M.ARCH GRADUATE PORTFOLIOMatthew Eric Salazar (EID mes3898)

B.S. Architecture - Georgia Tech

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INITIAL VENTURESCommon First Year Studio - Fall 2007

Instructor - Mike Glazer

Coming into the first year of any design school, constructive representations of space, form, and

ideas are the highest pedagogical priority. Though I wlecomed the chance to draw things in a literal

manner, I found myself entranced by the challenge of ephemeral and qualitative representations.

The hand is the main tool by which any architect physically designs. Therefore, I though it fitting as a model to study representation. The first form, literal, dealt with the drawing of measured forms. I estab-lished the skeleton as the system of structure and used this as a starting point for each drawing.

Literal Representation

In contrast to literal representation, ephermal representation attempts to represent qualities not literal in nature. For the hand study, I chose to look at stress and pressure, two qualities that are easily understood but more difficult to represent. Assuming various hand positions, I drew the greatest pressures and stresses as the darkest areas.

Ephemeral Representation

The phenomenology of spaces differs greatly from that of objects and requires a different understanding of representation. With perspective sketching, a unique opportunity is afforded to devise literal representations of spaces that are quantitative, but still difficult to portray completely literally.

Quantitative Space

When the literal properties of an item are extended into a spacial representation, they take on a more qualitative approach with representation. The best such example is light which can be represented as literally as possible or with unique qualities derived from its nuances.

Qualitative Space

PRODUCT STUDYDesign Computing - Fall 2010

Instructor - Timothy Purdy

As an extension of studying the forms and properties of objects, one of my classes afforded me the

opportunity to perform a detailed product study. This was an exercise in earlier learned methods of

representation in a digital design environment.

My fascination with photography led to select a camera as my product to study, a product often used to make representations but rarely afforded the opportunity to be on the other end. Measured drawings provided a basis for later shading and coloration in more and more realistic representations.

Original Product

PROJECT 1Product Illustration

Scale: 2” = 1”

Canon Powershot SD750Matthew Salazar

September 16, 2010

Side Back

Top

PROJECT 1Product Illustration

Scale: 2” = 1”

Canon Powershot SD750Matthew Salazar

September 16, 2010

Side Back

TopTop View

Back View

Once the initial product had been fully examined, the next step was a redesign. Taking what I had learned from interacting with the original object and my own experiences with a camera, I imagined a camera existing solely as a handle-lens combination, from which a thin LCD screen unrolls neatly.

Product Redesign

Back View Color Variation 2

Color Variation 2

SKILES COURTYARD CUBESophomore Studio - Fall 2008

Instructor - Danny EnglandSkile Classroom Building, Atlanta

Sklies, a central classroom building at Georgia Tech, consists of a large couryard surrounded by wings of

classroom spaces. we were prompted to make a design intervention in the couryard bounded by a

preset cube of abstract dimensions. This cube would serve as both a rest area and a thoroughfare.

All three user groups tend to concentrate their circulation along a major north-south route bordered by a retaining wall and a grove of planted trees. The retaining wall’s importance could be used as a foundation for a design, in regards to both layout and structure. The grove’s relationship to the wall could also be used as another boundary.

The courtyard of Skiles is a heavily trafficed, but not heavily used, area. I wanted my intervention to serve functions as a rest area and a method of circulation. The first step was thus to study the actual physical circulation inside the couryard, based on paths taken and final destinations. I did this using three disparate populations - faculty, students, and cyclists.

Cyclist CirculationFaculty/Staff CirculationStudent Circulation

Circulation Studies

Wtih ideas of circulation in place, the next step was to design around a hierarchy of movement and gathering, based on population sizes. By locating my design along the major paths, I could better suit the method to work at three different levels - public, private, and personal. Each space in the design would target one level only.

The public level would be located directly off of a main route of circulation and be fairly visible. The private and personal levels would require deeper penetration into the structure, with the personal level having the privacy afforded to only one individual.

Public Level

Gathering Space Hierarchy

Private Level Personal Level

Spacial Hierarchy

The final design generated was a compromise between the hierarchies of gathering spaces and the coninuity of existing circulation. A central staircase that was split allowed both penetration and bypassage of the entire structure. If a user wished to enter the design, they would encounter progressively more private and shaded areas of rest.

Final Drawings

Ground Floor Plan Section

Because the courtyard of skiels is dominated by brick and concrete, I wanted my design to have a very tectonic material selection. My model attempts to represent my choice of concrete as the main material by takeing a straightforward, massing approach. THe lighting choice helps establish the privacy of the deeper spaces.

Final Model

The whole of our Junior Studio was an investigation into the manipulation of environmental elements.

As a starting point, we were given a one-week long charrette to design a house using environmentally

functional design to circumvent the usage of traditional air conditioning. For this proejct, I decided to stick with what I was familiar with - the Caribbean.

Junior Studio - Fall 2009Instruction - Jeffrey Collins

St. Maarten, France

UNAIRCONDITIONED CHARRETTE

With a location set at my favorite Caribbean island of Saint Maarten, I chose the process of sea breezes as my generative environmental concept. During the day, the warm air on the land rises up any hills or mountains, drawing in cooler ocean air. At night, this process is reversed, with the warmer air retreating back out to sea.

Locating the house on a slope was the first step in taking advantage of the eb and flow of air temperments. At a smaller scale, the sectional arrangement of rooms and ceiling slabs would channel warm and cool air to certain areas at certain times. This could be controlled even more directly at the smallest scale with operable louvers.

Breeze Manipulation

Daytime

Nighttime

The layout, like that of many Caribbean homes, is meant to be simple and open. The living areas lie a lower elevation, trapping cooler air in the day. The kitchen and bedroom are higher up, though, and stay consistently warmer than the rest of the house. A large, windowed front allows great views of the sea.

Floor Plans

First Floor

Living Area

Kitchen Kitchen

BedroomBathroomBathroom

Front Entry

Outdoor Patio

Back Entry

Closet

Second Floor

In addition to the unconditioned charrette, we were also asked to design a vernacular community center

for the specific environmental regions of a region of our choosing. Taking the choice of Esfahan in

Central Iran, I focused mainly on the badgir and its cooling abilities for large courtyards and spaces.

Junior Studio - Fall 2009Instructor - Jeffrey Collins

Esfahan, Iran

UNAIRCONDITIONED COMMUNITY CENTER

The badgir, or “wind tower”, is an ancient structure common in the aird parts of Iran. It serves the simple function of capturing prevailing winds and causing cooler breezes to sink down a shaft, while the safe shaft can also serve as an exhaust for warm air. Many designs exist for badgirs depending on the prevailing winds and the height of the tower.

Generative Vernacular

Prevailing Wind Direction

Cooled Basement

Warm Exhaust Sinking Cool Air

Warm Air Well

Underground Cooling Reservoir

Badgir Plan Typologies

Typical Badgir ConstructionBasic Badgir Cooling System

For the community center, I wanted the badgir to be the central point of a large courtyard surrounded by shops and rest areas. By coupling the badgir with a public fountain of water, the breezes into the courtyard could be cooled even greater. On the street, the center would have a grand entrance and many areas of rest for pedestrians.

Spacial Layout

Street View

Interior View 1

Interior View 2Floor Plan

The badgir’s dominance and control of the central courtyard is most visible in longitudinal sections. Once the cool breezes have sunk down the shaft of the badgir, they precipitate throughout the courtyard and the various spaces that adjoin it.

Sections

Transverse Section 1

Longitudinal Section

The relationship of the structure to the community is best understood in the transverse sections, which show the massing that much of the center has contrasting with the tenuous separation from the major thoroughfares in the area.

Sections

Transverse Section 2

Street Section

With the ideas of unairconditioned dwellings and environmental manipulation in place, we were instructed to develop a camp for children that

utilized any available environmental resources to minimize site footprint and energy costs. For my design, I decided to focues mainly on windshed

patterns and natural water runoff on the site.

Junior Studio - Fall 2009Instructor - Jeffrey Collins

17th Street & Northside Drive - Atlanta

CAMP IN THE CITY

The site is unusually heavily forested considering its proximity to the city. These trees act as natural wind catchers creating areas of calm versus areas of turbulence. Using wind rose data for Atlanta, I was able to construct a diagram that showed patterns of windshed over each season, allowing me to see corridors where wind manipulation would work best.

The site also had fairly rugged elevation changes that cause a fairly regular and measurable drainage to happen almost entirely on-site. This afforded an opportunity to use water runoff as part of my design. When I mapped the drainage routes, I found that this too formed corridors where such systems could hapeen more efficiently.

Site Strategy

Spring Windshed

Autumn Windshed

Summer Windshed

Winter Windshed Site Water Runoff

With the two systems of manipulation mapped - wind and water - laying out the buildings was a logical process of hierarchies of which programmatic concerns had the most need for natural conditioning or greywater collection. The design of the individual buildings was then an iterations of attempting to best control the elements on respective site locations.

The cabins, where campers would be spending their nights, would need to be kept cool in the daytime, so they were located at the windward side of the site, to the northwest. The bathrooms needed to take advantage of the site runoff, so they had to be located at the end of the major site drainage paths.

Site Layout

Site Map

Site Section

Nearby Site Context

Distant Site Context

The large, central meeting hall needed to be large and well-lit, so I used the ideas of of wind-controlling louvers from my previous assignments to allow light to penentrate an otherwise heavy wall. The large, central access hall is louvered to allow cross breezes the enter the large spaces. The classroom, by contrast, neede to be dark collected only greywater.

Gathering Spaces

Main Hall Plan

Main Hall Section Classroom Section

Classroom Plan

Every other structure needed to be designed specifically for its program and site location. The bathrooms, placed at the end of the site drainage, act as an anchor of the site’s layout with a massive, greywater collection cistern. At the opposite anchor, a tall watchtower serves as a starting point to collection and a sightseeing area for campers.

Other Structures

Bathrooms Section

Bathrooms Plan

Watchtower Plan

Watchtower Sections

Special focus was given in designing the cabins as they are generally the focus of a camp experience. The cabins are built into a central infrastructure of overhead water channels located above paths. The roof of the cabin and all other structures are sloped to channel rain collection better.

Cabin Design

Cabin Elevation

While the cabin was originally a single structure, a central airflow channel eventually became a canyon for collection between two twined cabins. This channel is lined with operable louvers, while a windward-facing slab wall helps channel the breeze into the narrow corridor.

Cabin Design

Cabin sections

Cabin Plan Cabin Model Interior

Cabin Model Exterior

After a final site plan and general building designs were completed, further detailed construction drawings were performed on the cabin. Because it was a mainly wooden structure, the foundations needed careful attention, as did any mullions. The louver system used an embedded washer system to rotate freely on columns.

Cabin Details

Foundation Detail Mullion Detail

Column Detail

Detail Location Axonometric

Even more attention had to be given to the details of the roof, whose role in collecting greywater could not be compromised. A long parapet on one side of the cabin allowed a great enlargement in gathering ability for the roof. At the central channel, a drip had to be designed to make the transition to the channel.

Cabin Details

Parapet Detail

Drainage Detail

The last semester of junior studio gave us the chance to work in pairs on a semester-long design of a

classroom building on Georgia Tech campus. With virtually all parameters except program and site now under our direct guidance, this project became the

first comprehensive expression of my own personal architectural goals and ideologies.

Junoir - Spring 2010Instructor - Frances HsuPartner - Christine Ruffo

Georgia Tech Campus - Atlanta

GEORGIA TECH CLASSROOM BUILDING

I wanted to start this design more abstractly than I previously had with other designs. Creating a set of various volumes with random openings, me and my partner arranged them in various ways on the site footprint and made note of the ones we found most interesting for the existing conditions.

Iterative Modeling

This model play eventually formalized into a definitive schema that relate volumes of space and program to a modulus of open versus closed wall panels. By adding a central atrium, this increased the number of possibly iterations even more. It was through this process that we first started to address each iteration as a possible floor plan.

Schematic Generation

We next further formalized the schema with preset, favorable program locations based on circulation and visibility. Through this, we were able to develop a basic floor plan that created a dynamic flow between hierarchies of program divided according to user. This essentially divided the building into definable volumes of program.

Program Hierarchy

Generalities of program were not enough, though, so we played upon the modulus of open versus closed walls even further, transforming it instead into an operation of individual window openess. By conducting a detailed lighting study on each major iteration, we could match certain configurations with certain programs we wanted to implement.

Facade Manipulation

The building’s site has a large corner condition in the northeast that is generallly unseen in a dense campus. We decided to take advantage of this and make it the main entrance to the building for freshman who tended to come from that direction. The ground floor was thus large, auditorium-style classrooms and cafe for gathering.

Plans

The upper floors were delegate to the upperclassmen and the teachers. The first floor, accessible from further west up the street, plays home to a large studio and several gallery spaces. The second floor, by contrast, consists mainly of small offices and conference rooms, privately located for the benefit of faculty and staff.

Plans

The front elevation presents a patchwork of open and closed panels, reflecting the great diversity of programmatic uses that lies within. The two main entries and a rooftop terrace accentuate the front, while the side tends to seek greater privacy and thus is less open on the whole.

Elevations

In section, the atrium’s fuction of allowing the facade’s system to expand is evident. Indeed, the atrium serves as both a lightwell and a circulation column within the building. A more detailed section reveals the paneled construction of the facade manipulation visible all over the building.

Sections

The model for the building presented several challenges in regards to the paneling system. eventually, we reconciled on keeping the model simple and straightforward, with only slightly more detail than a massing model.

Final Model

In addition to the physical model, we were continuously updating an iterative digital modeling process. The final model allowed use to produce several renders affording understanding of the systems in the building that are just not possible with only two-dimensional drawings and diagrams.

Renderings

In addition to architecture, photography has always been a passion in my life. Though I admittedly do

not have the quality of camera i would like to have, these shortcomings have actually cause me to focus

my photography more on composition and post-processing. My passion has also led me to be the

current President of Georgia Tech Photography Club.

Olympus C-755 Ultra Zoom4 Megapixels, Maual Settins

PHOTOGRAPHY

,Something about my thoughts on composition.

Composition

,Something about my thoughts on contrast.

Contrast

,Something about my thoughts on color.

Color

,Something about my thoughts on creativity.

Creativity