WorkSamples

Architectural Design Mario Sáenz

Identi

ty TourismCreativity

Green

Space

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History

Innov

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Sustain

ability

Landscape

Symb

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City V

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Irregular topography is one of Tijuana’s great-est characteristics, and at

550 meters above sea level, the Colorado Mountain is the highest point in the city. Such height of-

fers a dramatic panoramic view of the city, making it an ideal gathering place for Tijuana locals: it creates a physi-cal social platform in an idyllic spot.

The project’s commitment to sustainable and recyclable materials encourages Ti-juanenses to incorporate more recyclable materials into their own daily lives and to ultimately make Tijuana a greener city.

Tijuana City View

Chapel

Monument

GallerySouvenir Shop

Cafeteria

Theatre

Offices

Offices

Lobby

VistaRestaurant

Tijuana City View was conceived in collaboration with two other students (Georgina Muñoz and Sara Diaz) in Eugenio Velasquez’s design seminar. Numerous on-site studies focused on seamlessly integrat-ing the architectural and landscape design with the topography. The resulting design showcases the impressive city view and interdependent relationship be-tween its interior and exterior.

Sustainability is the focus in this project, utilizing recycled shipping con-tainers to reduce construction-related CO2 emissions. An untapped re-source in Tijuana, sustainable materials may significantly contribute to lowering the city’s pollution levels. This project spearheads the intro-duction of sustainable materials into the city’s consciousness.

INTERIOR CHAPEL SPACE

OUTDOOR CORRIDOR

INTERIOR GALLERY SPACE

This project expands the aesthetic possibilities of re-cycled shipping containers: the beveled shell of the containers encloses its visitors, but the up-ward path encourages mobility. Walking up-ward, art on the walls invites contemplation, and light perforations hint at impend-ing expansion. Suddenly, the twisting path opens upon a vista of the city, dissolving the previous feeling of close-ness into immediate and wide openness. This lively implementation of contain-ers shows its visitors that recyclable materials can be both functional and aesthet-ic, opening a discourse and encouraging Tijuana’s citi-zens to consider the benefits of unconventional materials.

Exhibition Gallery

TIERRAIntegral Weave of Schools in Rural Communities with Self-Sufficient Resources

TIERRA originally developed to solve problems for rural elementary schools in Baja California. Many of these schools have limited resources and are unable to provide adequate education, and TIERRA provides the neces-sary resources through intelligent design. The school showcased here, José Maria Pino Suarez Elementary, is located in a rural village outside Rosarito.

In Summer 2010, Aaron Gutiérrez, Yara Amparo López, David Castillo, and a dedicated team of students from the Universidad Iber-

oamericana began prototyping renovations for the elementary school. TIER-RA is affiliated with Amorph-ica Design Research Office.

In this school, TIERRA focuses

on designing a central hub, the multipurpose room, to create a

gathering space for students. Before the in-tervention, no area existed for students to gather and socialize; it was an isolated environment. The multipurpose room is a flexible space for a multi-tude of activities: a cafeteria, kitchen, library, read-ing room, or any function in which students converge.

Ground Floor First Floor

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Detail of Stair Structure

Structural Detail of Joint

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Shown here are the renders and diagrams my particu-lar team contributed. The diagrams analyze the site in both two and three dimensions and search for ways to improve the design. Paired with the renders and virtu-al animations, they present TIERRA’s design to inter-ested parties. Also shown are construction documents, involving detailed architectural and structural plans.

PROTEI: An open-source sailing drone orig-inally inspired to clean the 2010 BP oil spill. A flexible yet durable chassis is the priority in this drone prototype, and multiple sails increase the pulling power on sharp turns against the wind.

Protei is a technology currently in development that features: - Unmanned: no humans exposed to toxic elements. - Green and inexpensive: sails upwind, captures oil downwind.- Self-righting: rugged, can operate in hurricanes.- Semi-autonomous: can swarm continuously for great distances.

Soda bottles form the chassis envelope: they are buoyant, strong, flexible, durable, inex-pensive, and counterbalance the drone with their flexible weight storage.

PVC pipes make the structural skeleton: they behave similarly to an animal skeleton

with their flexible inner struc-ture and great turn-

ing strength.

Project Design Team within AmorphicaDesign: Aaron Gutiérrez, Mario Sáenz, Julia Cer-rud, alongside Cesar Harada, founder of Protei. For more information visit:www.amorphica.com/amorphica-html/00-163.htmwww.protei.org

Inspiration design analog

This second prototype im-plements a vertical wind turbine connected directly to a propeller, increas-ing its pulling power. It generates electricity for all hardware with-in the drone, giving it a longer range with-out human assistance. Two buoys at each side of the chassis in-crease stability and form an axial turning point, strengthening turns against the wind.

Propeller in-creases pulling

power

Gear ensemble connects verti-cal turbine with

propeller

This park design manipulates layers of artificial topogra-phies to digitally mould a site-specific architectural space.

Initial diagrams generated a series of control points and lines into vertical stra-ta. By adding different lay-ers of information to the diagrams – irrigation, solar exposure, water require-ments, pedestrian access, etc. – the ground accrues local intelligence specific to its landscape needs and es-tablishes the overall land-scape schema for the park.

Aesthetically, the hardness of concrete enhances and comple-ments the softness of nature. The project thus evolves from a two-dimensional existing ground-scape into a three-dimensional model as the con-trol points vertically shift the tectonic-like ground, and the landscape ulti-mately acquires thickness.

Lan

dsca

pes

Tect

onic

Spatial strategy high-lights the architectural properties in this retail store delivered by Nico-la Formichetti’s DNA throughout Rick Genest and Lady Gaga’s œuvre: their edge and glory.The project utilizes such matter to inform its design qualities: alien-ated, urban, volumetric, sacred and whimsical.

A theoretical matrix translates Formichetti’s work onto spatial conditions. The diagram be-gins to branch and overlap such spatial properties to generate a novel architectural edge. There-fore, through the abundance of potential scenarios, the project builds up a series of hybrid ar-chitectural qualities.

Capital H I M

Physical Model

The network of theoretical connections meshed with the space of the given site generates the three-dimensional space, allowing a series of algorithmic points and lines to give birth to form.

An infinite simulation of virtual connections are then nar-rowed down to its final morphological product: capital H I M.

Show

room

Car Showroom, Coahuila, Mexico, 2011

Through geometric form-finding, specific materialization, and manufacturing log-ic, this project generates a flexible spatial strategy which responds to multiple contex-tual needs, resulting in a dynamic and non-standard building.

In the conceptual stage of the design pro-cess, a set of frame conditions defined and generated the various apertures which be-came the façade system. A programmatic louver system controls the building’s interi-or performance and efficiency, capitalizing on the sun’s dynamic capabilities with light, shade, temperature control, and mood. The intelligent system naturally keeps the inte-rior at a breathable, comfortable tempera-ture; it opens as necessary for solar warmth and circulates the cool breeze. Sunlight dy-namizes the floor with moving patterns, af-fecting the room’s ambiance and keeping it in constant flux.

Design intent emerges through

an interactive skin con-figured by triangular surfaces

proliferated within the given site. The spatial strategy does not re-veal itself at first sight, but unfolds through encounter and engagement.

Facade System

Seccion

Structure

Interfacing Reliefs is the conceptual design for an international high school by [Ay]Architects; it embraces the existing topography while me-diating local extreme climate conditions.

Interfacing Reliefs

A series of topographic ribbons defines the strategy, generating natural wind-corridors and sun-light to avoid direct sun expo-sure. The affordable scheme is based on a grid-like figure ground which responds programmati-cally and functionally to a high school’s requirements.

The landscape absorbs the daylight heat using pockets of vegetation and greenery, mod-erating the area’s usually high temperatures and turning the high school into a temperate microclimate.

Masterplan

Gra

d /

Arc

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Des

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Design School

The design school forms part of the Tec de Monterrey, Campus Sonora Norte. The conceptual design generates a cohesive rela-tionship with the existing buildings while embracing the topogra-phy and mediating the climate conditions of the site.

The project develops an earthbound design by adjusting the building to the topography of the terrain. Initial diagrams on the project established a series of control points and lines to organ-ize a louver system. Each louver acquires local intelligence by re-sponding to solar exposure and air flow circulation, increasing the environmental performance of the building.

Arc

h Sc

hool

Arc

h Sc

hool

The Arch School is divided into two playful interactive bodies connected by a corridor. Its glass façade opens onto grand views of the surrounding nature, echoing the distant mountains. Similar to the Design School, an organizational louver system harnesses solar power and improves air circulation, augmenting the natural performance of the building.

The project connects with the ex-isting buildings through a smooth upward gradient slope, playing off of the topography’s natural de-cline. A path leads down to the botanical gardens, from where the true power of the grandiose build-ing emerges.

Grad School

The Grad School plays a principal role in the new master plan for the Tec de Monterrey. The project’s spatial organization highlights the architectural program, embraces natural air circulation, and emphasizes the interior spatial flow with the exterior’s mul-tifunctional landscape. The architecture replenishes the landscape by providing it with the water and energy needed for irrigation.

The terraced landscape absorbs the daylight heat with pockets of vegetation and green-ery and displays a picturesque flexible space. Initial digital mapping and diagramming of the site informed the ground organization to maximize each plant’s contribution.

classrooms Third Floor

Second Floor

First Floor

Ground Floor

staff ofices

storage

services

auditorium

comp. room

adm. ofices

open spacescirculationlaboratoriescafeteria

The Design School is based on a physical grid which re-sponds directly to the needs of the Grad School. Extracted data generates the material infrastructure to the building’s particular specifications. The building absorbs heat, cre-ates energy and mediates air flow, and it retains and filters water for plumbing before irrigating the landscape.

Insulated glazing windows reduce heat and acoustic transfer across the building’s envelope.

The facade structural system encloses the school’s interior spaces while minimizing vis-ual interruptions and a maxi-mizing a dynamic glass flow.

Structural design begins with programmatic devel-opment columns which fluctuate parametrically with the building.

Structure

Facade System

Glass Solar Panels