Menma is a 5th-year Landscape Architecture student at the Pennsylvania State University. He brings an advanced understanding of the built environment, along with strong visualization, 3D and physical modeling, and hand drawing skills. Having lived and schooled in 5 different countries Menma is a true global citizen. His international experience has taught him to look for opportunities in all cultures and contexts.
Recognizing sustainable cities as a significant aspect of humanity’s future, Menma is interested in the intersections between ecology, culture, and urbanscapes. His work aims to create habitable environments for human and non-human stakeholders that encourage public engagement, cultural education, and beauty while preserving our environment.
In his spare time, Menma can be found on the soccer field, at the cinema, on an airplane, or in his room reading. His relationships with his friends and family are also integral to him as he believes the people he has met along the way have had the greatest impact on him.
RESUME
EDUCATION
Rhode Island School of Design
Masters of Architecture
Pennsylvania State University
Bachelors of Landscape Architecture
Barcelona (Spain) Study Abroad
Bonn (Germany) Study Abroad
Harvard GSD Design Discovery
Design Futures
TASIS England
Surrey, UK
High School/IB Diploma
EXPERIENCE AND AWARDS
RISD Architecture Social Media Marketing Team
Teacher Assistant for Landscape Architecture Studio
TASIS England Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee
Penn State Landscape Architecture Department Excellence Award
Penn State Landscape Architecture Student Society Member
SKILLS
Physical Model Making
3D Modeling: Rhino, Sketchup
Adobe Suite: Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign
Real Time Rendering: Lumion, Twinmotion
Drafting: Hand-Drawing, AutoCad
3 UNITS 1 HOUSE
CORE 1 2024
CIUTADELLA URBAN OASIS
BARCELONA STUDY ABROAD 2023
LEARNING THROUGH MAKING
HARVARD DESIGN DISCOVERY 2022
1 HOUSE 4 WAYS
CORE 1 2024
LARCH 335 2021
3 UNITS 1 HOUSE
RISD ARCHITECTURE
CORE 1
Fall Semester 2024
Individual Academic Project
The project brief asked for a radical approach to living by connecting three housing units and a lab with a singular shared element. For this proposal, the porch acts as the connecting element by interrupting the circulation through the site. Through this interruption, users are encouraged to engage with all programs found on the porch thus redefining ideas of privacy and ownership.
Materially speaking, the ‘Razzle Dazzle’ pattern abstracts wooden siding commonly found in the New England area. This abstraction makes it difficult to distinguish between each building; thus furthering the idea of a collective by registering the units as a whole rather than individual masses.
Two physical constraints of the site was the existing circulation to the WoodsGerry Gallery building and dealing with with the steep 25% slope. To mitigate these factors, the porch was viewed as both landscape and circulation.
5 Defoe Place
SECOND FLOOR PLAN
CIUTADELLA URBAN OASIS
Barcelona Architecture Center Summer Program
LARCH 414
Summer Semester 2023
Individual Academic Project
KEY ROADS AND
LANDMARKS
GOTHIC QUARTERS
CIUTADELLAPARK
AVINGUDAMERIDIANA
Barcelona’s metropolitan condition and ongoing drought threaten to create an Urban Desert. From this scenario I envision the new Ciutadella Park as an Urban Oasis. A place of respite that serves Barcelonans and their native ecology alike.
MONUMENTO COLUMBO
BARCELONA BEACH
ARC DE TRIOMF
CATALAN PARLIAMENT
PLACA DE JOAN FIVELLER
PARC DE LES GLORIES
PASSEIG D’ISABEL II
BARCELONA ZOO
Existing Conditions
The Avinguda Meridiana is a major avenue in Barcelona. Although Ciutadella Park is connected to it, there is no entrance at where the park and road meet. Adding an entrance here would link Placa de Glories (another major park) and Ciutadella Park adding Ciutadella to Barcelona’s ogreen network that is under costruction.
The main entrances are key to the site as they serve as connections to two major landmarks in Barcelona, Monument a Colom (Colombus Statue) and the Arc de Triomf.
The Placa de Joan Felliver garden is the center of the park and marks the entry to the parliament. However its placement obstructs the circulation and its formalistic style does not flow with the rest of the park.
The adjacent Barcelona beach currently has no access to the park . The park would benefit from such a connection by linking one of Barcelona’s major landmarks to its green network.
The founrain designed by Antoni Gaudi is the most iconic part of the Park. However the absence of a cohesive layout downplays its importance. New circulation should be designed to intentionally integrate the founatin into the site.
Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Proposed Concept
My concept proposes a new layout which cohesively integrates the park’s facilities and connects external landmarks and adjacent sites. The layout is formed around two main zones, the Gaudi fountain and the parliament.
Although the zoo is to be removed, the existing trees which host a variety of bird species are to be kept. This creates an urban forest and a transition zone from adjacent sites into the park along the right edge.
Lastly moving the Placa de Jao Felix garden to the other side of the parliament reorients the Parliament building, creates access to the park from the University and creates a more formal entry to the Parliament building.
The Universitat Pompeu Fabra is a major neighbouring facilitiy. The walls, zoo and tram line cutoff circulation through the park. The park needs to be opened up to be welcoming to the students.
The Barcelona zoo although not part of the park’s original plan is the most dominant aspect of the site. It heavily blocks the sites circulation by blocking off most of the site from the adjacent neighborhoods. Additionally its containment of non-native Barcelona animal species brings its contemporary relevance into question. Because of these factors I propose the shutting down of the zoo and the relocation of the present animals.
Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Working With Topography
Proposed Topography Map
Topography is a key player in transforming the site to a naturalistic landscape. The site is graded to create an immersive experience as well as aiding in stormwater retention.
Oasis Concept Section
Topography is used as a tool to create seamless transitions between land and water. The edge of the pond is to be transformed from its currently hard edge to an area of native vegetation which supports Barcelona’s native birds and organisms.
Hydrologic Functions of the Site
Concept Masterplan
Gaudi Fountain
Central Plaza
Oasis Pond
Catalan Parliament
Placa de Joan Felix Garden
Sports Fields and Courts
Children’s Playground
Sports Complex
Urban Forest
View of Oasis Pond
Ride Through Urban Forest
DESIGN DISCOVERY: LEARNING THROUGH MAKING
Harvard Design Discovery Be My Neighbor Summer 2022
Individual Personal Project
WORKING WITH THE FOLD Testing the Fold
What is a roof? What is a floor? What is a wall? All architecture on a fundamental level consists of these 3 components. Each of these elements has a common definition. Definitions that are treated as objective truths. This project does away with architectural premonitions, showing that theoretically, architecture has no objective meaning. Rather, even the most basic architectural elements are subject to context and program. Once architecture can be sited within a certain place, a certain time, and for certain use then can it be defined.
Working with the fold allowed for a breakaway from pre-conceived definitions of shelter. The qualities of the fold leave undefined what wall, floor, and roof are in the virtual/abstract world. The fold simply manipulates space.
Our site on Sumner Street serves as a communal space for the local neighborhood. Present was a community garden and open space for events. All the site lacked was formal shelter to protect from the elements.
296 Sumner Street
Photo from Google Earth
As the created object is planted in the physical world, it encounters scale, program, and context. It is through this introduction that wall, floor, and roof gain material definition.
Selected Concept Model
Site Plan
Final Massing Model
Site Section With Pavilion
View from Sumner Street
Pavilion Exit
Pavilion Entrance
1 HOUSE 4 WAYS
RISD ARCHITECTURE
CORE 1
FALL 2024
Individual Personal Project
Investigating Precedents
1 House 4 Ways was an introduction to architectural precedent study. As a group of four, we were assigned a house to study with the goal of understanding the driving factors and ideas behind its design. From our study we came up with a driving design principal that we would each individually use to create our own design. Our study house was House Some of This Some of That by Kwong Von Glinow. From our study we were interested in how a repeated element (the T) was used to define space, while simultaneously being defined by another space (the roof boundary circle).
House Some of This Some of That Plan
House Some of This Some of This
My Transformation
MILLENIUM SCIENCE COMPLEX PLEASURE GARDENS
Pennsylvania State University
LARCH 236
Fall Semester 2021
Individual Academic Project
FORMAL GARDENS NATURALISTIC GARDENS
THE GARDEN OF VERSAILLES WAS OWNED BY THE FRENCH KING LOUIS XIV. DESIGNED BY ANDRE LE NOTRE, ITS DEVELOPMENT BEGAN IN THE YEAR 1661 AND TOOK ABOUT 40 YEARS TO BE COMPLETED.
Formal Gardens were commonly found in the chateaus of French monarchs and aristocrats, serving as a symbol of their power and control. The fact that these landscapes required an excessive amount of maintenance and care frequently at the cost of the subjects, only emphasized the owner’s status.
HENRY REPTON IS ONE OF THE KEY PROPAGATORS OF THE ENGLISH GARDEN. HE WAS WELL KNOWN FOR HIS ‘RED BOOKS’ WHICH CONSITED OF DRAWINGS WHICH CAPTURED THE SPIRIT OF HIS DESIGNS.
English landscape (naturalistic) gardens aim to present nature in its ideal state. They generally included a combination of rolling hills and lakes amidst tree groves. Artificial ruins were also commonly included as a means of enhancing this ideal. English gardens were a rejection of French Gardens which were viewed as too rigid and falsified the image of nature.
SYNTHESIZING THE FRENCH AND NATURALISTIC TYPOLOGIES
Formal Gardens through order and symmetry suggest intentional design. However, they require heavy maintenance and symbolically represent colonial ideas of landscape. Natural gardens have strong biodiversity, require little maintenance, and are typically democratic symbols. However, these landscapes are sometimes disorderly.
Synthesizing both typologies creates a refined version of each template and allows for a new garden experience.
Design Concept
The 3 circulation paths fragment the existing site into 6 zones.
Similar to formal gardens the planting beds form a strong geometric pattern across the site
Deviating from the monocultural nature of formal gardens, the meadow has strong biodiversity allowing for spontaneity and wonder.
Andre le Notre
Henry Repton
Photo from Wikipedia
Photo from Wikipedia
Photo from ChateauVersailles.fr
Photo from Wikipedia
The Millennium Science Complex Pleasure Gardens consist of a pollinator garden, prairie meadow, and tree plaza intended for use by students and visitors of the college. The lawn outside the Millennium Science Complex (MSC) lacks visual and programmatic design. My design for the MSC Pleasure Garden seeks to resolve this issue by synthesizing the ordered geometries of French gardens with the spontaneous spirit of the prairie meadow. In this design, independent defined spaces fit together to depict a single form – aligning my central path with the center of the MSC building created order and symmetry. To emphasize order, the central space of the site’s eco-lawn contained no herbaceous vegetation, ensuring it stood out within the site. The use of curved paths and the selection of native vegetation retained the spontaneous nature of the meadow. Vibrant plants with height variations that allow for active interaction aim to create an immersive experience within the meadow.
The Rammed Earth Pavilion competition is part of a series exploring the unique benefits of different building materials. Participants are tasked with designing a pavilion to be constructed of rammed earth in a location of their choosing. The pavilion will host an exhibition on the material, the contents of which should be included in submitted designs.
The Rammed Earth Pavilion can be designed as either a temporary or permanent structure but should be no more than 50 m2. What is important is for the design to be as creative as possible in its use and exploration of this ancient and sustainable building material.
Participants are allowed to select a site and location of their choosing.
AROCHUKWU CHAPEL
WRITTEN BY MENMA OKEREKE ILLUSTRATED WITH MIDJOURNEY AI VISUALIZER
Arochukwu is an Igbo town located in Abia State. The town holds significant historical and cultural importance in the Nestledregion. in the lush landscapes southeasternof Nigeria, Arochukwu is known for its traditional institutions, and vibrant community.
MAP OF NIGERIA
Due to the intense nature of earthen construction, community members join to build each persons home.
Earth as a material is important to Arochukwu due its utilitarian, communal and spiritual significance.
UTILITARIAN COMMUNAL SPIRITUAL AROCHUKWU
Lastly, due to the belief that mankind was created from the earth, the material is treated with reverence and has strong spiritual significance.
Earth’s utilitarian significance comes from being the dominant building material in Arochukwu. Due to the strong presence of sand stone in the region majority of homes and structures were made out of earth mortar.
GEOLOGIC MAP OF IGBOLAND
Women help out by carrying lighter materials and mixing the earth to make mortar.
Men handle the heavier lifting and the construction of the homes
Most importantly the process is a ceremonial affair. During construction, workers sing, dance and laugh with one another. Additionally, a meal is shared betweeen everyone at the end of each work day.
I decided on a chapel as I see it as the programmatic equivalent of earth. Like earth, chapels symbolize utility, community, and spirituality in Arochukwu. The Chapel’s design is influenced by Christian Numerology, combining 3 points (symbolizing perfection) with 5 points (symbolizing God’s grace). This represents the communion between humans, a perfect God and His grace. The monolithic form serves as a symbolic landmark in the community. and works within the rigid tectonics of rammed earth.
