Backstrap loom weaving is a centuries old technique and its knowledge has been passed on from one generation to the next.
Symbols vary from the most traditional and symbolic, to those incorporated by the weavers from their daily life.
This book showcases a gradient from the most traditinal and typical element, the bird called Quetzal, to my 2017 collaboration with Marleny, a guatemalan master weaver.
It also serves as catalog for the thickness possibilities of the woven fabric.
2015
Exhibited and presented at BF+DA, Spring 2015
More Sky is a cozy corner for the home that provides visual relief, access to sunlight and fresh air for small apartments. As an attempt to understand the threshold between ID and architecture, this project is conceived as an object and a space at the same time, responding to current needs in densely populated cities.
2017
This is a set of collectible handmade metal boxes representing the topography of Guatemalan Volcanoes.
Designed in Guatemala and hand-made by experieced silversmith Gabriel Silva.
2017 was a year of intense tectonic activity in Central America. Guatemala alone has over 30 volcanoes some extinct, some dormant, and some still active. There are human settlements around and between volacanoes, making the topography a great influencer in their way of living.
2014
Tabletop set made in Cmielov as part of the Art Food Project
Projects exhibited in Roundhouse, London Design Week 2014
Project Name: ECO-ENVIRO-SYSTEM “DRIVE CHANGE”
Status: Concept Design
Client: Drive Change
2018
2014
Royal College of Art + Imperial College London
2013
Publised in Core77 and exhibited at Pratt Studios, Fall 2013
Spice Containers made in Mexico as part of THE MALINALCO PROJECT
This project addresses a relationship between nature and humankind development. This link is based in the human need for provision by taking natural resources and transforming them into consumable goods. It is the market that connects the regional production with the life of the village, becoming a central element in the community.
CONCEPT. In pre-Hispanic markets in the area of Malinalco, merchants used sets of wooden containers to store and measure their products for trade. The containers in this project refer to those objects: wooden pieces of different sizes, meant to keep spices, grains, herbs, seasonings for everyday use. They connect through a set of interchangeable bases, as changing and dynamic as seasonal and weather variations. The containers are then defined as a cultural element while the bases bring the natural world.
TYPOLOGY. Container + corresponding base. The whole set works as an interactive and versatile group, not constraint to one specific configuration. This is a modular system, meant to be an expandable series by adding as many more modules as desired.
FORM. These containers mimic the cupolas of Malinalco’s churches. They are all shaped as inverted domes. Each one has a different number of ridges, which refers to accountancy in the commercial life of a market. The bases follow the pattern of a seed sheath and have the footprint of the containers’ bottoms. So the bases can connect in different ways, but the container only fits in a specific position on its corresponding base.
MATERIALS. Containers were made of aguacatillo wood and bone. Bases were made of cedar and tinted with chapulin resin. All the pieces were wood carved with chisel and knife by Aldana and Charly.-
2012
2015
Published in Parametrics
Family of Planters is a parametrically designed line of planters.
Every plant has different sun or shading needs. People usually use half-shades and screens to protect outdoor plants as well as window pots. These elements are not always well designed, so I am proposing a system where the shade is incorporated to the planter.
These products will accommodate 5 different shade requirements for various plant species.
The “Cotton Volcanoes” tapestry follows a Grey + Green palette, inspired in the landscapes of Guatemala during the rainy season.
Hand woven in the backstrap loom; the warp is grey and the weft is green, giving the weaving a color effect under different lights.
The challenge in this design was to translate the line drawings and its color nuances into a textile “drawn” with an embroidery machine and color thread.
2009
Channel Greenhouse (Tigre, Argentina) is a self watering facility on the chnnel side. The are of the site is subject to floods due to tide changes every night. This project embraces this phenomena and uses it as a design premise: the greenhouse is desinged around the water levels throughout the day, leaving the plantines exposes for maximum moisture, protecting the interior from unwatend water, and leaving a front temporary exhibition space. The greeanhouse is located on a quiet pathway next to the water and provides its own pier to accomodate both pedestrian and fast boat customers
Parametric seating: Jehs-Laub family of chairs
2015
Public Space in Costanera Norte
2008
Group project with Julia Nowodworski and Izaskun Martinez Castillo
Each year more than a billion rabbits and 50 milllion other animals are killed to use their fur for fashion and home designs.
In particular, cowhides and other animal skins are an important part of Argentinian culture.
The National souvenir industry has based its economy in the exploitation of these animals’ imagery and skin.
VeganHides proposes alternative sourcing to this tradition, respecting the aesthetics of the country’s tradition.
Woven brick cotton thread + embroidered cotton thread 4 colors
A coastal urban development
2011
Group project with Julia Nowodworski
I love you. I’ll miss you. I wish you all the best. I know you’ll be ok. I hope you miss me too. I’m sad that you’re leaving (without me). I’m looking forward to seeing you again. You’re taking a part of me with you and I’m keeping a part of you
2013
Technique: Die cutting
「I love 抹茶」
WHAT。 “I love Matcha” is a matcha tea vending machine. Different from others of its kind, this vending machine takes into careful consideration the process of the tea making: the Japanese Tea Ceremony Sa-do. As a consequence, and following some of the abstract principles of this ritual, the setup is as important as the action. In this case, 2 main elements dominate the scene: the process images, guiding you through the steps of the tea making, and the appreciation of the actual tools and movements, specially the tea bowl called Chawan. This object is a resin 3D printed clone of an original ceramic chawan.
WHY。 When I first came to Japan, I was fascinated by how this society had perfected the art of convenience. My ultimate favorite element of convenience, found in almost every street in the city of Tokyo, is the vending machine. Not only their location, but the immediacy of the service and standardized products, process & prices, makes them an incredibly evolved species in the “fast and easy” world. But there’s also another Japan that moved me deeply, and that’s the one connected to art and nature and tradition. The aesthetic pursue in all traditional Japanese art expressions seems to find a perfect place in the Sukiya or tea room. A place where architecture, ikebana, calligraphy, painting, pottery and other crafts, meet tea in a very specific ritual, perfected for hundreds of years and thousands of tea ceremony masters.
So how could these two opposites be equally representative of one culture? How can both share time and belong to the same society? The proposal is to bring them closer and make them crash.
HOW。 There are two main parts in this project. One is the performance of the vending machine itself: a representation of the machine and the sequence of preparation of matcha. The other is the production of the chawan, made by 3D scanning an original ceramic bowl, and 3D printing it in resin.
2015
Inspired in the pattern of the textile, Maria bench takes the form from the weaving it is showcasing.
Unlike traditional upholstery, the top is designed with a system that holds the textile without harming it. It allows removal for maintenance and changing position.
Palo blanco wood + cotton woven textile
