NICK MARTINEZ
PORTFOLIO
TESSELLATED TOPOGRAPHIES CREATIVE DISTRICTS NICK MARTINEZ nick.martinez.la@gmail.com 213.703.9574 756 s. broadway #509 los angeles, ca 90014
ENCLOSURE|EXPOSURE FOLDED PROGRAM FRAY PROFESSIONAL PROJECTS
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
extruded INTERIOR VOLUME
edited STRUCTURE
GALLERY SPACE CAFE / BOOKSTORE
EVENT SPACE
remapped
SKIN
WAY-STATION
RESEARCH FACILITIES RESIDENTIAL
topography program diagram building elements
PROGRAM DIAGRAM
composition diagram
BUILDING SYSTEMS
structure/skin
FORM EVOLUTION
longitudinal section
level 1 plan
level 2 plan wall section
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
plan 2b
longitudinal section
environmental diagram
wall section
FRAY
Los Angeles, California | 2012
Nick Martinez
Out of a heterogenous, varied collective of individual pieces - a new fabric is formed. From a pile of found, disposed wood, an assortment was collected to be reassembled and reconfigured into a new piece of consolidated furniture. Each reclaimed wood strip has its own identity - a story of original purpose and subsequent abandonment. Through the varying textures and finishes, each piece is clearly seen as unique, creates its own section and exists in and of itself. However, when merged into a whole piece, it becomes a part of something more, something greater than itself When recombined into varying profiles, the pieces become a bench, a low table, a storage unit. From one end of the piece to the other, the balance in the relationship, between individual and collective, is manipulated. The bench devolves - from one end where the form is whole and the members are barely identifiable from each other to the other, where the function and form itself is disintegrated
FRAY
PROFESSIONAL PROJECTS