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ARCH 793AB: A Model for Later

Instructor: Ryan Tyler Martinez

Port City

The port was once the only way for cities to participate in global trade and develop an international presence. But now, despite many ports still being utilized for export and import of goods in the largest cities around the world, they have become reduced down to industrial sites held back by old processes and systems. […]

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ARCH 793AB: A Model for Later

Instructor: Ryan Tyler Martinez

Old Habits. New Ideas.

Trends create narratives that engage daily consumers. It reimagines the ordinary in a relevant and new way. It makes a timeline between eras, events, culture, and text. Old habits are revealed in new ideas to create a visual display for those after them. A public showcase that formulated context about the present, past, and future: […]

Categories
ARCH 793AB: A Model for Later

Instructor: Ryan Tyler Martinez

ASTROTECTONICS

ASTROTECTONICS explores architectural design for extraterrestrial habitats, drawing inspiration from past visions of space exploration during the Space Race. It reflects on how architecture, media, and design once envisioned the future, particularly lunar colonization. The thesis imagines sustainable lunar habitats through three typologies: Lava Tube Habitats, Surface Habitats, and Orbital Habitats, each viewed through different […]

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ARCH 793AB: A Model for Later

Instructor: Ryan Tyler Martinez

Concussed Architecture

Concussed architecture presents a new theoretical framework by using concussion as inspiration for form, spatial organization + experience. Rooted in principles of neuroscience and architecture, concussed architecture creates cognitively complex environments to engage and stimulate both the mind and body by fostering enriched environments through architectural form. This thesis proposes the design of an early […]

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ARCH 793AB: A Model for Later

Instructor: Ryan Tyler Martinez

Shaping the Ordinary

This thesis explores how play can transform overlooked circulation spaces into memorable experiences. It responds to the condition of spatial sameness, where repeated and unremarkable paths—like the selected in-between site used daily by students—fade from awareness. By drawing from the spirit of children’s toys and the intuitive curiosity they provoke, the project introduces subtle architectural […]

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ARCH 793AB: A Model for Later

Instructor: Ryan Tyler Martinez

New Familiar

This thesis explores the speculative potential of ready-to-buy materials from hardware stores to problematize the ordinary and regular through unconventional applications in architectural design. By reorienting these materials in unusual ways—juxtaposing them, using them in non-structural and structural roles, or applying them unexpectedly—this thesis seeks to challenge conventional construction practices. It aims to transform everyday […]

Categories
ARCH 793AB: A Model for Later

Instructor: Ryan Tyler Martinez

Disrupted Landscapes

This thesis examines California wildfires as a lens for exploring architecture, memory, and ecological vulnerability. Using collage and redrawing, it investigates how time, space, and materiality shape the deconstruction of structures and landscapes. Rather than memorializing loss, it constructs a tangential index of environmental and architectural conditions, anchoring shifts to sites of communal and cultural […]

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ARCH 793AB: A Model for Later

Instructor: Ryan Tyler Martinez

Rethinking Temporality

The way we design temporary structures reveals what we value as a profession. Too often, these spaces are treated as afterthoughts—functional but forgettable—because their lifespan is limited. Yet, for the people who use them, these structures often hold profound emotional, cultural, or practical importance. This thesis calls for a shift in perspective: to see temporality […]

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ARCH 793AB: Cultural Assembly

Instructor: Andy Ku

Beyond the Board

My thesis explores how modular design can transform overlooked urban gaps into a dynamic network of third spaces—flexible platforms for social and cultural exchange that evolve with time and community needs. The project reactivates underused paths and spaces by clearing informal enclosures, restoring pedestrian flow, and introducing a multi-layered system organized as points, lines, and […]

Categories
ARCH 793AB: Cultural Assembly

Instructor: Andy Ku

Rooted In Wellness: Redesigning Black Health Through Culture, Community, and Sports

The built environment in America has long been designed in ways that neglect—if not actively harm—Black health, reinforcing systemic disparities that leave Black Americans with fewer opportunities for physical activity, evoke generational trauma, and increase exposure to stress-inducing, unhealthy conditions. These environments offer no space for Black Americans to self-actualize and connect with their divine […]