Michael Macias, Part II Architect - Selected professional & academic works

River Of Life - Professional

Budget - RM 250,000 circa $80,000 per Guiding Light

The American company Aecom won a competition for their master plan design, which aims to regenerate the River Klang that flows through Kulala Lumpur, Malaysia. At Linear Vista, we were appointed, by Aecom, as the architectural consultants.One of the current projects going ahead and entering tender stage is the design for a series of “Guiding Lights“.

Guiding Lights

The Guiding Lights are essentially historic and cultural information points dotted along the River Klang in culturally significant locationss providing an account of the history of the site.

I derived the concept from the title of the scheme ‘Guiding Light’. They will be tall illuminated elements that can be seen from afar, therefore attracting people in the right direction; as you come closer, the light takes on a new meaning via text perforations in the cladding. These illuminated text perforations will be in the form of poems or facts about Kuala Lumpur that bathe the surroundings in a playful display of light, in turn educating visitors and tourists.

River Of Life - Guiding Lights - The beacon will attract tourists along the route. Once at a guiding light they will be bathed in the site’s history. Masterplan for Pahse 1 showing the Guiding Lights in this area

River Of Life - Guiding Lights - The beacon will bathe it’s surroundings with a light display of text referring to the site’s history

River Of Life - Guiding Lights - Details of illuminated Guiding Light Tower

River Of Life - Guiding Lights - 3D conceptual visualisation depicting the site’s history as a light installation

Tropical Bungalow - Professional

Budget - RM 2.1m circa $670,000

At the time I joined Linear Vista, a rough concept for a client’s house had been sketched out. The site is on a challenging slope facing a jungle.

The concept is of a half exposed and half subterranean home that cuts into the slope with a layering of various overhangs as a playful reference to the site’s natural topography.

Or endeavour is to create a space that responds to the site as well as answering the client’s desire for privacy and use of passive technologies. We have proposed the use of louvred windows acoss the the vast majority of the design, which will allow for natural cross ventilation, eliminating the need for air conditioning.

The scheme will be further developed using reclaimed timber and local materials in order to reduce costs and provide a home that suits it’s environment.

This project is entering tender documentation stage

Tropical Bungalow - Developmental sketches

Tropicana Bungalow - Hand sketch of bungalow during schematic design development

Tropical Bungalow - Physical model of a section of the house with interior shots

Tropical Bungalow - Front elevation

Tropical Bungalow - Rear elevation

Tropical Bungalow - Bottom floor plan

Tropical Bungalow - Top floor plan with pool deck hand sketch

Bulgarian Holiday Home - Professional

Budget - GBP 25,000 circa $40,000

A private project which is my first built design and currently under construction. It is situated Balchik, Bulgaria, a comfortable 500 metres from the Black Sea.

The pre-existing building was the driving force behind the architectural concept. I used the form of the original building as inspiration for the new design; the existing structure was adapted to save building costs and making the most of what was already found on site.

The new design incorporates the unique curved walls of the original building, which can be seen in plan, and encases the original spiral staircase as a feature.

Bulgarian Holiday Home - Sketches showing final vision, idea of retaining original staircase and interior shot of retained staircase

Bulgarian Holiday Home - Sketch vision of main living area with interior shot of main living area

Bulgarian Holiday Home - Ground floor plan and original photo of the house on site before refurbishment

Bulgarian Holiday Home - External shot of house nearing the end of construction

Creative Re-use Laboratory - Academic

Re-appropriation of plane parts used to create a building which would pioneer and advocate the re-use of all materials that usually find their way to a landfill site. The building would visually represent the program through being built from recycled materials - planes and plane parts that have been dumped and virtually forgotten about such as those in Tucson, Arizona.

The building would house a patent office for the invention of ways in which to re-appropriate recycled materials as well as a laboratory devoted to preparing recycled materials for their re-use. The space would serve as an idea generating machine with the help of professionals from selected fields that would assist in the development of the ideas. Similar to the notion of the television program Dragon’s Den.

Additionally, the program includes a governmental advising panel that would control all bills relating to the environment i.e. transport, housing, waste etc.

Creative Re-use Laboratory - Dismantling an Boeing 747

Creative Re-use Laboratory - Fuselage wall vision

Creative Re-use Laboratory - Exploring the fuselage as a structure. Plan of the laboratory

Creative Re-use Laboratory - 3D sectional perspective, interior shots and typical section through a patent den

Creative Re-use Laboratory - Visual of main space looking up at the dismantling laboratories

Regeneration in Ademuz, Spain - Academic

A small side project that was part of a theory based specialisation in International Architectural Regeneration and Developmenmt - IARD. The main focus of the specialisation was focused on a grander regenerative scheme developed in a group. Our group’s approach was based on outdoor activities such as mountain biking, which is popular in the area that the project is based in - Admeuz, Spain.

My personal design was to provide unique accommodation for the visitors whether mountain bikers or tourists.

Old barns were turned into parador like accommodation. The idea was to preserve the buildings so that visitors would experience the buildings as they once were. This was achieved via prefabricated service cores that would slot inside a “sacrificed” barn that has been gutted. This allowed to retain the “experience” and prevent water damage to the old stonework through isolated showering facilities.

Regeneration in Ademuz, Spain - Diagram for our group’s action plan for regenerating the town of Ademuz Poor economy, people leaving, youth leaving to university and not coming back, lack of jobs and in a desolate area. Retain

the youth, create jobs, attract tourists and holiday makers, improve the economy and put Ademuz on the map.

Regeneration in Ademuz, Spain - Masterplan of our proposal & diagram depicting my intention of re-appropriating the historic barns

Regeneration in Ademuz, Spain - Axonometric of internal service core & internal visual

Regeneration in Ademuz, Spain - Top floor visual from service core

Various Undergraduate Work - Academic

A small collection of work from my undergraduate Bachelors Degree.

Gas Holder Spa - 1st place CLAWSA Award

This is a design for a spa on top of one of the gas holders situated near Broadway Market in Hackney, London. The idea was to utilise the up and down motion of the gas holders to animate the swimming pool floor as an exciting ever changing feature. The design concept was heavily influenced by Russian Constructivism.

Gas Holder Spa - Initial sketches and painting

Various Undergraduate Work - Academic

A small collection of work from my undergraduate Bachelors Degree.

A design for a 16mm Film Museum

The main concept behind the scheme was inspired by Rachel Whiteread’s concrete sculptures of negative space. A historic stage set of the site using negative casts of the facades of the neighbouring buildings was the concept behind this project.

16mm Film Museum - Interior visual of connecting staircase45

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16mm Film Museum - Axonometric diagrams of construction

16mm Film Museum - Section

16mm Film Museum - Section looking through film booths

16mm Film Museum - Courtyard visual

1930s Vintage Door = Table - Personal Work

Being a hands on person, I enjoy making various objects from time to time such as this table.

It is a 1930s solid pinewood door that has been converted into a table using nothing but scrap materials including bass guitar strings and bass guitar machine heads. Yes you can play the strings. The only new material is the white concrete used to fill in the panels.

1930s Vintage Door = Table - Sketches of the idea and construction photos

1930s Vintage Door = Table - The final outcome and bass guitar machine head bracing detail