My name is Raquel Portillo and I am a current student of architecture in the Simon Bolivar University. Right now I am finishing my fifth trimester where I am studying one of my favorite subjects, Design 1, with other 19 students.

     In this course our teachers gave us 3 different projects that we have to design: a puntual building, a vertical one and finally, a horizontal building. Each one of these projects were placed in a context where there is a plaza in the center. At each side of the plaza there are 10 puntual buildings, the north side has a terrain for the horizontal building and in the south side there are 10 vertical buildings.

intro.wma

context

     Puntual building: in this project we had to design a house for a famous artist, I chose the singer Christina Aguilera. Its dimentions are 12m high, 12m long and 12m wide (a perfect cube). Because my house was between two other houses, I only had two facades to design, the front one that faced the plaza, and the rear one that faced the boulevard. In my house you can see how I used balconys and terraces in my design. This project was worth 30 points, I got 24.

puntual.wma  

     puntual process

                                               boulevard facade                                                               plaza facade

     Vertical building: this project was meant to be a residential building for teachers. Its dimentions are 48m high, 36m long and 12m wide. It also was beside another building, so it had only two facades. My project plays with double and simple heights. The first 4 floors were designed for commercial uses, the next 9 were destinated to teachers appartments and the last 3 were for the gym and recreation areas. This project was worth 40 points, I got 37.

vertical.wma 

vertical process

vertical building 

     Plaza: this project was in 5 groups of 4 students each. My team was Ana, Anel, Angiebeth and myself. We had one afternoon to design and make the plaza which was 96m long and 144m wide, so we could then decide between the 5 plazas wich one would be placed permantly in the context. My team and I named our plaza 'La Escalinata' because we used a lot of stairs in our design. It has different levels that you can go to depending if you go up or down the stairs. This project wasn't worth any points and my plaza was not chosen to be the one to stay in the context permanently, but I enjoyed making and designing it.

plaza.wma

plaza 'La Escalinata' 

     Horizontal building: this is the final project and it is meant to be a cultural center where there will be art exhibitions, libraries, amphitheaters, sculpture gardens, etc. I have not yet finished this project, I have to present it this coming thursday, it is worth the last 30 points and I am hoping to get at least 24 points so I can have 5 as a final grade in Design 1, I would really like that.

horizontal.wma

horizontal process

     I am very pleased with this trimester, I love my teachers and classmates and I really enjoyed designing all of these projects, I can say that my favorite one was the Vertical Building, it was also the hardest one to make but I really like the final result.

conclusion.wma