Portfolio
Composition of Works
Michelle Cabrera Otero
Architecture is a way of understanding and shaping the world, and of reimagining it.
Architecture as a holistic practice
I conceive architecture as a deeply situated practice, shaped through direct engagement with territory, cultural context, and environmental conditions. Rather than an isolated discipline, I understand it as an integrative framework where social, urban, technical, and ecological dimensions converge, and where design operates as a tool to understand and transform complex realities. My approach is grounded in real-world contexts and fieldwork, which has allowed me to understand habitat and dwelling as a living, complex, and dynamic structure.
From this perspective, architecture can improve quality of life, foster inclusion, and respond to environmental crises by articulating human well-being with the natural environment. This approach is materialized through interventions across multiple scales, from the detail and minimal spatial scale to housing, public facilities, and more complex urban systems, with rigorous attention to the human, material, and contextual conditions of each project. The projects presented in this portfolio reflect this approach through processes of territorial analysis, applied research, material experimentation, collaborative work with communities and interdisciplinary teams, and the iterative development of proposals with high technical, structural, and design resolution.
Michelle Cabrera Otero
Master of Architecture North Carolina State University — College of Design 2025 – Present.
Bachelor of Architecture (RIBA - Part 2 Degree) Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. Faculty of Architecture and Design 2019 – 2024
Raleigh, North Carolina
Visual Authorship Statement: This website exclusively presents original visual content. All architectural drawings, renderings, photographs, and videos are the result of Michelle Cabrera Otero’s academic training, her own creative, artistic, and architectural practice, as well as selected collaborative works developed with design teams.
Gallery Works
PULLEN PARK PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
Co‑designed with Jataiya Taylor, the Pullen Park Performing Arts Center is a cultural hub for performance and community.
BIOTIC NICHES
Research and DesignDesign of university spaces under the concept of biotic niches, uniting and connecting through a strategic arborization proposal
FUTURE OF CARVAJAL
Urban regeneration design of an industrial area in Bogotá. Scale model of the Carvajal area expansion, with detailed representation of the architectural and landscape fabric
FINAL UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH AND DESIGN
Architectural thesis that creates inclusive urban environments where sustainability and community resilience converge
BIRD WATCHING DESIGN-INTERNSHIP PROJECT
The project connects northern Bucaramanga with the city, creating homes, preserving nature, and fostering growth through love for the environment.
A collaborative reinterpretation of Shigeru Ban’s Paper Temporary Studio by design team Michelle Cabrera, Stephen Khamis, Abeer Azzouqa, Hayden Ransbury, and Lauren Wallace
SHIGERU BAN MODEL REINTERPRETATION
Axonometric drawing prepared within the Carvajal Zone Regeneration Project in Bogotá, at 1:500 scale
FINAL UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH AND DESIGN
FUTURE OF CARVAJAL
INTERWINING LIGHT
Experimentation with wood in design and construction
Perspective rendering of the project’s environmental zone as public space.
PULLEN PARK PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
Co‑designed with Jataiya Taylor, the Pullen Park Performing Arts Center is a cultural hub for performance and community. Interior View Balcony Zone
ARTISTIC EIXO - PUBLIC SPACE DESIGN
Competition Proposal in Portugal, Co‑proposal with Ana María Villazón
Ecological, economic, architectural, and mobility‑driven proposal for public space activation in Bogotá
CONCEPTUAL DIAGRAM (FRAGMENT) – UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH, FINAL DESIGN PROJECT
PROPOSAL – LISBON ARTISTIC AXIS: URBAN STRUCTURE FOR CULTURAL AND PUBLIC INTEGRATION
An architectural and urban axis that integrates cultural facilities, collective housing, and public spaces, fostering social and artistic interaction within Lisbon’s urban fabricCompetition Proposal in Portugal, Co‑proposal with Ana María Villazón
Arkiomi
Architecture is a way of understanding and shaping the world, and of reimagining it.
