Ryan Naka - Architecture Portfolio

2024-2026

Selected Works

Architecture Portfolio

Ryan Naka

Portfolio | Ryan Naka

Ryan Naka I am an Honors Architecture student at Texas A&M University.

I continue to develop my leadership and discipline by being a member of The Texas A&M Corps of Cadets and The Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band. California is my birthplace and I moved to Texas in 2017. As a young child I immersed myself in skateboarding, but found that my real joy was in designing my own skateparks. This was the start of my architectural journey.

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Resume

Resume Education Texas A&M University – College Station, TX • Projected graduation of May 2028 • Major: Honors Architecture • Minor: Leadership in the Design and Construction Professions • Member of the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Marching Band - Alto saxophone • Member of the Honors Program Student Council • Member of Texas A&M Corps of Cadets - Training Corporal • Member of Texas A&M Corps of Cadets Marathon Team Allen High School – Allen, TX • Graduated May 2024 • Member of the Allen High School Marching Band – Alto saxophone • Universal Interscholastic League (“UIL”) – Alto saxophone solo competitor, 4x 1st division Software • Autodesk Revit - Certified User - May 2023 • Autodesk AutoCAD • Rhino • D5 Render • Trimble SketchUp Work • Armet Davis Newlove Architects - Santa Monica, CA - June 2026 to August 2026 - Summer Intern • Texas A&M Camp ARCH Counselor - College Station, TX - July 2026 • Jason’s Deli - Allen, TX - June 2022 to August 2023 – Cashier / Food Runner / Food Prep Awards • Texas A&M Architecture - Bonnie R. and Aaron L. Jones ‘92 Endowed Scholarship - 2026 • Texas A&M Architecture - Marilee and James W. Hiester ‘50 Endowed Scholarship - 2026 • Texas A&M Architecture - James Tittle ‘49 Endowed Scholarship - 2026 • Texas A&M Corps of Cadets - 21st Century Scholarship - 2025 • Texas A&M Corps of Cadets - Sul Ross Scholarship - 2024 • Texas A&M Camp ARCH Architecture Camp - Top Scholarship Winner - 2023 Contact 310.880.6618 naka@tamu.edu

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Portfolio | Ryan Naka

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Urban Entropy

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Table of Contents

Mass Timber Housing

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Trinity Bath House

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Portfolio | Ryan Naka

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Urban Entropy

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Urban Entropy Austin, Texas Prof. David Iniesta Spring 2026 In collaboration with David Light, Ben Norris, & Nahomy Zapata

The project addresses growing issues of affordability, space, and economic pressure in suburban areas. It explores how residents can downsize economically without being displaced by using informal and incremental housing strategies that allow homes to adapt over time. Urban Entropy proposes a flexible neighborhood framework where homes can be subdivided, expanded, and codeveloped according to the changing needs of residents.

Defined spatial boundaries create a balance between structure and freedom, allowing diverse forms of infill while fostering social agreement and personal ownership. The system is designed to evolve across decades, enabling residents to expand, contract, and reshape their homes as their needs change. Urban Entropy becomes a living system shaped continuously by the people who inhabit it.

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Portfolio | Ryan Naka

URBAN ENTROPY

THE GAME!

“Natural forms are continually modified during growth by their surroundings.

Theoretically all the leaves of a single tree should be identical, but this could only happen if they were able to grow in surrounding completely devoid of outside influences and variations. All apples should have an identical round shape. But in reality, one grows in the shade, another in the sun, another in a narrow space between two branches, and they all turn out to be different. This diversity is a sign of life as it is actually lived. The internal structures adapt themselves and give birth to many diverse forms, all of the same family but different.”

[GAME P

PHASE 2 [development stage]

PHASE 1 [original construction]

PHASE 3 [actual proposal]

PHASE 4 [theoretical infill]

“Checkmate!”

“Go Fish”

“Yahtzee”

The project addresses the growing issue of economy, space, and affordability in suburban areas.

We confront a scenario in which inhabitants want/need to downsize economically but are unable to or do not want to be displaced. Informal and incremental housing creates a framework for reconfigurable, affordable housing that can scale over time, fostering flexibility in affordable housing design and increasing agency in inhabitants’ decision making about their own homes. A housing system that grows according to the inhabitants needs and means, allowing residents to infill, expand, and contract units across decades.

Not only is it a game played day to day between residents, but it is a living, breathing system.

“THE GAME”

[a good hand?]

Presentation Poster

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FIGURE GROUND [the game board]

Urban Entropy

“This is why I play, and why you should too!”

CROP ROTATION

ADAPTIVE REUSE

By cycling through a variety of crops that both provide and absorb specific nutrients from the soil, the system naturally maintains the soil while providing for the residents.

By utilizing existing buildings, we are able to increase urban density without the economic and environmental consequences of demolition. “The greenest building is an existing building”

PIECES]

ROOF PITCH The steep roof pitch allows for optimal ventilation as air rises through the building and escapes through vents near the ceiling. The 30° roof pitch facing South takes advantage of solar radiation throughout the day.

Urban Entropy is a neighborhood design strategy which utilizes a series of formal codes to provide a framework for informal and incremental development. As the city faces a growing population, this strategy allows for homes to be subdivided and co-developed on other structures according to the requirements of residents. Methodical boundaries provide the freedom for a heterogeneous infill to meet the social and economic needs of individuals in ways that suit their personal taste. Clearly defined boundaries allow for social agreement and a sense of personal belonging while the diverse opportunities allow for residents to have distinct personal connections to the spaces they live in.

RAINWATER HARVESTING Roof catchment system collects water that runs down the roof into a collection system. Harvested rainwater is recycled for sewage and plumbing.

Mass timber construction designed in proportion to the existing sites with vascular cores dividing the floor plan and adjustable partitions separating the rooms. The adaptable spaces allow for simple rearrangements according to the requirements of residents. Structures integrated between buildings act as shared spaces which allow for residents to decide to split and annex the spaces or create a community shared space occupied by both residents. [a look inside]

Nahomy Zapata Gutierrez, David Light, Ryan Naka, Ben Norris

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Portfolio | Ryan Naka

Urban Entropy is a neighborhood design strategy which utilizes a series of formal codes to provide a framework for informal and incremental development. As the city faces a growing population, this strategy allows for homes to be subdivided and co-developed on other structures according to the requirements of the residents.

Methodical boundaries provide the freedom for a heterogeneous infill to meet the social and economical needs of individuals in ways that suit their personal taste. Clearly defined boundaires allow for social agreement and a sense of personal belonging while the diverse opportunities allow for residents to have distinct personal connections to the spaces they live in.

Figure Ground Strategy

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Urban Entropy

Pieces and Options for Expansion

Roof catchment system collects water that runs down the The steep 30 degree roof pitch allows for optimal ventilation roof into a collection system. Harvested rainwater is recy- as air rises through the building and escapes through vents cled for sewage and plumbing. near the ceiling. The pitch is angled south to take advantage of solar radiation through the day.

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Portfolio | Ryan Naka

Mass timber construction is designed in proportion to the existing sites with vascular cores dividing the floor plan and adjustable partitions separating the rooms. The adaptable spaces allow for simple rearrangements according to the requirements of residents. Structures integrated between buildings act as shared spaces which allow for residents to decide to split and annex the spaces or create a community shared space occupied by both residents. This chaotic negotiation isn’t a bug in the system, the negotiation is the system.

Entropy, by definition, is not disorder, it is the natural tendency of a system toward its most probable state. In housing, the most probable state is the one that reflects the actual, specific needs of the people inside it.

This is not a neighborhood proposition. Instead this is a proposal where the conditions under which a neighborhood can grow itself, over decades and across generations, shaped entirely by the people who live inside it.

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Urban Entropy

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Portfolio | Ryan Naka The design process began at the urban scale and immediately recognized a fundamental issue within conventional residential development: neighborhoods are structured by property lines and car infrastructure rather than spaces for people. There are no shared pedestrian nodes or true third places, only private homes separated by rigid boundaries.

The proposal challenges this model by dissolving those strict divisions and reorganizing the neighborhood into micro communities defined by main roads. Instead of acting as barriers, roads become organizing edges that structure growth and establish limits.

Within these clusters, a system of structural frames creates a gradient between public and private space. These frames function both as covered pedestrian infrastructure and as spatial placeholders for future expansion. Growth is incremental and resident-driven: neighbors may choose to expand collaboratively and divide space, or build independently. Community, therefore, emerges through voluntary participation rather than enforced proximity.

The result is a neighborhood structured around shared social space instead of fixed property boundaries, a living system capable of adapting over time.

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Urban Entropy

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Portfolio | Ryan Naka

1/16’-12” Scale Urban Strategy Model 16

Urban Entropy

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Portfolio | Ryan Naka

1/8’-12” Scale Materiality Chunk Model 18

Urban Entropy

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Portfolio | Ryan Naka

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Mass Timber Housing

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Mass Timber Housing Austin, Texas Prof. David Iniesta Spring 2026 In collaboration with Ben Norris

Structural articulation plays a critical role not only in ensuring the stability of a building, but also in shaping how it is experienced by its inhabitants. The structural framework of a building is equally as important as the exterior surfaces and spaces people directly engage with. Material and structural constraints established a clear hierarchy of Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) and Glued Laminated Timber (GLULAM) elements, reinforcing both clarity and organization throughout the design.

The project is organized into three primary masses. The central volume functions as a shared communal space anchored by a workshop, while the two flanking volumes contain four residential units. Exterior window shades extend outward to create adjustable awnings that provide solar shading and environmental control. The project emphasizes the relationship between structure, material expression, and inhabitation through a cohesive and legible architectural system.

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Portfolio | Ryan Naka

The design prompt for a four-unit living complex called for a clear and sensible spatial organization, structured through a series of CLT cores running parallel across the width of the building. The block of units is capped by a light, delaminating roofscape that echoes the movement of the facade, where panels lift and contract across the front elevation.

Rather than concealing the structural logic, this project celebrates it. The exposed CLT and GLULAM framing establish rhythm, proportion, and spatial clarity throughout the design. Each element at a different scale is simultaneously unfolding and lifiting off, not dissimilar to the wings of a ladybug or beetle, milliseconds before flight.

Through our design approach, the housing system becomes expressive and adaptable, balancing daily live with and identity within an an architectural system.

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Mass Timber Housing

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Portfolio | Ryan Naka

1st Floorplan 1st Floor 24

Mass Timber Housing

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Portfolio | Ryan Naka

Latitudinal Section

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Mass Timber Housing

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Portfolio | Ryan Naka

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Trinity Bathhouse

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Trinity Bath House Trinity River - Dallas, Texas Dr. Weiling He Fall 2025 In collaboration with Silke Thrush

The project involved designing a wellness spa using real site specifications from a location in Dallas, Texas. A defining feature of the site was the adjacent walk, run, and bike trail, which became an integral part of the overall design strategy. The project drew inspiration from local architecture in the surrounding areas.

The design emphasizes continuity and movement through a strong linear formal language that connects the building with the existing trail system. The running path is woven seamlessly between the primary architectural elements, reinforcing the relationship between circulation, wellness, and the surrounding site. Inside, the program includes multiple swimming pools, locker rooms, and supporting wellness spaces. A defining aspect of the project is its commitment to continuous lines and cohesive spatial flow throughout the design.

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Portfolio | Ryan Naka

Initial design inspiration came from local buildings such as Dallas City Hall and

Initial design inspiration came from local architecture such as Dallas City Hall and Fountain place by I.M. Pei. A key goal that was kept in mind during the entire design process was preserving the bike path at the apex of incline.

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Trinity Bathhouse

Massing was transformed and cut following Corbusier’s Le Modulor proportions.

Initial massing proposals included 3 seperate masses, but this was later changed to 1 single mass united underneath the site.

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Portfolio | Ryan Naka

1st Floor 32

Trinity Bathhouse

2nd Floor 33

Portfolio | Ryan Naka

Exterior Perspective

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Trinity Bathhouse

Interior Perspective

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Portfolio | Ryan Naka

1/8’-12” Scale Model 36

Trinity Bathhouse

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Ryan Naka 310.880.6618 naka@tamu.edu