Santiago Abad

Born in South America Ecuador, Santiago Abad got an architecture degree from Universidad San Francisco de Quito in 2009. During his studies he focused mostly on pure architecture design, developing projects from single family housing and non permanent architecture spaces, to wider approaches like social housing, commercial spaces and art spaces.

Santiago has a master degree on Interior Design, from Milan`s (Italy) based design school, Scuola Politecnica di Design. During this year, he developed projects focused on interior social housing, commercial spaces, retail and furniture design.

Shortly after finishing his studies, Santiago started working in an in-terior design and architecture studio in Milan, under the renowned architect Maurizio Lai. www.laistudio.com

Hybrid Function& Co-Housing

The project developed the concept of multifunctional spaces. The key idea was to create a space that can be used for living and working activities for the working class family, with the op-portunity to offer socially important services to the local com-munity.

Quartiere Feltre is a relatively new district in Milan developed in the 50s. Historically, it was located on the industrial suburbs of Milan. But now that the city has grown, one of the distinctive features of this area is the low level development of social infra-structure, high number of elderly population, and immigrants.

The project proposed to modify the existing 8th floor flat in a way that the living space can connect with a new attached work-ing space, that can be used as a workshop or showroom to pro-vide various services to the building itself and to the feltre com-munity.

The idea is to create an external removable module on the facade connected with the flat. This module can be reproduced on every floor or in some floors of the building depending on the supporting structure, they can be relatively easily removed and are directly connected with the services of the flat. There is one entrance from inside of the flat, marked by the long corridor, and another from the building´s vertical circulation landings, which serves the communty.

The flat is divided into two relatively independent parts. The first is the services long rectangle that divides the living area from the module working area. The second is the living space, these two areas are separated by the main corridor that stretches along a simple but important line.

A Culture NetworkLa Feltrinelli Art

The interior design of the Feltrinelli bookstore started from the idea of creating an art network in the city of Milano by identifying and recognizing the importance of cultural landmarks located more specifically around the area of Via Manzoni.

One of many Feltrinelli bookstores is located on this area, which gives it a very particular interest in terms of how it can develop into a different bookstore than the rest, into a much more conceptual and interesting spot for artistic development.

Following the discovery walk, starting from the entrance of the bookstore and ending on the inner courtyard, gives the users the chance of exploring Milanos different artistic landmarks like theathers and museums. Each area will have information about the specific museum/theather and sell books about its history, particular plays and shows of the season,etc.

The modular cubes serve as a mean to explore even further the artistic network of Milano, they are located on the most importat area of the bookstore and act as a point of interaction betwen people and technology.

The GlacierTemporary Architecture For Stone Island

The design of this project developed the idea of creating a temporary installation for the italian brand Stone Island. located in Stazione Centrale, more specifically in Piazza Duca d’Aosta and having winter as a main topic.

The project creates a space of interaction between the brand and the natural movement of people that walk across the Piazza, that go to Stazione Centrale and that arrive from the metro.

INSTALLATION AND SKATING

PANORAMA FLOOR

CLIMBING

1 ENTRANCE/EXIT

2 SITTING MODULE

3 VIDEO MODULE

4 RENTING POINTS (skates)

5 SKATING FLOOR

Opt - Art Club Design

The redesign of the club began with the idea of exploring new textures and ambiances that would give an interesting feel to the space. The main concept was to use Opt-Art graphics influenced by artists like Bridget Riley and Ignacio Uriarte to create wall patterns, new surfaces, and volumes to accentuate the psychedelic /modern look that was intended.

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Materials for Interior DesignBookstore Display Design

The project contemplated the design of a piece of furniture for the Italian bookstore company Feltrinelle. The approach of the design was of course determinated by the precise topic: materi-als for interior design.

We choosed the bookshelf as our piece, developing it from con-ceptual and historical ideas that defined the shape, character and the selection of materials as well as the construction tech-niques.

We started our design with the idea of the old high ceiling book-shelves, which used the wood ladder as a practical device to reach the highest shelves. Starting from this conceptual idea, we took the ladder element, and redefined it on a contemporary way, by decomposing it to its most simple form, giving it a new feel and use.

The design started from the idea of lightness and simplic-ity, which came from the initial concept of the ladder and its most simple form. We decided to use steel cables as the main structure of the bookshelf, attaching them at the top to an H section on the wall and in the lower part to the floor.

This cable structure holds the actual panels designed to exposed the books, which are made of light plexiglass. We decided to arrange these panels on a very dynamic and non simetric way, playing with the different sizes of the books, and with two colors, red and white.

Art in Yunguilla An Exhibition Space

The project was developed with the intention of creating a small exhibition space outside of the city, more specifically in Yunguilla, a valley located south-west of the city of Cuenca-Ecuador. The idea was to create a space that would integrate the local population with art, holding small exhibitions, conferences and education programs in an area that would take great advantage of these cultural initiatives.

The main exhibition area works as a flexible double height space that can hold all range of exhibitions. The rest of the project develops from this central space, the circulations become areas of exhibition following a path that gives a sense of discovering along the project.

An Industrial Space

The project was designed for a construction materials provider; the idea was to create a continuous open space that could serve as an exposition, administration and storage facility.

The rectangular double heighted volume has a frontal second skin made of a metallic grid that serves as the main facade, giving texture and lightness to the building.

The metallic skin works as a transitory texture, giving the opportunity to play with lighting effects and textures on the main facade, it becomes a screen that can expose typology and images from brands etc. It’s a permanent space with temporary installations.

Ampliación Casa “ Tabacay”Puembo

C E N T R O DE U S O M U L T I P L E

EL EJIDO - CUENCA - ECUADOR