Volarch

10/02/2026

Antraco Arcade in Aruba started with a simple challenge: how do you transform a cluster of existing warehouse buildings into a place with identity, comfort, and presence, without rebuilding everything?

The design strategy was to work with what was already there and create a new architectural layer around it: a continuous sculptural portico that unifies the different warehouse volumes, hides much of the dated existing façade, and gives the entire complex one clear visual language.

The curved rhythm of the structure creates a distinctive frontage without relying on expensive construction systems. The idea was deliberately pragmatic: high visual impact, relatively simple fabrication, repetitive components, and a design that could be built efficiently.

The portico also does more than improve appearance. In Aruba’s Caribbean climate, it creates much-needed shade, protects storefronts and pedestrians from intense sun and sudden rain, and turns what could have been a basic strip of warehouses into a more comfortable, walkable retail experience.

Timber tones soften the structure, dark framing gives it definition, integrated planting brings a tropical layer to the architecture, and the changing height of the canopy creates moments of emphasis at entrances and key corners.

The most interesting part of this project is that the transformation does not depend on luxury materials or excessive complexity. It comes from using one strong architectural gesture repeatedly and intelligently.Good adaptive design does not always mean erasing what exists.

Sometimes the better solution is to understand what is worth keeping, conceal what no longer works, and add exactly enough architecture to completely change the experience.

Antraco Arcade — Aruba

Designed by Volarch

10/01/2026

A Queens institution, reimagined.

Barzola began decades ago as a family business founded by our client’s father. Today, it continues that legacy in Astoria with a new home designed by Volarch, one that celebrates Ecuadorian culture through color, texture, nature, food, and gathering.

The central bar brings energy to the room, with cobalt-blue seating standing against dark wood and stone. Woven pendants, textured columns, tropical planting, warm lighting, and intimate dining areas create a space that feels sophisticated, joyful, and unmistakably alive.

At its heart is a custom mural painted in Colombia by Medellín artist Paula Toro. Her surreal jungle of tropical vegetation and Ecuadorian animals inspired the materials, colors, textures, and greenery throughout the restaurant.

By day, Barzola connects directly with the life of Astoria. After dark, it becomes a glowing place for dinner, drinks, music, and celebration.

A family legacy.
A celebration of Ecuador.
A new chapter in New York.

Design:
Mural: Paula Toro
https://www.paulatorou.com/
https://barzola1987.com/

09/27/2026

What if a home could bring you closer to nature while offering comfort, beauty, and protection?

The Nevada City Residence is designed as an experience that unfolds through the landscape. A path descends beneath a planted roof to a circular arrival court, where an olive tree welcomes you.

From there, the home opens to warm walnut interiors, sheltered corridors, and an open-air gathering space at its heart.

The design gives a young family places to come together, welcome their community, and enjoy the foothills with their son.

Handcrafted ferrocement, stone, and planting connect the architecture to the land. Fire-resistant forms and earth-integrated spaces respond to the realities of living here.

Luxury, to me, begins with that sense of connection: to family, community, and the nature around us.

Design by Volarch.

09/27/2026

A place as iconic as the New York Athletic Club deserves a little glamour. ✨

The experience begins on the 11th floor: step out of the elevator, follow a warmly lit corridor past nostalgic private-call booths, and arrive in the Main Dining Room overlooking Central Park.

While consulting as Hospitality Designer for Woods Bagot, I led the redesign of the Main Dining Room and Lounge on Eleven.

My vision brought together NYAC’s classic architecture, the energy of New York nightlife, and lush greenery inspired by the park. Rich textures and layered lighting give each space its own mood, from an elegant dinner to jazz and after-dinner drinks in the lounge.

Timeless spaces should evolve without losing their identity.

09/26/2026

Nightingale began with its name and the place where it stood.

I imagined a nightingale perched in the trees of Greenwich Village. I thought of Florence Nightingale, the nurse whose work changed how we care for people. And just across the street were the former St. Vincent’s Hospital and the NYC AIDS Memorial at St. Vincent’s Triangle.

As I learned more about the hospital’s role during the AIDS epidemic, I thought about the people who crossed that street to be with someone they loved. Partners, friends, and families came to visit and care for them. So many, too many had to say goodbye there.

I also thought about New York in the 1980s: the disco music, the dancing, the gay community, and the incredible energy of Greenwich Village. It was a time of tremendous loss, but also of love, friendship, and joy. I wanted Nightingale to be sexy and fun, a place where people would dress up, flirt, laugh, have a drink, and make memories of their own.

The trees outside inspired the sculptural branches inside. I placed them against small mirrored tiles that recall a disco ball. The reflections bring movement and sparkle to the room. Look a little longer, and the branches become hands waiting to catch a falling friend. Warm light follows their curves, giving the space its glow.

Nightingale closed before the pandemic. Nerea occupies the space now and has kept the bar, the trees, and much of the millwork as I designed it. Seeing those elements still there means a great deal to me. They began with a bird, a nurse, a hospital, and a neighborhood I wanted to honor, and became a place for people to enjoy life.

09/25/2026

09/22/2026

Designed in 2008. Reimagined for the future of Georgetown.

This Regent Street project was conceived as a vertical retail and hospitality destination, and a distinctive new presence within the city.

Flowing cobalt-blue ribbons wrap the architecture and form a dramatic illuminated entrance. Inside, a multilevel atrium connects the retail floors through sculptural stairs, curved balconies, glass balustrades, tropical planting and a panoramic elevator.

Above it all, the building opens into a glamorous rooftop lounge overlooking Georgetown: dark walnut flooring, off-white illuminated canopies, smoky glass pendants, amber onyx, bronze details, jewel-toned seating and lush tropical landscaping.

The rooftop brings together dining, cocktails, entertainment and city views in an atmosphere shaped by Guyana’s rich Indian, African, Caribbean and Latin influences.

A project about movement, light, culture and the creation of a memorable destination.

Design: Gabriel Piedrahita / Volarch
Regent Street, Georgetown, Guyana
Original design: 2008

RetailDesign InteriorArchitecture TropicalArchitecture TropicalModernism MixedUseDesign LuxuryHospitality BiophilicDesign ArchitecturalVisualization AIVisualization Volarch

09/22/2026

Designed in 2008. Now moving closer to becoming a new Georgetown landmark.

Located on Regent Street, this project is planned as Georgetown’s tallest mall. A vertical retail and hospitality destination shaped by fluid architecture, tropical energy and Guyana’s multicultural identity.

Sculptural blue and warm-white ribbons wrap the façade and form the dramatic entrance portal. Inside, a soaring multilevel atrium connects a luxury shoe store through curved balconies, glass balustrades, sculptural stairs, metallic columns, reflective stone and lush tropical planting.

The journey culminates in an open-air rooftop lounge overlooking Georgetown: dining, cabanas, dramatic lighting, rich textiles and a glamorous fusion of Indian, African, Caribbean and Latin influences.

Nearly two decades after I first designed it, seeing this vision evolve is especially meaningful.

Design: Gabriel Piedrahita / Volarch

RooftopDesign InteriorArchitecture ArchitectureDesign TropicalModernism MixedUseDesign LuxuryInteriors BiophilicDesign ArchitecturalVisualization AIVisualization Volarch

09/19/2026

What if the present is only a brief pause in a journey without a visible beginning or end?

Ten years ago, Volarch explored this idea through The Endless Journey, our entry for the 2016 Tokyo Vertical Cemetery international competition.

Set within the noise and energy of Shinjuku, the project imagines a cemetery as a continuous spiral through past, present, and future.

Deep below the street, a reflecting pool mirrors the staircase, making it appear to descend endlessly into the earth. Looking down means looking into the past, toward memories and origins that we can sense but never fully see.

At street level, the present flashes before us: trains, traffic, commerce, neon, crowds, and noise. Within the full vertical journey, this intense urban world becomes only a thin line, a fleeting moment of existence.

From there, the spiral rises through spaces where people are cremated, mourned, remembered, and celebrated. Chapels hold moments of farewell. Mirrored niches repeat the urns into apparent infinity, allowing individual memories to become part of something larger.

The path continues through arches that slowly transform into flames. Each flame represents a milestone, a love, an ambition, a loss, or a transformation that briefly defines us before fading into memory.

Between them, Japanese gardens offer moments of calm, beauty, and enjoyment before the ascent continues.

At the top, the final flame opens onto a glass bridge to nowhere. It is not an ending, but a threshold toward a future beyond our sight.

The past has no visible beginning.
The future has no visible end.
Between them glows the brief moment we call life.

A decade later, I revisited the original design through newly enhanced visualizations, revealing its atmosphere and meaning with greater clarity while preserving its architecture.

Can architecture help us face loss while celebrating the journey of being alive?

09/13/2026

The Catskills change with every season. The house should feel at home in all of them.

This exterior study revisits the darker siding originally envisioned for the residence, pairing its subtle grain with a black standing-seam roof. Against summer greens, autumn color, and winter snow, the house becomes a quieter presence in the landscape, a more peaceful, Zen-inspired refuge, as intended from the beginning.