selected works | m.arch
Thomas Murillo
Architecture has the responsibility to inspire, to restore dignity, and to heal.
01_ CRAFTSMAN REVIVAL_[p.4]
02_ PROJECTION_[p.12]
03_ 373 LAFAYETTE_[p.20]
04_ MBOLO_[p.26]
05_ LIGHTBOX_[p.32]
06_ TO BE CONSTRUCTED_[p.36]
2nd
Manko Design Competition
Typology: Missing Middle Housing
Location: Strawberry Hill - KC,K
This project seeks to reinvent the single-family home into a reimagined multi-unit housing development. From the front, it gives the ruse of two adjacent homes, fitting the status quo, but stacked and joined in the back to provide a total of five units. The house is accompanied by a live-work building to provide a small grocery for the neighborhood. Shared outdoor spaces and a cafe provide a social hot-spot for the area.
Missing Middle Housing is a range of multi-unit housing types, similar in scale to single-family homes, that help meet the growing demand for walkability to nearby amenities, respond to shifting household demographics, and meet the need for more housing choices at different price points. We label this housing “missing” because North America rarely builds these types of homes today.
The Craftsman home is a century old American staple. The original was a strong and skillfully executed building. Modest in ornament, but its structure, materials, and detail made it shine. It came to symbolize American prosperity, family, and independence.
However, our ideals are changing, and a housing shortage demands denser options while the sprawling single family home contributes to the problem.
Fit Suburban Context
Promote Community Interaction
Upper Level Units
Street-side First Floor Units
Alley-side Lower Level Units
Front Elevation
The sliding shutter detail exemplifies the relationship between the inside and outside. It is another example of creating housing that facilitates connection between its residents and encourages social interaction. The shutter, a window treatment rarely used contemporarilly aside from pure decoration, was originally a tool to give the user ownership over their relationship to the outside. In this case, it not only filters light, but also blurs the line between the private interior and public exterior.
1. FIXED WINDOW MULLION
2. SLAT SHUTTER SYSTEM
3. STABALIZING TRACK SET IN CONTINUOUS BED OF SEALANT
4. FLASHING
5. DOUBLE STEEL C-CHANNEL
6. WEATHER BARRIER
7. PLYWOOD SHEATHING
8. FABRICATED BEAM TROLLEY
9. 1X2X1/4” WELDED STEEL ANGLE
10. SLAT SHUTTER SYSTEM
11.
12. TONGUE AND GROOVE WOOD FLOORING
13.
14. 2X10 WOOD FLOOR JOISTS
15. RIGID INSULATION
16. 5/8” STEEL THREADED THRU BOLT & NUT
17. BATT INSULATION
18. 1X2 CEILING FURRING STRIPS
19. GYP CEILING
20. FLASHING
21. DOUBLE SLIDING WINDOW MULLION
All of these elements aim to maintain the beauty and nostalgia of a classic American home yet bring its materials and design into a contemporary vocabulary. It turns the idea of private, singlefamily housing on its head to create a more social, & community driven housing opportunity.
Bowman Design Forum Award
Typology: Consulate & Cultural Center
Location: Topeka, Kansas
The Consulate for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) of Topeka, Kansas reflects the history, art, and cultural value that ECOWAS brings to Kansas.
To remain an active participant in our future connection to the globe, sustainable materials and passive techniques are integrated on all scales of the design.
The consulate is more than just a diplomatic service, it acts as a canvas which culture may be projected onto.
countries within ECOWAS
The screen pattern becomes a symbolic motif of what the building represents. When the sun is low, the screen projects the motif onto the Kansas limestone wall. The backdrop laced with the Tiebele pattern looks as if painted by the Kassena people, harmonizing the architecture of both lands.
Typology: Housing First Apartments
Location: Manhattan, New York
373 Lafayette is a housing-first project in North Houston, NYC, designed to provide chronically unhoused families dignity, stability, and a sense of ownership.
It includes additional programs like a subsidized grocery, café, daycare, mental health counseling, and job training to help residents integrate themselves into the community.
The building is designed to enliven its users by making them feel welcome, empowered, and dignified, providing them with a more equitable opportunity to develop a life for themselves and their families.
Material Context
Light / Interior Circulation
LINKAGE: kitchen + living
HIERARCHY:
SECTIONAL: split level Two Bed | 435SF
OVERLAP: sleeping spaces
LAYERING: storage + circulation
Three Bed | 435SF
Transverse
- (in Wolof) “to unite, join, or come together.”
Model selected to be sent to CERAAS
Typology: Agricultural Innovation Center
Location: Thiès Senegal, Africa
The Center for the Improvement of Adaptation to Drought (CERAAS), designated a Regional Center of Excellence by ECOWAS, specializes in developing drought-resistant cereals for West and Central Africa’s dryland farmers, a critical task in the face of climate change.
The center will include four scientific innovation hubs, a large forum, and a greenhouse, all designed to be carbon neutral. By employing passive, environmentally conscious strategies, CERAAS aims to minimize energy use and effectively combat climate change.
Pushing program into the ground both reunites us to the earth and utilizes cool underground mass.
A mass is placed on ground level to draw in users to the public spaces.
At the heart is the forum, an outdoor gathering space where collaboration and contemplation occurs.
Section A-A
Section B-B
cafe oriented to face campus courtyard as an inviting social hub
offices and labs sunken into the earth to maintain temperature stability
service bar located along rear, adjacent to loading dock and cafe
greenhouse curved along south to capture light and showcase work to the public
exterior forum serves as the central core that connects all other program and its users. a space for socialization, contemplation, or refuge.
warm air rises through central atrium and detached roof
louvers allow interior heat to vent
mud brick construction
the greenhouse is located along the southern curve of the building to let in as much light as possible
submerged labs and offices keep temperatures stable detached roof shields the enclosure from direct sunlight
cool air floods the sunken courtyard and labs
Typology: Blackbox theater
Location: Manhattan, New York
The theater accommodates various live acts with an 80-person house surrounding a versatile thrust stage. A translucent oculus provides natural spotlighting, and the stage can adapt to a 360-degree experience.
The auditorium’s standout feature is its ability to integrate the High Line as part of the audience by drawing back the curtain. To further enhance this concept of bringing the interior to the exterior, the building’s form transitions from a black box by day to an illuminated, open space by night, with operable façades enhancing the connection to the street.
Typology: Schematic designs that will be realized in the coming years
Location: Varies
A The first project (right) is a commission through BBN for the Konza Prairie Biological Station. It is a pavilion that will replace the existing trailhead kiosk which will direct and inform visitors of the trails, the wildlife, and the flint hills as a whole. The structure will act as a gateway to the Konza where people can gather while they take a moment to rest before or after their hike.
The second project (pg.38) is for the 2025 Gateway Solar Decathlon, a design-build housing project centered around energy and construction efficiency, affordability, and livability. This design was chosen out of five others and will go on to the next phases before being built in St. Louis, MO for the competition.
Longitudinal Section