Articles by Cristobal Rojas

In the southwest of Toulouse, “Les Carrés de Bellefontaine” consists of a mixed-use program: collective social housing, a professional training center, a restaurant and private office spaces.

The project is located in front of Zapallar bay, 169 km from Santiago de Chile in the region of Valparaiso. An isolated house in the forest at 450 m above the sea level, on the southern slope of the hill where El Boldo Park, a sclerophylls’ forest, is located. The thick stone walls modify the extreme topography in habitable levels, achieving two horizontal planes, in between the forest, which gives virtue to the territory and roots the architecture in an intimate relationship with its environment and the forest that surrounds it. Its complex variety of materials is balanced and related accepting each quality and its contrasts, managing to moderate its conditions, matching the appearance between concrete, wood, stone, and marble, all noble and long-lived materials, which contrast its rustic and warm persistence, with glass and steel roof, materials that give a contemporary look, an innovative and mixed face to the outside. 

The Ghana National Theatre is located at the intersection of Accra’s main thoroughfares. The National Theatre comprises 1500 seats in its auditorium, an exhibition hall, a rehearsal hall, and an open-air theater.

The program consists in a “Social Welfare Office”, a centre for social services by the city of Halle. The old orphanage, build in 1901, is therefore transformed into a modern building. A new public entrance is situated on the right side of the building. A new volume on columns defines a “portal” under which you will be guided to the entrance. The outside volume, rafters and chapel are preserved, the inner structure is replaced. From the new central entrance a new circulation is conceived. Voides emphasize openness and promotes visibility and working environment. On the different levels, open plan offices and meeting rooms are provided. On the second floor is situated the restored chapel, a foyer and the new multipurpose conference room. Structure, glazing and acoustic walls of this conference room are referring to the stained-glass windows of the chapel. The attic with its preserved rafters, is converted into an archive. Energetically, the building is equipped with interior insulation because of the historic nature of the building. 

Tropical Forest is a coffee shop located on lane 298 Tay Son Street, Dong Da District, Hanoi, Vietnam. Construction on land area of 170m2 (170 square meters), out front of 20m2.

Being the owner and the architect of this house, I tend to create a simple project that blend with the surroundings.  The RN house is located in Tatar Jingga Nagara. In definition, “Tatar” means a place/location, while “Jingga” describes as a reddish/orange color, and “Nagara” used as a city.

Public space is that territory of the city where multiple activities are generated so that different social groups can have a symbolic identification and thus promote the appropriation of space, since it is this dynamic that gives a true form of social integration, leaving aside the socioeconomic condition, idiosyncrasy, etc., and establishes us as equals.

„Dock“ is a burger restaurant in Klaipeda. The customers had always known they would like to open a catering establishment of industrial interior design. Together with clients, the name of the place was chosen, which gave various possibilities to reflect it in the interior. The standard and already cliche attributes of the maritime theme were immediately abandoned. Instead, attributes of a ship repair yard (a dock) and a modern port were used. Thus, a blue facade finish of a sea container imitation was added to the interior. Custom-tailored bar lamp shades, analogous to industrial scissor lamps, metallic glazed partition between a kitchen and a visitors’ hall, table legs and shelving elements found their niche here. Even the brewery pipe look draft tower was made, because suppliers could not provide the size the restaurant needed. The walls are finished with glazed tiles and partially left plastered, the floors – with commercial concrete. This gives an impression of space, similar to seaport storage facilities. Wooden tabletops and bar tops, which are imitating aged and stained surfaces, make the interior warm. The space is enlivened and vivified by a chair mix and their brown leather colour, ships’ name-reminding inner labels, and green indoor plants. The design of the logo, exterior and interior signage was also created for this site.

„Dock“ is a burger restaurant in Klaipeda. The customers had always known they would like to open a catering establishment of industrial interior design. Together with clients, the name of the place was chosen, which gave various possibilities to reflect it in the interior. The standard and already cliche attributes of the maritime theme were immediately abandoned. Instead, attributes of a ship repair yard (a dock) and a modern port were used. Thus, a blue facade finish of a sea container imitation was added to the interior. Custom-tailored bar lamp shades, analogous to industrial scissor lamps, metallic glazed partition between a kitchen and a visitors’ hall, table legs and shelving elements found their niche here. Even the brewery pipe look draft tower was made, because suppliers could not provide the size the restaurant needed. The walls are finished with glazed tiles and partially left plastered, the floors – with commercial concrete. This gives an impression of space, similar to seaport storage facilities. Wooden tabletops and bar tops, which are imitating aged and stained surfaces, make the interior warm. The space is enlivened and vivified by a chair mix and their brown leather colour, ships’ name-reminding inner labels, and green indoor plants. The design of the logo, exterior and interior signage was also created for this site.

The brief began with a requirement for a loose fit building able to accommodate apartments and offices/studios across column free floors. Enough time was available to investigate context and a number of possible solutions for a replacement building that would sit within the all but vanished boundaries of an C11th limestone Norman abbey. One able to integrate, extract and perhaps make new a broader and better sense of context than that now dominated by late C20th pastiche.