Hi!
Im Juan Ramirez, an architectural designer based in Toronto, ON.
This portfolio reflects both how far I have come and how much there remains to learn. For me, architecture is about openness, embracing the unknown, and approaching each project with humility to foster deeper discovery and connection.
CONTACT : 519-803-5613 ramirezjuanf27@gmail.com
HERITAGE : Colombian
M.arch I Fall 2022 I Year 1
Location : Ottawa, Onatrio
CAD. Rhino. Revit. Adobe Suite
The client seeks a midrise, accessible building that supports residents health and independence while remaining sensitive to the surrounding urban fabric. The Nest is conceived as a long - term care home that connects local “Snow Birds” and their community within a building that makes visible our personal and collective aspirations as a society. By emphasizing light, visibility, and porosity, the building fosters a place of growth, learning, and meaningful interaction for all ages. By inviting the public in, residents are encouraged to engage in healthy connections facilitated by architecture.
The Nest expresses its identity through a layered facade of brick and mass timber grounded in Ottawa’s material heritage, with pre - oxidized copper adding a reflective, evolving presence that anchors the building as a contemporary landmark and wayfinding marker along Bank Street. Programmatically, mixed - use spaces, such as physical activity studios, a laundromat, pool, spa, movie theatre, prayer room, and community centre encourages everyday interaction and shared use, enabling residents to remain active, engaged, and visibly embedded in their community.
Long Term Care
15 x 600 sqft One Bedrooms
8 x 1000 sqft Two Bedrooms
Long Term Care Amenities
Multi Faith Room
Fitness Room
Swimming Pool
Roof top Gardens
Crafting Media Room
Cinema
Dinning Hall
Commercial Plus Program
Children Music School
+ Community Event Space
M.arch I Fall 2024 I Year 2
Location : Ottawa, Onatrio
CAD. Rhino. Revit. Adobe Suite
The National Urban Forestry Research Center embodies a place for Ottawa’s community to learn, discover, and grow alongside nature. Rooted in the dialogue between built form and landscape, the project establishes a strong link between site and program. The architecture draws inspiration from the motif of the circle and tower (symbols of growth, continuity, and community). These gestures cultivate a connection between the inner workings of the greenhouses and the surrounding terrain, allowing research, education, and public life to mirror each other.
The design strategy across building and landscape focuses on liberating the ground plane to create an open, accessible environment that supports urban life. This continuous surface accommodates the ecological and technical processes of decanting saplings. To meet these needs while preserving openness, a vertical system of towers was deployed, mirroring the building’s ETFE greenhouse. These towers house hundreds of young saplings and forming elevated structures that liven the civic realm below, while acting as microclimate regulators for the site.
Establish Buildable Footprint
Adding Volume
Establishing Entrances
Adding Greenhouse
Extrude Mass
Creation of Portico
Adding Vegetation
ETFE Cladding
VALVE CLOSED
VALVE OPEN System inflates
VALVE OPEN System stays inflated
VALVE OPEN System remains inflated
VALVE OPEN Exhaust
VALVE CLOSED
M.arch I Winter 2024 I Year 2
Location : Arnprior, Onatrio
CAD. Rhino. Revit. Adobe Suite. Enscape
The Wabano House is envisioned as a place of healing, learning, and gathering where community and land intertwine. Rooted in the values of the Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health, the proposal emphasizes land-based learning and spiritual connection through architecture that fosters reciprocity with nature. At the heart of the building , the kitchen is positioned as a central space for learning, sharing, and ceremony. Reflecting food’s vital role in nurturing both community and tradition. The design embraces openness and continuity, offering spaces that invite reflection, gathering, and reconnection with the natural environment.
Situated on the periphery of Ottawa, the 1,000sq meter building is designed with flexibility and respect for the land. The spatial organization prioritizes permeability, allowing seamless transitions between indoor and outdoor spaces that support ceremonies, workshops, and overnight stays. The building’s placement and structural approach minimize impact on the landscape through the use of raised pile foundations, preserving existing ecological conditions. Each architectural move, spatial or material, aims to embody a balance between community, tradition, and the living landscape.
Courtyard
Courtyard
Kitchen Perspective Render
M.arch I Winter 2023 I Year 1
Location : Ottawa, Onatrio
CAD. Rhino. Adobe Suite. Hand Modelling
This project investigates the essence of theater design through the creation of an “anatomical model”, Rather than replicating the structure in miniature the model selectively distills its defining charateristics of the David Brownlow theater,. By emphasizing certain elements and omitting others, the model synthesizes the theaters aura and tectonic nature into a tactile, legible form. It serves as both an analytical tool and a communicative artifact, conveying relationships and design intent more vividly than drawing alone.
LifeBOX
Location : Downtown Guelph, ON
Work Professional, Individual
Design-Build - 2 Months - 2020
Role: Owner + Designer + Builder
Location Guelph, Ontario
LifeBOX is an organic produce landscaping company that builds, Installs, Plants and maintains edible and wellness gardens. Our team at LifeBOX believes in the power of reconnecting with nature in a way that promotes, educates and enables urbanites to grow their own food.
LifeBOX is an organic produce landscaping company that designs, installs, plants, and maintains edible and wellness gardens. Our team at LifeBOX believes in the power of reconnecting with nature by promoting, educating, and enabling urbanites to grow their own food.
LifeBOX partnered with downtown Guelph businesses to enhance patios with planter boxes featuring produce or ornamental plants—that enrich the customer experience, elevate street appeal, and offer environmental benefits.
LifeBOX created an opportunity to engage with the Guelphs Downtown businesses by working with them to improve the patio experience of their customers. We view the planter boxes (produce or ornamental) as minor but significant design intervention that can be used to enhance the urban street presence of a given business while offering environmental benefits.
We imagine that local restaurants and bars can take advantage of fresh produce accessible through our initiative. LifeBOX created plant palettes that cater to the businesses needs or desires. Restaurants can be provided with the vegetables that are used to create their signature dishes or fresh herbs that garnish delicious drinks.
The Multi purpose Yodock 2001MB traffic Barrier is practical but unappealing. The DGBA has the opportunity to go beyond beautifi cation and use the space on top for Urban Agriculture
LifeBOX successfully implemented 40 barriers for the City of Guelph’s Downtown Business Association. The 2021 Urban Harvest program was used as a pilot to inform future efforts.
Azrieli School of Architecture & Urbansim
Team: Shane Patience , Juan Ramirez
Design-Build - 3 Months - 2025
Role: Lead Designer + Builder
The Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism Student Lounge emerged from a shared desire to create a central space for collaboration, conversation, and community within the school. Conceived after discussions with the school’s director, the lounge transforms a once neglected room at the heart of the studios into a vibrant hub where students from all years can gather, share ideas, and connect. The space celebrates the culture of making and exchange that defines architectural education serving not only as a place to unwind, but also as a platform for collective creativity and dialogue.
With a budget of $15,000, the project encompassed furnishing, and construction of the lounge. The approach emphasized adaptability and resourcefulness, combining custom built elements with thoughtfully selected furniture. In collaboration with my friend Shane, we designed and built an evolving pegboard wall serving as both display and activity surface and a tiled bar that anchors the space for events, from studio gatherings to DJ nights, food pop-ups, and critiques. Together, these interventions turn the lounge into a flexible, living environment that continues to grow with its community.
THANK YOU, for reading & your consideration
Thank you for your consideration