Carlos Gastelum Design

Concept Design for Future Arc Competition

2009-02-13T07:03:00.000-08:00

This was my unfinished idea for the Future Arc Competition for an office green building in Jakarta, the program suggested an office area of around 10,000 sq meters plus a water park of around 16,000 sq. m.

My concept was to integrate the 2 sub programs and transposition the areas mixing them and creating a more interesting office area that uses the water to contribute to cool the building.

Also the oversized slabs create enough shade in the areas exposed to the south and west while they serve as outdoor areas for the offices in the floors above.

The integration of the water park was an idea unfinished(I found out about the contest 3 days before the deadline) and in the final render you can only see the first intent to keep the fountains underneath the building.

Here I sumarize the process for this concept:

1. water park and office site juxtaposed the green mass defines the core of the building and its main suporting structure ( the rest of the building balances on this main support).

2. The red masses are the main circulations betwen floors. The small vertical cube includes the emergency exits and service elevator. The big diagonal cube serves as the main circulation of the building. This main circulation is one of the most interesting parts of this design for me, I'm going to make a post just about that feature but lets just say here that the idea of using a inclined plane instead of a vertical for the elevators has been in my mind for a couple of years but I never had the time to develop the idea in the past.

3. The lobby and main entrance floats (hangs) above the main fountain. I thought about making this more obvious to the users by including a see trough floor system in this lobby so people could see the water moving bellow them.

4. The skin of the building holds within the volume of space need for the main offices. Since I'm originally from a tropical country I know first hand how this massive glass buildings gain heat from the sun and how in our weather this is allways a problem. To avoid ussing active systems all the time I proposed that the floor slabs should be bigger than the space within the skin of the building, that way the overhanging slab creates a permanent shade specially in the south and west sides of the building ( If you have lived just above the ecuator you would know why...) this also creates an outdoor office area in the terraces of the upper floors.

Overall even tough the contest is over and I couldn't finish on time (3 days is awfully short time specially if you are working somewhere else) I'm happy with the unfinished product and I think I would try to complete it even if it's just for me.

Another concept for this same contest was this one:

the idea was a little more straight forward but the proportions of the building never worked for me so I abandoned the concept early in the first massing exercises, maybe for a house or smaller building I could kep the idea of the spiral slope.

Technical drawings will be posted soon.

Cigar Bar, Bronx, NYC

2009-02-05T13:17:00.000-08:00

This is a new project I'm working on right now. The design is a mixture of my ideas and Tony's from Decofull Installations. The Cigar shop has the look of a techno lounge to break with the traditional idea of old guys and cigars... the main problem for the design is the existing piping in the room; in some areas the pipes cross the room at 67" from the ground dividing the space in small areas. To solve this problem I decided to unify the ceiling with Sheetrock following the forms and levels in the existing ceiling. To make the room lighter we decided to use a glossy white on all the furniture and walls plus some accents in stainless steel. The color is brought to the room in part through the red upholstery and using colored light bulbs behind the bench and hanging from the center of the room.

Here are some preliminary sketches:

These are the design renders presented to the client:

The construction drawings included all the millwork details of the furniture used:

Small Restaurant in Queens

2009-02-04T20:26:00.001-08:00

This is a schematic design for a small Bar / Restaurant in Queens NYC. The project includes only the interior work and millwork. No changes could be made to the building structure as part of the lease clauses

Aerial View:

Interior Renders
Im looking for a plugin to include my drawings in the post.

Carlos

Lake House

2009-01-29T23:17:00.000-08:00

As part of this project I created a light study for the house that you can see in this short video:

Private Projects 2003-2008

2009-01-29T22:49:00.000-08:00

Projects done for private clients during the period 2003-2008

Architectural Designs:

Lake House:

Yat Balam, Boutique Hotel:

Conceptual Projects:

PDRVC Projects

2009-01-29T22:31:00.000-08:00

Projects done during my work at Asociacion Copan for the PDRVC World Bank Project:

Designs done by Asociacion Copan under my Architectural Direction:

Cabanas Fort Restoration:

Copan Archeological Park Basic Infrastructure:

Supervision and/or colaboration with other firms:

Supervision of the "Copan Sculpture Museum" renovation:

Conceptual Design, Design Review and Construction Supervision of the "Copan Archeological Investigation Center (CRIA)":

Gavall Architects Projects

2009-01-29T22:22:00.000-08:00

Projects done by my firm Gavall Architects between 2002-2003:

Traditional residential projects done in Tegucigalpa, Honduras:

Comercial Design "Comayagua Golf Club" Visitor Center:

Student Projects

2009-01-06T10:05:00.001-08:00

Various Projects in my last year as a Student:

Design studio 10 & 11:

Urban & Landscape Design:

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