
Park
Shield
Ground floor

43. Inside-out
Low-cost and Emergency Housing
w/Miguel Angel Valverde, Yasemin Yalcin
The project proposes an emergency settlement
for Syrian refugees in Jordan. A series of punctual
parameters have been given: 150 families are in
urgent need of shelter, and 150 more will arrive at a
later stage, 40 containers have been donated and the
land, which has been allocated by the government
is in between two Jordanian housing blocks. A clear
problem of segregation between incomers and
locals is present. The resulting proposal consists in
a 3-stage-process in which a central space, delimited
by the containers, serves firstly as emergency shelter
and later as a community center meant to integrate
Jordanians and Syrians. After arriving to the shelter,
each family would be able to build their own house
with a system of cardboard tubes, leaving the central
space gradually. Eventually, when all homes are
built, the main space is meant to host educational
recreational spaces as well as services provided by
the refugees themselves. The whole development,
planned following The Sphere Project Guidelines,
has strategically located toilets, showers and health
facilities as well as clear arrangement of vulnerable
groups with the objective of making it a safe space
for everyone.

44. Having acquired the knowledge of the system, families can start building their own unit and moving out of the temporary space.
As the first units are built, the space is transformed into multipurpose shaded rooms and communal space. 12 sanitary containers
are moved from the center to the perimeter.
The fully developed plot will have a centralized cooking space, 2 community centers, health facilities, bathrooms and dwellings for
250 families.
5 m2
covered space per person
1 bathroom per 3 families
250 families
Space for use by Jordanians and
Syrians to provide an integration
opportunity.
- Children friendly space
- Community center
- Production space
2nd Stage
3rd Stage
150 families in urgent need of shelter move to this temporary space formed between walls of servicing containers. In this space they
are taught to assemble cardboard tubes to form 9 m2
rooms separated by canvas curtains.
4.5 m2
covered space per person
1 bathroom per 3 families
150 families
Women headed families and elderly
Families, disabled
Single men
Women headed families and elderly
Families, disabled
Families, single men
Zoning diagram - 1st stage
1st Stage
Zoning diagram - 3rd stage

45. Recycled Canvas
4” cardboard tube
Structure
Modular cardboard
walls
Wood pallets
5.0
5.0
4” cardboard tube
slab
25 m2
Prototypical house

46. contact
andreamantecon@gmail.com
+41 078 830 8796