Amelia V Méndez

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AWARDS AND PUBLICATIONS select projects

BLANKET AWARDS Finalist, GOOD Magazine’s Redesign Your Farmers’ Market Competition

PUBLICATIONS “Tiny Parks Sprout In Parking Spots.” Host Cyrus Farivar. Around the Nation. NPR. 20 Sept. 2009. Web.

ICARUS AWARDS 6th Place, Department of Energy Solar Decathlon Competition BP Green Award AIA Atlanta / [COTE] Committee on the Environment Winner

PUBLICATIONS “Employing Aerogel Cushions,” Detail Magazine (Germany), 05/01/08 “Housing News; Energy Efficient Home,” CNN Open House, 10/06/07 “Renovation Nation” Planet Green / Discovery Channerl ARCHITALES PUBLICATIONS “Architales: physical/digital co-design of an interactive story table” Mazalek A., Winegarden C., Al-Haddad T., Robinson S., Wu C. ACM, New York, NY. 2009

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BIODYNAMIC STRUCTURES 5

BRIDGE/TUNNEL BIODYNAMIC STRUCTURES TYPE Academic/Workshop. Association of Architecture and California College of the Arts.YEAR June 11-22, 2011.LOCATION San Francisco, CA.SITE AT&T Park. San Francisco. PROGRAM bridge and tunnel connecting South Beach to the new developments in Bay View.SIZE approximately 1000 ft long.CONTRIBUTION Project Design.PROFESSOR Andrew Kudless (CCA media lab). Gil Akos, Ronnie Parsons (studio MODE).

A bridge / Not a bridge.At the joint between wild and social, between technological and community, there can be a moment of supremely confusing reality exposed; where the land reaches out, only to disappear. If you follow that path out into the water, you have a moment of clarity, of view, and then you enter a space that reveals a different kind of light, of sound, of movement. The material components perform their own simulation, equalize their own forces. The structure expresses the tension therein. Once on the far side, you emerge on dry land, into intensely developing urban space.And then, onto what new land have you arrived? What transition has occurred?

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SLOPE ANALYSIS Parametric modeling exposes when the slope of the bridge reaches higher than a determined slope. This allowed experimentation to find the shortest length as well.

CREATING A BRIDGE TO A NEW CULTURAL ZONE

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STRUCTURAL ExPERIMENTATION

FORM FINDING

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BRIDGE CORE

FRAMING

TWIST

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INTERACTIVITY AND SOCIAL MEDIA the site is in an area of high activity between the Baseball Park which hosts events year round, many rental venues, major tech and social media companies, and the traffic of the Bay.Using firefly as an interface between an arduino board and grasshopper/rhinoceros3D the bridge becomes reactive to social media feeds around the area. The bridge can ‘fluff up’ its paneling whenever the ballpark or local attractions are mentioned on twitter, or when geo-location based applications return large activity in the area.

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PHRITZERY 11

THE PHRITZERY TYPE Professional, farm-architectureYEAR 2009-2010LOCATION San Francisco, Ca.SITE SOMA, 170 Clara St. SF CA 94107PROGRAM Mixed use warehouse renovation. Commercial and single family residence.SIZE 1794 sq. ft. commercial, 2967 sq. ft. residentialMATERIALS Douglas Fir, Brazilian Ipe, Walnut, Plaster, Steel, Mdf, Glass Tile, StuccoCONTRIBUTION Involved in Schematic Design, Detailing, Harware/fixture schedules.PROJECT MANAGER Mark MeyersCONTRACTOR Kevin Slagle Design Build

As part of the transformation of soma into a residential neighborhood, farm is converting a 2-story wood structure, previously used for pornography warehousing & offices, into a single family residence with a street level production space. The simple transformation of 170 clara street describes the process of how we explore living in the city and the challenges of building & designing in san francisco.

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BEFORE

closet doorsvanity/door

PHRITZERY 13

2ND FLOOR: KITCHEN/LIVING

3RD FLOOR: MASTER/DECK

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ICARUS 19

PROJECT ICARUS: SOLAR DECATHLON 2007 TYPE Academic. Georgia Institute of TechnologyYEAR 2006 - 2007LOCATION Atlanta, Georgia / Washington, D.C.SITE Mobile Structure: National Mall / Georgia Tech / Telus MuseumCLIENT DOE Solar Decathlon 2007PROGRAM Single family residence reliant solely on photovoltaicsSIZE 800 s.f.MATERIALS Aluminum, Polycarbonate, Wood, Steel, AeroGel, GlassCONTRIBUTION Designer, Researcher, Project Leader, Construction Leader, DocentPROFESSOR Franca Trubiano, Russell Gentry, Ruchi Choudary, Chris Jarrett

Georgia Tech’s house, Icarus, harnesses and celebrates the sun’s power. As in the Greek tale of the architect Daedalus and his son Icarus, who embarked on a flight to the sun, so too the modern fascination with building “lighter” and more “transparent” buildings is presumed to be at odds with “energy conservation.” And yet, at no other time in the history of construction have advances in materials technology and energy systems design rendered Icarus’ vision more realizable. Exploring the paradox of “lightness” and “energy conservation” is the inspiration that guides the design and construction of Georgia Tech’s Solar Decathlon House.

Icarus was designed, documented, constructed, and operated by a team of students with the guidance of interdisciplinary gatech professors and Atlanta professionals.

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The solar decathlon is a competition sponsored by the Department of Energy for 20 invited international university teams. The goal is to build, operate, and compete with the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered house. The competition is divided into 10 scored categories: five subjective (archtecture, engineering, market viability, communications, lighting) and five objective (appliances, hot water, energy balance, getting around, comfort zone). The event takes place on the National Mall in Washington, DC. The teams have one week for final construction and set up, a week of competition and monitoring, a week of open house to the public, and a week to disassemble.

ICARUS 21

SOUTH

EAST NORTH

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SUSTAINING LIFE WITH LIGHT Through this we explored the architecture through five strong holds.

LIGHT ROOF Building Integrated PhotoVolatics (BIPV), Adjustible Shading, Transulcent Double Skin, Aerogel, Rainscreen, Clerestory

LIGHT MATERIALS Polycarbonate, Louvers, Structurally Insulated Pane (SIP), Bio-Based Insulation

LIGHT POWER Batteres, Electric Car, Inverters

LIGHT TECHNOLOGIES Evacuated Tubes, Mini-Split Heart Pump, Optimal Controller, Energy Recovery Ventilator (ERV), Rainwater Harversting Cooling Machines, Water Management, Solar Lights

LIGHT LIVING Livability, Accessible, Buildabile, Flexibile, Daylighting, LED’s, Flourescent Lighting, Lighing Control

ICARUS 23

gtg383y 8/5/2007 1:55:4 1 PMArea Measuremen t

Area:

16.03 sq ft

gtg383y 8/6/2007 3:37:09 AMArea Measu rement

Area :

738.80 sq ft

THE CLOSETS DOCUMENT COLLABORATION

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EARLY CONCEPT: TECHNO CELL THE TECH CORE The office is the nucleus of the client’s home; it is a major lifestyle hub. The client relies of this hub for information, income, and entertainment.The office will sprout all techno-needs. Utility spaces, kitchen, and bathrooms unfold from the tech center leaving the residual space for more analog programs.

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TECH CORE + FABRICATION

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ARCHITALES / FAST, CHEAP, AND OUT OF CONTROL ExPERIMENTAL MEDIA

TYPE Academic. Georgia Institute of TechnologyYEAR 2008LOCATION Atlanta, Georgia.SITE Georgia Tech / Museum of Design Atlanta / Eyedrum Gallery CLIENT XMedia: Digital Media LaboratoryPROGRAM Interactive touch surface table, javascript/flash software, and environment.SIZE 150 s.f. MATERIALS Plywood, PolycarbonateCONTRIBUTION Project Design, Construction Manager, Lead Fabricator PROFESSOR Ali Mazalek, Claudia Winegarden, Tristan AlHaddadINSTRUCTOR Susan Robinson, Andy Wu, Hyungsin Kim

Tables perform two complementary and simultaneous tasks: bringing people together to promote intimacy and holding them just enough apart to provide security. As technology becomes a vehicle for tangible interactions, tables establish the framework for social interaction instances. The Story Table is a symbiosis of two social spaces: story and table collapsed onto one another. Created through a process of co-construction of digital and physical media, the Story Table is an interactive installation that encompasses shared engagement in cinematically-inspired narrative expressions that unfold on its surface and space.

ARCHITALES 29

The interface and environment creates emotion within the user using JavaScript and Flash. This emotional journey becomes the story rather than using a standard linear structure. What demands does this technology ask of the space? The space becomes and external projection of the digital. The environment changes with the moods of interaction.

INTERFACE: FAST, CHEAP, AND OUT OF CONTROL The experience is based on the movie “Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control”. A tale of obsession in these four different men’s lives. As lines become blurred the stories merge.

MOLE RATSROBOTS

LIONSTOPIARIES

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THE MERGE OF FOUR THE MOBIUS VARIABILITY OF ExPERIENCE

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EYEDRUM GALLERY

LISTENING MACHINES annuall showcase of music and art projects that explore the creative space of human-machine interaction