Selected Work

Concept drawing made to address questions of access and control through the
use of pre-fabricated building materials. This was the start of a dialogue between quick
assembly, highy accessible elements and the traditional walled garden.

Site plan of Paternoster Square.

Site plan overlayed with diagrams produced with the means
of compiling an in depth site analysis of how people behave
and interact in this site.

Diagrams showing what areas in Paternoster Square could go
unnoticed by all factors observed in the site analysis report.

Circulation diagram studying the occupation of space by an individual at a bus
stop. How do individuals engage with others in a public space?

1. How To Build The Ideal Walled Garden

project type:
Third Year project and technical case study
Architectural Association, London
2023-2024

project location:
London, United Kingdom

in focus: Paternoster Square

This project investigates how architecture constructs — and sometimes restricts — public space. Inspired by the paradox of the walled garden as both refuge and boundary, it critiques the illusion of openness and the elements that create boundaries in pseudopublic spaces by looking at Paternoster Square as an example. Using Paternoster Square as a site to explore a privately owned public space, the project adressed the role of architecture in defining the limitations of “public-ness” and the extent to which legislation acts as a limitation to the built environment.

Images of the final model where different spatial identities
of the tram were used to make an “exploded” view.

Diagram explaining how the drawing tools I created to draw visual
representations of public transport rituals work. Each tool was meant to be used if I
observed a repeated action from passengers aboard the tram. The unique configuration
of lines created was meant to be an abstract of the tram ride experience.

Extract from book made to explain how different moments
aboard the tram become rituals without the people performing
them even noticing, and why these acts are ritualistic.

Isometric views of the tram after being
intervened and before the proposed changes.

Section, plan, elevation and axonometric
drawings of two intervention proposals to be
implemented onto my Croydon tram.

Before and after in different views showing the general changes
proposed to be made onto the tram.

2. The Tram

project type:
Second Year project
Architectural Association, London
2022-2023

project location:
Croydon, London

in focus: The TFL tram

This project began as a study in the unnoticed rituals of commuting. By crafting bespoke drawing tools to document rider behavior, I developed a deeper understanding of public spatial rhythms — ultimately proposing subtle architectural interventions to enrich this shared experience. Not a bus but not a train, the tram served as a stage to see how unscripted behaviours in the public realm can come across as ritualistic, raising questions about whether simple changes to what creates a ritual can change the way we navigate a familiar space, and perhaps enhance different behaviours.

This flag shows the rough equivalent of what
a month’s worth of murders looks like following
femicide rate statistics from 2021.

Research and site investigation images
of the remaining graffiti and protest vandalism from feminist
protests across Mexico City, 2021.

Map of bodies found in Mexico City tagged
as femicide cases, followed by a timeline trajectory
from 2016 - 2020.

Early stage concept drawings of the petate installation meant to be
a representation of a makeshift market stall.

Interventions on clothes where the names
of femicide victims was written on different “hidden”
parts of clothing as a way of passively protesting.

Images of myself in the stall from which I could
passively gave away clothes with the names of femicide victims
written on them as a way of sowing their memory.

3. Sembrando Memoria

project type:
Foundation final project
Architectural Association, London
May 2021

project location:
Mexico City, Mexico

in focus: Historic Center of Mexico City (Zócalo)

This project explores the interdisciplinarity of architectural design, specifically as a forensic tool. The femicide crisis in Mexico can be viewed as cultural and political, but in this project I questioned the ways in which space plays a role in addressing violence and crime. Mexico has been facing decades of brutal femicide cases that continue to escalate year after year. In this project I looked at the contemporary
feminist movement in Mexico through different technical ways of recording such as mapping. site interventions, and
social experimentation through spatial circumstances. Using the ‘petate’ — a traditional Mexican burial material — this installation reclaims public space as a site for collective mourning and cultural memory. The project underscores how craft and ritual can become spatial tools of resistance.

Disection of pieces separated (above)
and then what the volume should look like
once all pieces are assembled (below).

Technical Sheet with complete relevant dimensions
for marble quarry and diagram showing how to assemble
the faces of cut stone onto the iron frame.

WIP at the marble quarry and fabricator studio and
final sculpture installed in client’s garden.

4. “Icon” Project

project type:
commision project

project location:
Mexico City, Mexico

Shown above is the design and structure of a marble
sculpture commisioned for a birthday gift. The client wanted an “Icon” for their garden, and with some research this design emerged where each “building block” represents one of the family members, the largest one being the person it was intended for as it is meant to represent their connection with their loved ones.

5. Models

project type:
model making skills

project location:
Varied

Above are images of a selection of models which I produced between 2020-2024, meant to express my model-making skills.

Reference Image

Render

Exhibition Image

Exhibition Render

6. Renders + Visualization

project type:
digital skills

project location:
n/a

Above are a selection of renders and visualizations which I produced throughout 2022-2025, meant to express my skills in producing visualizations.

© Paola Murguia