Portfolio 2024

PORTFOLIO JORDYN DOMINGUEZ

Situated atop a steeply sloped bluff, the neighborhood of Coleman Highlands contains a variety of beautiful traditionally styled homes, reflecting and embracing its historical presence within the Kansas City area. The area features quiet streets, walkable sidewalks, lots of mature trees, and longterm residents and families. With respect to this contextual richness, the proposed program for the cul-de-sac terminating West 32nd Street is a multi-generational family home featuring distinct dwellings designed for four interlocking family autonomies.

The most notable considerations in the design of this project include a balance between generational connectivity and distinct client accommodations, the embrace of the neighborhood community into which the family will be introduced, and attentiveness toward the existing physical site conditions, particularly the unobstructed views of the Kansas City skyline to the north and the spectacular sunset to the west. As such, the primary focuses in the preliminary design stages were on choreographing the expected experience of the family with regard to their interactions with each other, the project, and the surrounding community; deriving an organizing system that unifies the separate architectural entities into a coherent complex; and the capturing and celebrating of the aforementioned views that are imperative to the draw of the site.

PROCESS

REGULATING LINES

PRIMARY VIEWS

CIRCULATION SPINES

INTERACTIONS

Both in their 60s, this retired couple spends most of their days at home, where they provide in-home care for their grandchildren and dogs. They intend to age in place and thus relish any opportunity to interact with the neighborhood and create a welcoming atmosphere that engages with the street and facilitates a cozy openness.

The son of the first client works from home as a freelance journalist and values the experiential quality of a home, while his wife works in downtown as a structural engineer and would enjoy more technical applications including the structural expression and the order, rhythm, and texture that is the result of thoughtful design.

This client is the daughter of the first client. She is a young but experienced architect currently working for a firm in the West Bottoms. She enjoys the work of Louis Kahn and would thus like her home to reflect this interest. She would also appreciate the integration of sustainability in her home as well as those of her family.

Along with the profiles of each client, the incorporation of shared spaces is included in the proposed development. Including a communal living room, kitchen, dining room, and outdoor entertainment area, these spaces are intended for the entire extended family as well as any guests they may host.

MATRIARCH + PATRIARCH SON + FAMILY DAUGHTER SHARED SPACES

The overarching relationships that are explored in this project are interior/exterior connections and familial dynamics. Internal views are framed, based on an expected routine, where more public spaces face the city skyline and the neighborhood to facilitate daytime activities, while private spaces face the intimate western view for relaxing evenings with family and guests. With this delegation of space and connectivity, each home’s position on the site is decided. Client 1 will spend most of their time at home and request a plentiful yard/garden, placing them on the northmost plot. Client 2 requires more privacy but must be near Client 1, for child and pet care, and Client 3, for their shared garage, placing them centrally in the cul-de-sac. Client 3 requires the most privacy and takes the southmost plot. Shared spaces fill in around Client 1 for accessibility and view optimization. From there, the form and steel structure is implemented through the use of a consistent organizational grid.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING

In Upper Manhattan, New York City, the neighborhood of East Harlem offers a rich and diverse history. Also known as Spanish Harlem or El Barrio, it is currently the home of one of the largest Hispanic communities in New York City. This culture is essential in the life of the neighborhood and contributes largely to its beauty. However, East Harlem also suffers from a variety of social issues, including a high crime rate, high unemployment rates, and homelessness. The area also displays a lack of immediate access to fresh food and comfortable community spaces. This proposed project is an affordable housing complex that provides more than just accessible dwellings; it also gives back and lifts up the community it serves. Programmatically, this project incorporates about 40 new apartment units, a resource center for impoverished families and individuals, and an adjoined cafe with a public exterior courtyard.

The primary focus of this project is connectivity and community. The overall form imitates an embrace that figuratively pulls the existing community into the refuge of the project and encourages an interconnection between public and private. This intermingling is reinforced by the unit design. The units mimic Tetris pieces to allow them to interlock and interact while maintaining a comfortable level of privacy. These Tetris pieces are categorized into distinct unit types to provide an organized coding system for the dynamic spaces they create. The pieces are then composed around the form of the building, forming the shielding space that protects the public program and yields a balance between privacy and community. PUBLIC

PROCESS

TETRIS COMPOSING

CENTRAL COURTYARD

Most of the initial programmatic decisions of this project came from demographic and community concerns. Research into East Harlem led to the discovery that the main concerns of the area revolve around economic inequality, specifically factors contributing to poverty and the cost of living. In addition, demographics related to potential occupants of the apartments were imperative in the design of the units and the complex as a whole, finding that a majority of people live alone and the number of people living with disabilities is slowly increasing over time.

The driving force of this project is harmony and interconnection that caters to a diverse community. This is best reflected in the interactions that are created by the overall form and Tetris-inspired units. The interlocking form nestles public areas within the embrace of private spaces, forming a central core designed for movement and socialization. The unit design and composition further promote this engagement with typologies that are designed and quantified based on demographic needs. Micro units best accommodate singles looking for affordable, potentially temporary, living conditions. Studio units also offer single living opportunities, but provide a more open and flexible option. Two-bed units provide a more rigid organized unit for small families. These unit types cooperate sectionally to maximize vertical space and create a unified architectural expression of the diverse needs of the community.

DESIGN

BAKERY/RESOURCE CENTER LOBBY

MUSEUM OF MANHATTAN,

Home to Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas is a pretty standard college town. It largely caters to a younger demographic and is constantly seeking opportunities to grow and evolve with the changing generations that move through. Despite this, Manhattan is somewhat limited in its attractions and sources of entertainment that extend beyond the university. The proposed project is an interactive museum that showcases two main exhibitions that feature atmospheric spaces of two opposing emotions. The featured emotions of this project are relief and dread, focusing on the utilization of a continuous liminal space. An initial source of inspiration for this project was Everywhere at the End of Time by the Caretaker, a cinematic soundtrack that depicts the slow mental decline as one succumbs to Alzheimer’s disease. The songs in the collection get subtly more and more distorted until they are no longer audibly coherent and they are completely removed from where they started. This gradual distortion from familiar, comforting symphonies to confusing, anxiety-ridden roars of static and noise was a major influence on the journey that is choreographed in this project. This journey through the interior spaces is also expressed in the overall form of the project. The central points of each emotion exhibit essentially function as inverses of each other where the positive end lifts up to an upper level while the negative end is sunken underground. Between these points, the building creates a transition space that physically twists and serves as the midpoint between the emotions before the descent or ascent into their respective antithesis.

PROCESS

This abstract painting reflects the positive emotion of relief or comfort. The palette knife technique relies on soft, sweeping strokes that reflect movement and a steady flow throughout the relaxed feminine figure. The color reinforces the atmosphere of energy and bliss through the bright, warm tones of a sunset.

This abstract painting reflects the negative emotion of dread or anxiety. The palette knife technique relies on harsh, vertical strokes that give the impression of a static stillness that emanates around the masculine figure. The color reinforces the cold, daunting atmosphere with dark, muted grays broken by strikes of red and blue.

OPPOSING EMOTION CHARACTERIZATION

With the juxtaposition of opposing emotions serving as the main focus of the project, the emotional experience is the dominant design drive of the project. This experience through the subtle, evolving procession requires a level of simplicity and consistency. In this project, this is achieved through an internal landscape that begins as a more manicured, organized garden and gradually becomes overgrown and unkempt as visitors travel along the winding ramp. In addition, the use of water is a consistent feature in each emotion’s space where the positive end hosts a calming reflection pool and the negative end flips this water feature, employing a tempered glass that creates an underwater appearance. The positive end reflects relief as visitors travel through the wide hallways and are treated with an airy resting place, while the negative end reflects the feeling of dread as it is organized in a more labyrinthine manner with sharp turns and limited glimpses into the cold central space that is to come.

FORM POSITIVE NEGATIVE

DESIGN

MAIN POSITIVE SPACE

TRANSITION SPACE

MAIN NEGATIVE SPACE

GRAPHITE SKETCH FROM REFERENCE HOLY SPIRIT

GRAPHITE SKETCH FROM REFERENCE ORTHODOX CHURCH OF SAINT NICHOLAS, VILNIUS, LITHUANIA

SKETCHES

CATHEDRAL, MINSK, BELARUS

GRAPHITE SKETCH FROM REFERENCE COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

ACRYLIC PAINT ON CANVAS ABRAHAM LINCOLN

WATERCOLOR STILL LIFE ON PAPER SEASHELL

SCRATCHBOARD SEA OTTER