Israel Jimenez
Texas Tech University
Huckabee College of Architecture
“Braced Communal Platform.” As a consequence of the high travel time to the different schools linked to the C - 5 mobility zone, international commuting students are left with a significant amount of time to dedicate to school, community, and individual projects they have. The platform’s structure merges its pattern with these activities. © Israel Jimenez.
Jury
Teri Canada
Lisa C. Henry
Camille Martin-Thomsen
Robert L. Wesley (Chair)
Amber N. Wiley
Coming from a background that was anything but stable, my endeavor in architecture is one that I owe to those who fi nd themselves in the same uncertain trajectory. The SOM Foundation’s vision and generosity through the Robert L. Wesley Award are an honor and an opportunity that further enable a more assertive pursuit of architectural solutions for our community.
“Braced Communal Platform” employs a sectional approach that integrates shape, incline, and shear, featuring programs such as local art galleries and discussion spaces. The cross-braced structure, having multiple profiles and densities, provides the opportunity for monumental and inclusive spaces. It identifies contextual opportunities that incorporate culture, such as the MACC (Mexican American Cultural Center) and La Nube Children's Museum. Its orientation and form also seek to maintain the active transit momentum that the downtown area is known for. The angular plan grid reinforces engagement with the structure in both the program and exterior context. © Israel Jimenez.
“Braced Communal Platform.” The site is situated within a dynamic context that holds the potential to alter and be altered by the city’s transit infrastructure. The primary users are international students who commute daily by bus. Few to no spaces are dedicated to providing these students with workable environments and interaction opportunities. The building features a series of curvilinear sections reinforced by a cross-bracing “diagrid-like” system, which induces focal points and grids that dictate collaborative spaces and connect the user with their environment. Variables such as density split the program and promote wayfinding. Furthermore, it places wind and daylight as tools rather than an afterthought. © Israel Jimenez.
Israel demonstrates an unparalleled level of initiative, enthusiasm, and capacity for self-directed work. With his formidable talent, inexhaustible productivity, and capacity for care for those around him, Israel will surely have a meteoric career trajectory.
Stephen Mueller, Associate Professor, Texas Tech Huckabee College of Architecture
“Folded Solutions.” There is a strong presence of membrane underdevelopment on the Mexican-American border. Juarez suffers from poor and permeable wall sections, each type exposing residents to harmful dust particles. Notable underdevelopment in insulation also poses great discomfort. However, the dust “leakage” levels vary in pressure and orientation. They contain microscopic solids that may enter and alter different systems within the human body, such as the lungs and bloodstream. The proposed membrane aims to offer a solution of redirection through the use of surfaces and their adaptations to contextual opportunities and conditions, particularly in the form of folds. Large quantities of dust at distinct pressures are to be redirected throughout the membrane to focused spaces that evaluate the dust and give it purpose. In other words, there would be folds that not only shape the space within, but also encourage a relationship with the exterior conditions it was once exposed to. © Israel Jimenez.
“Folded Solutions.” Throughout these folds, different pressure levels are generated, providing various opportunities for focus and evaluation. Furthermore, the folds create air pockets and spaces that achieve the water hose effect. The building, being situated on a signifi cantly elevated hill, mimics the elevation behaviour as it increases in height per “lobe”. This decision encourages dust to continue its path upward, allowing for more dust interception. Because the dust predominantly moves upward, the panels, which follow the same folding logic as the membrane, feature an opening that progressively slopes in the direction in which the dust would ideally move. The roof modules have a common opening that intercepts the dust moving upward. © Israel Jimenez.
“Community Tower.” Providing a gradient of spaces for diverse social ecologies, the Community Tower uses “L” geometries and proportions within a structural performative system to accommodate effective and inclusive spaces for pedestrians and bike users. The tower serves as an expansion factor to the locally invested “Green Corridors” project, encouraging citizens to avoid heavy vehicle use and promote healthier transportation options for both the environment and users. © Israel Jimenez.
Israel Jimenez
Texas Tech University
Huckabee College of Architecture
Israel Jimenez
is an architecture student whose work is grounded in questions of spatial justice, community identity, and the social responsibility of the built environment. Raised in the US-Mexico borderland, Jimenez’s interest in architecture emerged through lived experiences navigating unsafe, underdeveloped spaces and housing instability. These formative moments shaped his understanding of space not only as a physical construct but as a notion that can either reinforce or challenge social inequities. Jimenez began his architectural education at El Paso Community College, where he was actively involved in the Architecture Society, connecting with practitioners engaged in community-centered design. He later continued his studies at Texas Tech University, Huckabee College of Architecture in El Paso, where his work became increasingly informed by the cross-border infrastructure, civic space, and user-centered design approaches. His research and studio projects explore how form, infrastructure, and public space can foster dignity, safety, and collective identity. Alongside his academic work, Jimenez has contributed to research initiatives such as POST (Project for Operative Spatial Technologies), directed by professors and architects Stephen Mueller and Ersela Kripa, exploring borderland spatial and environmental issues as well as systematic solutions that apply to further extents in architecture.