NICK MARTINEZ
PORTFOLIO
NICK MARTINEZ nicholastmartinez@gmail.com 626.664.5665 756 s. broadway #509 los angeles, ca 90014
TESSELLATED TOPOGRAPHIES CREATIVE DISTRICTS ENCLOSURE|EXPOSURE FOLDED PROGRAM CROSS STITCH STRATUM / STRIATION
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
edited
remapped
topography
building elements
FORM EVOLUTION
structure/skin
INTERIOR VOLUME
STRUCTURE
GALLERY SPACE CAFE / BOOKSTORE
EVENT SPACE
SKIN
WAY-STATION
RESEARCH FACILITIES RESIDENTIAL
program diagram
PROGRAM DIAGRAM
composition diagram
BUILDING SYSTEMS
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
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 2009
Nick 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
/MRC citizen corps office sabled di homeless/ services n preventio violence center g trainin r relief disaste
lasses/ ting c paren re dayca aining tech. tr green n structio b con prefa
ter
g cen
learnin
r
ente
ent c
loym
emp
rials
mate
cling
recy
s
cilitie
lic fa
pub
program adjacencies
program adjacencies
fold
facade
circulation
site plan
facade details
wall section
CROSS-STITCH
New Orleans, Louisiana | Fall 2007
Nick 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 2006
Nick 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