architecture portfolio - nick martinez
DESCRIPTION
Portfolio - consisting mostly of work completed at graduate architecture school at USC and undergrad at ASUTRANSCRIPT
NICK MARTINEZPORTFOLIO
TESSELLATED TOPOGRAPHIES
ENCLOSURE|EXPOSURE
CREATIVE DISTRICTS
FOLDED PROGRAM
STRATUM / STRIATION
CROSS STITCH
TESSELLATED TOPOGRAPHIES Joshua Tree, California | Fall 2009
This project studies the existing topography through the use of tessellation patterns related to geometric form. A triangular tessellation that mediates between the building and landscape serves as the form generator of the project, while the area is seen as the transition from the suburban street and the Joshua Tree landscape. A louvered striated surface morphology reacts to the environment and modulates sunlight and wind while extending the exterior surfaces to mediate between the landscape and hardscape.
TESSELLATED TOPOGRAPHIES
FORM EVOLUTION
remapped
topography
extruded
building elements structure/skin
edited
longitudinal section
program diagram
GALLERY SPACE
CAFE / BOOKSTORE
EVENT SPACE
WAY-STATION
RESEARCH FACILITIES
RESIDENTIAL
PROGRAM DIAGRAM composition diagramBUILDING SYSTEMS
INTERIOR VOLUME
STRUCTURE
SKIN
wall section
level 1 plan
level 2 plan
CREATIVE DISTRICTS Santa Monica, California | Fall 2008
The client is not a singular advertising agency, but rather a collective or co-op of agencies as the clients. In fact, the clients could represent many different creative fields such as architecture, interior design, or graphic design. The challenge of the project evolved to the provision of one building that could accommodate several agencies or firms of different types.
The design concept was derived from Kevin Lynch’s “Image of the City”, in which he described the 5 elements to good urban environments: district, node, landmark, path, and edge. The approach was to translate these successful urban design strategies to a building. This made sense because the challenge of creating an environment that connects its residents in a positive and planned way while maintaining the ability to adapt to changes, is very similar to the challenges of this building.
The 3 concepts of district, node, and landmark are the key elements in the building. In this way, the agencies could exist in any number of different arrangements of districts, the nodes would provide areas where people from different agencies could interact, and the landmarks would serve as reference points and open spaces
CREATIVE DISTRICTS
districts nodes landmarks
plan 2a
cross section longitudinal section
plan 2b
environmental diagram wall section
ENCLOSURE|EXPOSURE Joshua Tree, California | Fall 2010
Through metaphor and contextual relationship, this small pavillion project explores the possibility of the large potential impact of a small deliberate design. In the vast ambiguous “edge” between civilization and nature in Joshua Tree National Park, this pavilion offers a threshold between focused and confined geometry and perspective of the urbanized world and the unobstructed landscape of the desert. Through 2 systems, one rigidly rythmic, the other looser and more dynamic, the desert floor , sky and horizon perspectives are gradually revealed and transformation is complete.
ENCLOSURE|EXPOSURE
roof plan floor plan
FOLDED PROGRAM Compton, California | Spring 2009Nick Martinez
The City of Compton is a city that is both dealing with the existing problems inherited from its past and looking to improve its future role in the greater Los Angeles area. The program proposed by NICE is based around those concerns and the site is an abandoned armory in the middle of the city.
The distinction of these two types of program, reparative and productive, were central in my development of this project. I conceived of these two elements as a basis for organizing space and program elements on the site. These two “strips” of program evolved into concrete planes that fold over and around the usable spaces within the building. These intertwining sections push and pull away from each other, as the building wraps around the site, connecting the existing buildings.
FOLDED PROGRAM
program diagram program adjacencies program adjacencies
citizen corps/MRC
office
homeless/disabled
services
violence prevention
center
disaster relief training
parenting classes/
daycare
green tech. training
prefab construction
learning center
employment center
materials recycling
public facilities
fold facade circulation
wall sectionfacade detailssite plan
CROSS-STITCH New Orleans, Louisiana | Fall 2007Nick Martinez
In the years after Hurricane Katrina, many affected neighborhoods are still left unoccupied and devastated. Holy Cross is one of these neighborhoods. Holy Cross is framed by an underutilized greenbelt and waterfront and it’s future of is dependent upon the ability of new construction to integrate this land with the existing neighborhood.
This new architecture must create a new landscape that recognizes, embraces and progresses beyond the existing building and culture. This is the goal of my project. Through the concept of stitching a wound, my project aims to literally and figuratively tie together the existing homes and the waterfront’s new projects and pathways. It creates a new fabric that mediates the two separate elements on the site. Utilizing prefabrication and an adaptive model, it is both an economically and socially sustainable solution to the problems remaining in New Orleans.
CROSS-STITCH
site plan site elevation
unit 1 floorplans
prefab diagram
STRATUM / STRIATION Tempe, Arizona | Fall 2006Nick Martinez
This project studies the existing topography through the use of tessellation patterns related to geometric form. A triangular tessellation that mediates between the building and landscape serves as the form generator of the project, wile the area seen as the transition from the suburban street and the Joshua Tree landscape. A louvered striated surface morphology reacts to the environment and modulates sunlight and wind while extending the exterior surfaces to mediate between the landscape and hardscape.
STRATUM / STRIATION