Design Portfolio
MAUR R
713.301.4961
Mauro Rodriguez
SCAD : GSAPP
DRIGUEZ
rodrixmau@hotmail.com
Manhattan, NY
Cover to Cover Housing In Mexico, the roof is more than shelter. It is a gesture of protection without restriction, an open system connecting public and private, formal and informal, individual and collective. This project reimagines the unique block around Mercado de San Cosme as a shared framework for vendors, fonda owners, and working class residents. Rather than replacing existing dynamics, the proposal builds upon them. A new civic infrastructure becomes visible, anchored by a roof that collects and distributes essential resources. This canopy becomes a shared asset, delivering water, electricity, shade, and other services across spaces, redistributing value between areas often divided by front and back of house functions. Inspired by the traditional Mexican markets, the project blurred thresholds to support both formal and informal economies while integrating affordable housing for young families. It addresses inequality through unity, offering dignity, shared purpose, and a renewed sense of belonging rooted in cultural life.
Location: San Rafael, Mexico City Course: ADV Studio VI Partner: Seong Hyun Leem Professor: Gabriela Carrillo & Thomas De Monchaux Term: Spring 2025
Filling the Gap We approached Mercado de San Cosme by looking beyond its existing roof and into the spaces between. The market’s layout revealed underused pockets and overlooked edges, offering the opportunity to insert new structures that would both fill these gaps and create new ones for gathering, circulation, and exchange. These insertions aim to extend the market’s activity into surrounding streets while introducing housing that benefits from and contributes to the daily life of the market. By stitching together these spaces, the project forms a network of living, working, and public areas that evolve with the community over time.
5
Ground Floor Plan
7
1st Floor Plan
We opened the San Cosme to the public by prioritizing human and pedestrian movement over cars, extending the market outward and blurring the boundaries between formal and informal, public and private. In Mexico, markets reflect a culture shaped by warmth, joy, and generosity, where social life naturally extends beyond walls. Mercados are home to many forms of talent. Beyond selling food, people repair cars, offer care, provide therapy, friendship, and healing. It is common for individuals
to embody multiple skills, and this layered normality became central to the project. We translated this mentality into architecture by designing a building that is as complex, adaptive, and performative as its users. Mercados also bring together all generations, from infants resting with their parents, to children playing after school, to grandparents shopping for their families. The project creates a welcoming environment for all ages, reflecting the concept of “cover to cover” as both a spatial and social condition.
9
This conceptual model is inspired by the reflected ceiling plan of Mercado de San Cosme, which informs both the facade and the interior programming of the building. Constructed from found objects, the model explores how the roof ’s open and connective logic can extend vertically. A kinetic element allows the structure to shift, generating multiple spatial configurations that reflect the adaptable and ever changing character of the market.
The project proposes a redefinition of housing. Rather than understanding housing solely as shelter, it is envisioned as an extension of the individual. With this idea in mind, the residential unit is treated as a market stall. By maximizing usable surface, residents are able to transform and personalize their homes according to evolving needs. The space can support selling goods, teaching, or functioning as a more traditional dwelling.
11
A
B
C
+ 18.1 METERS ROOF
SHARED ELECTRICAL CYCLE
KINETIC FACADE
+15.1 METERS 6TH FLOOR
+12.3 METERS 5TH FLOOR
+9.5 METERS 4TH FLOOR
SHARED WATER CYCLE
13
The intervention reclaims an underused parking area in front of Mercado de San Cosme, a space already informally occupied for gathering and storage. The project extends the market into the street, increasing pedestrian activity and strengthening its civic presence. Conceived as a growth of the existing market, the structure reuses and reorganizes shared water and electrical systems. Infrastructure becomes collective, allowing resources to be distributed efficiently across market and housing spaces.
15
17
ÒPALO x SAUCED Pop-up
Location: Sauced NYC _ East Village Role: Photographer, Creative director, Videographer Partners: Òpalo X Sauced.nyc Date: June 27-28, 2026
ÒPALO is a pop-up project by chefs Jose and Jonathan, two Mexican cooks building something of their own in New York. Both came up through Casamata, Enrique Olvera’s restaurant group, and cook around the city today. Their food is personal, rooted in Mexican cooking and the places they come from. I met them through the New York restaurant world and began documenting their work. For ÒPALO x Sauced I directed the photography and video across the full arc of the event, treating a one-night pop-up as a single designed experience rather than a single service. A restaurant is designed as deliberately as any building: the light, the room, the pacing of a meal, the threshold between front and back of house. Documenting one is a way of reading that design from the inside, and it’s the part of this work I care about most.
The strength of a pop-up is that nothing is hidden. I documented the full cycle, from sourcing at the market to the prep the day before to the service itself. The moments that usually go unseen are the ones that explain how a space actually works, and reading them closely is the same attention a room asks for. Much of what this took carries directly into design work. Building visual references and mood, artdirecting a shoot, thinking through lighting and materials, and shaping how a project is presented across its menus, film, and platforms. It’s research, sourcing, and presentation held to a consistent point of view, done in Photoshop, InDesign, and Premiere and in close coordination with the people making it. Working this close to a hospitality concept is how I understand space: through atmosphere, sequence, and detail rather than plan alone. It’s the perspective I want to bring into interior and hospitality projects, where the feel of a room is the work.
19
Wynn Al Marjan Island Hospitality & Entertainment Resort Wynn Al Marjan Island is a large-scale mixed-use hospitality destination located in Ras Al Khaimah, UAE. Developed as an integrated waterfront resort, the project combines hospitality, entertainment, retail, convention, and public realm programs within a landmark tower and resort complex. As part of the HKS design team, I contributed during the schematic design phase, supporting the development of tower massing, program studies, and design iterations. The project underwent continuous refinement to balance luxury hospitality requirements, operational efficiency, environmental performance, and its visual presence within the evolving skyline of the region. My work included room count and area studies, massing explorations, diagram production, presentation graphics, and design coordination using Revit, Rhino, AutoCAD, SketchUp, and Adobe Creative Suite.
Location: Ras AI Khaimah, UAE Employer: HKS Role: Architectural Design Intern Term: Summer 2022
Waterfront Planning The resort master plan organizes hospitality, entertainment, retail, and public amenities along a continuous waterfront experience. The landscape strategy establishes a sequence of promenades, pools, gardens, and gathering spaces that connect the tower, podium, marina, and shoreline into a cohesive destination. Working within the schematic design phase, I contributed to site planning studies, program coordination, diagram production, and presentation materials used to evaluate circulation, guest experience, and the relationship between architecture and landscape. The project evolved through multiple iterations as hospitality requirements, operational needs, and public realm considerations were continuously refined.
23
DESIGN STUDIES
GLASS STUDIES S I LV E R
BL
LUE
BRONZE
25
Lab Imprint Research Station Minimal space does not mean minimal care. The project proposes a modular, off-site research station designed for disassembly, approaching architecture from its end of life toward its beginning. Recognizing the temporary nature of inhabitation, the structure redefines minimalism by introducing comfort, warmth, and familiarity within an otherwise unlivable environment. This project questions conventional approaches to inhabiting extreme environments by designing with the site rather than against it. The modular, off-site research station embraces Antarctica’s conditions, using snow as insulation and protection instead of treating it as an obstacle. By merging architecture with the environment, the station redefines minimalism through comfort, warmth, and familiarity within an otherwise uninhabitable landscape. In a territory indifferent to human presence, architecture becomes the sole mediator between humans and their surroundings, transforming isolation into belonging. The station stands as a contemporary monument to human presence grounded in endurance and coexistence.
Location: Antarctica Course: YACADEMY - Offsite Technologies Tutor: Nicola Scaranaro / Foster + Partners Term: Nov 2025 - Feb 2026
17 18 9
10 11
19 13
14 3 4 1
5
2
6
7 1.
Steel frame partition / bulkhead
8.
Isofrozen sandwich panel, 200 mm
2.
Corrugated sheet metal
9.
Double UPN 300 channels
3.
RHS steel structure (Rectangular Hollow Section
10. Castellated beam (IPE 250)
4.
IPE 250 steel beam
11. Intermediate-floor insulation panel
5.
EPS insulation layer, 300 mm
12. Resilient flooring
6.
Welded and bolted joint – interlocking connection
13. External window sill with enhanced thermal insu
7.
Steel foundation “ski-type” base
14. Ceiling hanger
2
1
3
4
5
5
4 12 8
15
2
16
1
5 15. Inspectable suspended ceiling 16. Precast driveable floor slab (vehicular-rated) 17. External ring beam / edge beam capping 18. Insulated precast ring beam / edge beam 19. PVC window frame with low-E triple-glazed insulated unit (triple pane)
ulation performance 0m
1m
5m
29
31
33
Initial Occupation (Year 0)
Partial Ground Floor Coverage (≈ 2–3 Years)
Full Ground Floor Coverage (≈ 4–5 Years)
First Floor Coverage (≈ 8+ Years)
Over time the station gradually integrates with its environment through natural snow accumulation. As the snowpack grows, the lower levels become embedded within the ice, improving thermal stability and transforming the building into a partially insulated structure. The station is designed for a crew of nineteen people, including
twelve researchers and seven support staff, a number selected to balance scientific productivity, operational needs, and psychological well-being during extended isolation. While the exterior adapts to changing environmental conditions, shared interior spaces remain a stable social core for the research community.
35
Play Time Adaptive Reuse: Daycare This project proposes the adaptive reuse of an existing government facility in Veracruz to create a daycare for the children of public employees. Many parents working in the building face extended work hours while local schools dismiss students earlier in the day. As a result, children often remain in offices and corridors without appropriate spaces to play, learn, or stay engaged. Although a daycare currently exists within the facility, its interior conditions are inadequate due to poor material choices and environments not designed with children in mind. The proposal focuses on rethinking the interior architecture to create a safer and more stimulating environment. Material selection prioritized child safety and indoor air quality: natural linoleum flooring, FSC plywood millwork in low-VOC hardwax oil, soft rounded wall panels, and OEKO-TEX textiles. The design also promotes natural light, ventilation, and visual connections to the outdoors, creating distinct zones for play, learning, rest, and social interaction.
Location: Veracruz, Mexico Employer: TTProces Role: Architectural Designer Year: 2025, Proposal
The project is located within the Secretaría de Finanzas y Planeación complex in Xalapa, Veracruz, along Av. Xalapa. The building sits next to an existing garden and benefits from Xalapa’s mild, humid climate, which allows the program to extend beyond the interior and take advantage of outdoor spaces. Observations of the site revealed that children often spend much of their time outside or doing homework, suggesting
the need for a balance between active and quiet environments. The proposal responds by opening portions of the building toward the garden, creating a stronger relationship between interior learning areas and exterior play spaces. The study of the existing structure also identified materials and elements that can be preserved, while others require replacement to improve safety and comfort for children of different ages.
SITE
39
PLANO LUDOTECA
C
B
A 20.20
2.20
20.20
4.4000
4.19
1 4.00
2.20
4.4000 2.12
A
A
A
A
A
A
1
2.12
1
2.12
1 4.19
2.12
C
B
A
4.00
A
3
2
2
10.85
2
10.85
2
10.70
3
28.40 24.40
28.40
24.40
13.85
4.00
13.70
4
4 A
B
C
This slide compares the existing floor plan with the proposed intervention. While the overall building layout remains largely unchanged, the project rethinks the interior organization through material choices, furniture layout, and more efficient use of space. The existing plan functions as a single open area where different activities overlap, while the proposal introduces flexible zones that support sleeping, learning, and play for children of different ages. The new plan also strengthens the relationship with the adjacent garden, allowing interior spaces to extend toward the outdoors.
3
3 A
B
C
41
Learning Zone Area with computers, desks, and seating to support children’s study.
Birch Plywood
Kvadrat Textile
FSC-certified millwork in low-VOC oil. Soft, warm, and safe for small hands.
OEKO-TEX certified upholstery. Hardwearing, low-toxicity, and warm to the touch.
Reading Zone Area with bookshelves and a resting space for listening, reading, and conversation.
Larger
Play Zone Slide area, art area, and table games area.
Girls’ Bathroom
South Elevation
Wood-Wool Acoustic Panel
Marmoleum Linoleum
Softens sound in active rooms and rounds off hard edges for child safety.
Natural, non-toxic, and warm underfoot. Durable enough for constant play and easy to clean.
North Elevation
Children’s Zone
Boy’s Bathroom
area for younger children with books, toys, and activities.
43
Harlem Tower Housing A new approach to affordable housing that challenges traditional design limits to re-imagine what “home” can feel like in the urban context of Harlem. The project offers an innovative perspective on space, focusing not only on square footage but on height, volume, and inventive spatial strategies. It moves beyond conventional apartment layouts to create residences that are compact yet full of possibilities. In New York City, where space is precious and every inch matters, the question arose: how can affordable housing feel as luxurious as it is accessible? This project answers by rethinking the living experience within limited dimensions. Through a three-dimensional design approach, interiors feel expansive and open, capturing the airiness and flow typically associated with larger homes. Elevated ceilings, flexible layouts, and multipurpose furniture transform spaces with ease. Every wall, corner, and view is intentionally designed to enhance comfort, efficiency, and a sense of belonging. Offering residents a home that feels both generous and welcoming.
Location: Harlem, NY Course: Core Studio III Partner: Nicholas Richards Professor: Garry Bates Term: Fall 2023
Different Ways to Visu
A
0
2’
4’
8’
16’
ualize 3,000 Cubic Feet
Floor 02
B
0
2’
4’
8’
16’
Floor 01
C
0
2’
4’
8’
16’
47
What If ? What if we measured housing by volume instead of just square footage? This question inspired a design that is flexible, adaptable, and deeply responsive to its residents’ needs. Imagine exchanging ceiling height with a neighbor to gain an extra room in your apartment. This approach not only makes housing more enjoyable, it ensures that every cubic inch of space holds value and meaning for someone.
49
Facade Axonometric Detail Model
Co r r ug ated Metal Deck
6 ” C M U B a ck wa l l 4 ” M i n e r a l Wo o l I n s u l a ti o n Wo o d Fr a m e C a semen t W i n d ow
Op en -We b Ste el Jo i sts
C l a ddi n g S u p p o r t B r a ckets
G l a zed Te r r a c o tta Pa n el M o du l e
51
LA SOBREMESA Dining Table and Chairs / In development
Location: Private residence, Mexico Role: Furniture design, Art direction Collaborators: Rory Peckham, designer Emete Design Studio, Mexico Status: In development, 2026
Sobremesa is a dining table and chair set being designed for a private residence in Mexico, to be fabricated with a furniture maker there, and developed with Rory Peckham, a woodworker I studied with at Columbia GSAPP. The table is sized to the family’s dining room and built around how they actually use it: long meals, full seating, the hours of sobremesa that give the piece its name. The brief was warmth. A table you want to sit at and stay. The design draws on a lineage of Mexican furniture and interior work, from figures who shaped it decades ago to makers working today. Honey-toned wood carries the structure, with leather at the joints and seats for softness and contrast. The material palette is tuned to the interiors of the house it’s going into. This is the first piece in a longer collaboration with the client, with more furniture and interior objects to follow.
Size Material Construction Wood Option
90” L × 42” W × 30” H Solid wood with leather detail Spindle back, solid wood frame Parota with black leather detail
Size Material Construction Wood Option
22.5” L × 16” W × 40.5” H Solid wood with leather detail Spindle back, solid wood frame Parota with black leather detail
53
Additional Work Self-directed 3D Modeling & Drawings Sets — Revit & CAD
55
Design Portfolio
MAUR MauroRRodriguez DRIGUEZ
SCAD : GSAPP
R 713.301.4961
rodrixmau@hotmail.com
Manhattan, NY