A pavilion design and exploration into Grasshopper PufferFish tool
The Volstead was an unrealized Restaurant & Bar design. The proposed design was located in the historical Southern Counties Gas Co. Building in Santa Ana, CA.
Services included planning, programming, design, 3d modeling, and documentation.
2011
Materials: Recycled PETG Polymer
Fabrication Method: Robotic 3d printer
Iron Maiden - 2008
Fascinated with the idea of bundling fibrous geometries and the use of thin material, this chair explores the bundling of 1/8” steel rod into support for the seat. The intent of the design was to evoke a playful spirit by powder-coating it baby blue and exaggerating the chair’s ergonomics by slightly raising the height of the seat. The chair has an intentional deep seat so an adult can swing their legs as they would a child in a regular size seat.
Matt fabricated the entire chair personally welding and hand bending the metal with a custom jig. Powder-coating was outsourced.
2009 XLAB SCI-arc
LazyBoy Chair- “Scales of 8”. This project, part of series of 8 multi-scalar projects investigates the scale of the chair. Lazyboy sought to evoke the familiar resemblance of the human body, in particular, muscles and the skeleton.
Video of the design process and iterations: Click here to see video
ULI Homeless Supportive Housing Competition
Spring 2010
Team Members: Daniel Carper, Annie Chang, Min Kwak, Jonathan Shum
Sponsor: City of East Rancho Dominguez
BioTrope is a proposed new construction of a three-story mixed use project consisting of two floors of efficiency loft units with support services above a clean tech water management laundry facility, deli/coffee shop, at-grade parking, outdoor performing arts space and a pocket park shared by the local community.
Prior to arriving at BioTrope, future residents have exhausted all means at leading a sustainable lifestyle due to financial crisis, drug and alcohol addictions, mental instability, depression, and a general lack of immediate support. Our design team foresaw this near hopeless situation as an opportunity to provide a new chance at leading a better life, starting from scratch, wiping the canvas clean. It was important for us that the design present two sides to the project; a front yard and a back yard analogous to mid-century single family dwelling. The front facade, facing north along Compton Boulevard, presents a clean white form with little stylistic articulation; this was an important aspect of the design: that the resident is confronted with blankness/whiteness upon entering the facility which bears no judgement on how they wish to recreate their new lives. The back facade, facing south with diagonal adjacency to the East Rancho Dominguez Park, presents a lush social environment of solar shading, leisure spaces, with an atmosphere similar to that of a botanical garden. Like the single family dwelling typology, the design team was interested in simulating aspects of the "back yard" as a community space fostering leisure activities of gardening, socializing, and entertainment when outdoor performances occur. Although the residents are aware of the presence of support and the reality of a multi-unit homeless supportive housing environment, the design team felt that the more personal we could design the shared spaces, that this would help to lessen the scale of the complex.
Sabai Fashion Institute Competition
Team Members: Matt Menendez, Sorayos Chuenchomphu, Patric Ifurung, Abel Garcia, Ivan Laguna
The Bangkok Fashion Hub, located in the heart of the Pathum wan District, sits between existing residential and new high rise development with the transit station at its front door. By creating local communal green scapes at ground level, it lends itself to the neighbors by creating markets to the north and east for fashion students and other local vendors to showcase and sell their goods.
Similar to the traditional Thai garment, Chong Kraben and Sin which wraps around the body, the building's form wraps the program to create spaces. The major building materials are concrete and bamboo, which are economical and locally sourced. The seemingly simple concrete section has a level of complexity that captures the volumetric personality. The roof surface wraps down and folds back under itself to encase the program spaces. The roof surface also wraps down and folds back under itself to enclose the spaces. This move creates the open ended conditions at the east and west facades. These conditions are skinned by a series of bamboo skins - the outer facade and atrium skin. The atrium skin which starts at the roof and wraps down to the ground level.
Merletti Design by Elena Manferdini
Sci-arc 2008
This installation was designed by the Los Angeles-based Italian Architect, Elena Manferdini. Her design explores the intricacies of lace making at a scale of the Sci-arc Gallery.
Matt along with other Sci-arc students contributed to the design process, fabrication, and installation of the exhibition.
Elena Manferdini's design firm: Atelier Manferdini
Undergraduate Installation while at The Ohio State University. A collaboration between students from Ball State University and The Ohio State University.
Instructors:
Timothy Gray - Ball State University
Michael Williams - The Ohio State University
Description:
The redBARN installation is both a rigorous analysis of place and a sensual experience. The project, located on a privately owned farm on the north side of Indianapolis, is site specific in the truest sense; what Robert Irwin might refer to as ‘‘site conditioned response’’ . . . ‘‘where the sculptural response draws all of its cues (reasons for being) from its surroundings.’’2 Liberated from programmatic constraints, experience of place was favored over rational thought as a point of departure for the project. Students were asked to look for and to ‘‘see’’ the potential in the existing space, ultimately grounding their observations in the very real and very tangible demands of constructing the full-scale project.
Alexis Rochas and a group of Sci-arc students designed, fabricated, and installed this pavilion to shade the crowd for the graduation ceremony. The mesh material stretches between structural members and folds down at the front where the podium is located.
Installed : 2007
Matt was part of the fabrication team involved with installing the structure and mesh canopy.