gabriel colombani

Sketches are expressions of ideas and represent the essence of our thinking, feeling and vision about a design

Above: Idea for a building in a Master Plan development: A vertical market. The band represents the vertical circulation than envolves the structure where the activities take place

Below: Recreational use, idea for development of auditoriums in the seashore

Sketch for "pure design" retail store in Madrid. Design included hand writting.

Store in Madrid designed in 2011. Exterior image developed as shown.

Residential complex "Mawaka" designed in 2004-2005. Approved in its Preliminary Design Application.

The concept was based in the protection of green areas, as much as we could. For this I decided to start clarifying the lands with less vegetation and less inclination (which could reduce the cost of foundations and preserve the natural environment) and maximize the areas of development for residential and recreational activities in budget wise coordination.

Then, as a result, we had three main areas. The first area with the building at the top of the mountain (see 1st picture) that has access through another neighborhood and also is priviledged with the best view over the capital city. The second and third areas at the bottom (in pictures are the bottom models from left to right): a high rise residential vertical building, a lying on the mountain building and five town houses, being accessed through the main neighborhood where this development is placed. All of them surrounding the recreational area in the middle. A small zone of commercial use area was cosidered and located facing the existing developments as a respond to the context and regulations for this zoning.

Sketch for the birdhouse event at Norr

The idea of building something related with nature and breaking the typical orthogonal shape that the small pieces suggest. The first intention of hanging an organic shape from a tree brought the first picture in my mind which was followed by the sketch above. Then the challenge of supporting the shape: Supported from the bottom where metal discs were placed and attached to a bar that goes all the way up through the bird house and where the hanger is located.

Sketch for Caledonia LRT Station

The process of design for a subway or LRT station starts by placing the big pieces to make the station work functionally, means platform and vertical circulation to street in one side and at the same time service rooms (electrical and mechanical) in the other side and in all levels (platform and concourse), both interacting and meeting strict standards due to the complexity of the theme. Architectural concept takes place following this game and bringing potential opportunities in shape and quality of space in the underground box as well as the iconographic integration as answers to the urban context at grade.

Sketch for Keele LRT Station:

Sketches of the design philosophy for the Emergency Exit Buildings in the Subway System (design philosopy included in the submission)

This work corresponds with the general approach in big scale of the development of a system of emergency exits as objects that will be printing a language on the ground level. The Design Philosophy was based in the mind maps of the Psituationists of 1950’s in which people recognize objects and events in their context and recreate their own mind map to place themselves. Then the impact from individuals mind maps to collective memory. The emergency exit buildings as a layer of events that coexist with other situations as plazas, markets, set of lights, churches, school, then again emergency exit buildings, etc. This concept was included as a design philosophy in the final submission.

Sketch for convenience store designed and built in 2001:

Sketch for Jewelry store designed and built in 2003:

The concept idea for this store was initially (and by request of the client) to bring the service to the outside and open more the store to the the shopping mall. The design came with the ellipse form that brings a particular answer to the internal geometry and an opportunity to play with the internal elements to have a confortable exhibition of pieces around the clients.

Public Library I designed in 2008:

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Last Semester of Design at the Faculty of Architecture

DESIGN X - THESIS
(Project selected to be published in the Book of the Venice Biennale 2000, International Competition of Ideas for the city of the Third Millennium "Citta Terzo Millennio", Pages 458-460)

Thesis at the Faculty of Architecture - 2000

THE CITY INFINITE, INVISIBLE NETWORKS – THEORY OF THE THESIS

The chaos generated by the growth of cities, the lack of space and the lack in them of the values that compose the facets of the human being forces us to rethink, after the arrival of the new millennium, the way that arises the scenario in which modern man lives. It is clear that one cannot detach the history of the new approaches, or the elements and facts that have come with it. The internet, as the macro-scale raised an imaginary city in which any of the realities imaginable by man coexist, where everything is completely valid. Thus, the proper approach of a city that is embodied in that thought, where on high-rise buildings are the connections that the city demands, and with them we can bring back those deficiencies that the city has forgotten. Technically it is necessary to create new connections, in addition to the existing ground or underground levels, that solves space problems in big cities but, in addition to this, the meaning generated through its elevation linked to the presence of values, paradigms that man has created throughout its history (in arts, music, etc) as well as nature, as a recovery of what humans have lost in their own cities. Those connections can also emphasize and exalt the existing moments printed in the current city, uplifting their meaning and renovating the understanding of our existence.

We see spontaneous solutions in cities like Hong Kong (above), where pedestrians invade the space immediately above the sidewalks, in order to liberate the space underneath, but affecting the right of light of the first floors of buildings. It would be valid to move up to the top of the buildings and make this tortuous experience into something more captivating. The new connections inspires, in a city like NY, the hosting and recreation of realities absent in the big apple and recognizes the existence of supreme places, such as are the Rockefeller Center, altar par excellence of the city, next to the Cathedral St. Patrick and the Times Square. In other words, it frames those moments of the city that now have resonance not only in the ground level, but also in this new one. Now, looking beyond this, Chrysler and the Empire State Building behave as pieces that penetrate into the new mesh and host a supreme significance to be present all layers. Predicting beyond this dream is perhaps the reason why these gems are rethinking the city as places where large institutions are being established in the future within the metropolis. It is in this way the city of the third millennium is only the rethinking of twentieth-century city.

This work participated and was published in the book International Competition of Ideas, Venice Biennale, Citta Terso Millenio. Page 458, four images and text.

The following step is to connect in vertical the underground, grade and this new network: The Vertical Street

These images represent the introductory video presented at the beginning of the presentation of this work: A compilation of theory and final idea of the vertical street, having some precedents as in the movie The Fifth Element where the city acquired different dimensions and meanings.

Images of the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRJQ-qOOVU8

Venice Bienale, International Competition of Ideas 2000. City of the Third Millenium. Project of Thesis selected to be published in this book. Pages 458-460.

Brief summary in sketches of my design projects from First to Ninth Semester