ANGELICA DE BERNARDO

VERDANT OASIS | residential | apartment building

location:
La Carlota, Caracas, Venezuela
programme:
Residential | Apartment building
Academic project | Simón Bolívar University
Design Workshop V | Individual project
September – December 2019 · 9th trimester (Year III)
supervisors:
Arch. Aliz B. Mena | Arch. Luis E. Pacheco | Arch. Carlos Artiles (invited professor)
Street-level render of the proposal: a slender apartment building wrapped in a permeable facade of vertical slats and climbing vegetation, rising between its neighbours above a planted ground floor.

Situated in La Carlota’s Main Avenue, in a corner-adjacent through-lot, the proposal focuses on the development of a residential building that responds to the urban conditions of the site whilst exploring potential transformations of the local surroundings through the building’s typology.

Emphasizing the relevance of local context in the design process — and considering how it both influences and is influenced by the buildings in it — the project is shaped by the defining characters of the site, creating a residential building that aims to extend the greenery of the pedestrian boulevard into the proposal, providing a natural respite from the hustle and bustle of the city whilst promoting transversality and pedestrian connectivity.

THE VERTICAL GARDEN

The proposal reimagines the typical condition of the apartment buildings of Caracas by adapting elements of the suburban house — such as nature, backyards, and a tranquil environment — into a vertical building. Drawing from built references like the MFO Park, the Pérez Art Museum and Fujimoto’s N House, the project seeks to create a dynamic sequence of indoor and outdoor spaces throughout the building.

The integration of greenery and vegetation is, therefore, conceptualized as a central part of the proposal, acting as a natural, permeable envelope that surrounds the housing units and creates a canopy for the public passage on the ground floor.

Rendered longitudinal section through the building and its neighbours: the public passage at street level, stacked housing units with planted terraces behind the green envelope, the rooftop terrace under a pergola, and the basement parking below.
LONGITUDINAL SECTION
Render of the ground-floor public passage: a shaded, paved walkway crossing the block beneath the building, lined with planting.
PUBLIC PASSAGE
Render of a private balcony enclosed by the permeable envelope, with vegetation trailing from the slatted facade and planters.
PRIVATE BALCONIES
Render of a circulation area: an open stair landing with planters, washed in light filtered through the envelope.
CIRCULATION AREAS
Render of the common rooftop terrace, with planted seating beneath a timber pergola.
COMMON TERRACE

ACCESS AND PUBLIC AREAS

Understanding its condition as a mid-block plot, the circulation is positioned towards the center of the building, leaving ample pedestrian access on the ground floor from both sides of the block.

This layout also allows the apartment units to be oriented towards the main facades, providing both privacy and connectivity by separating each unit with common, transitional spaces that continue towards the rooftop terrace.

Photograph of the timber concept model, annotated to mark the terrace, the housing units and the access floor within the slatted frame.
CONCEPT MODEL program distribution
Front elevation: the slatted facade overgrown with climbing vegetation facing the street, framed by neighbouring buildings, with trees and planting at ground level.
FRONT ELEVATION

DWELLING IN GREENERY

Encased within the greenery, the proposal contemplates thirteen diverse apartment units that explore the interplay between interior and exterior spaces through terraces that interact in different ways with the vegetation that surrounds them.

Exploded axonometric separating the permeable green envelope and its terracotta roof canopy from the stack of housing units and the ground plane below.
EXPLODED AXONOMETRIC
Perspective section A-A' cut through the housing units, showing interiors, planted terraces and the green envelope from the ground-floor passage to the roof.
SECTION A-A'
Perspective section B-B' cut through the central circulation, with transitional spaces between the units and the underground parking beneath the street.
SECTION B-B'