Jose Gutierrez Portfolio 2026

Introduction

Jose Gutierrez

I am a designer from Cali, Colombia, currently completing my Master of Architecture, graduating in May 2026. My academic path has been shaped by a commitment to rigorous design inquiry and leadership within the architectural community

Over the past three years, I have accumulated more than 1,500 NCARB hours through professional practice, gaining experience across multiple phases of design and developing a strong foundation in collaborative studio environments. During my graduate studies, I served as President of AIAS, where I worked to expand student engagement, foster connections between aca-

strengthened the culture of the school. My work and research have been recognized through publication in CROP, and I was selected as a graduate representative for the Texas 8 design charrette in Siena, Italy. I also currently serve as a studio instructor for first-year design, where I guide, mentor, and instruct students on foundational design development.

Combinatory Formations

An Introduction

Combinatory Formations explores architecture as a process of organization. Beginning with a set of primitives—point, object, surface, and line—the projects in this section use abstraction and encounter as a generative tool to produce formal and spatial systems.

Rather than relying on a predetermined grid, form emerges through combination, accumulation, chance, and constraint. Primitives are treated as individually simple elements whose interactions produce complex organizational ecologies when combined within a broader site condition. Limits and parameters are introduced as a way to explore specific relationships, interactions, or as a response to external conditions

This section presents two iterations of the methodology. Formation one investigates combinatory organization as a spatial and formal excercise, resolving itself as a purely abstract system. Formation two refines the same workflow and results in a spatial narrative which has the ability to respond to external conditions, thus leading to a speculative form placed in an urban condition.

Square Non Grid

Formation 02 develops from an interest in balance, contrast, and soft boundaries. The work originates from images of territorial transformation—river deltas carrying sediment through mass, mines carving through the earth, and coastlines eroded to the edge of collapse.

These references inform a combinatory logic centered on absence and accumulation. Mass is subtracted, compressed, and reconnected, allowing complexity to emerge as an act of subtraction and deposition. The system operates within both tension and balance. Positive versus negative. The brazen carving of the site juxtaposed with the smoothness and scale of the surface.

The square operates as a stabilizing condition, holding the system together without imposing a regulating grid. Object morphologies and imposed parameters test how relationships register at multiple scales, establishing an organizational system. From this system an infinite set of schemes/formations can be generated. Each unique while still sharing an organizational logic.

Schemes

Norilsk sits like a moon of nickel and ice at the edge of the world. Toxins swim in the cold as metal clings to the air slowly consumed with every breath. Silence settles across the tundra broken only by the crunch of boots marching into the depths of the earth.

Beneath its frozen surface molten metal flows like a river forever bound to fullfill the needs of its population. Here, an eerie beauty unfolds. one born of contradiction, where the earth bleeds metals and the warmth forever fights an endless winter.

A MOON OF NICKLE AND ICE

Speculation

Forged by labor and isolation, Norilsk’s people shaped rituals to withstand the darkness. The legacy of the gulag lingers in brick and bone, but the culture presses forward. In polar plunges and steamfilled bathhouses, the body is restored. Light and warmth become a precious currency of which there can never be enough. Absence is felt here.

Fractured Frames

Lubbock, Texas

Fractured Frames is a therapeutic equestrian center that explores healing through spatial disjunction, metaphor, and landscape. The project is organized around a bent axis that acts as an attractor to hold shared program space.

Fragmented volumes drift outward along the axis to form equine and support zones. These distinct programmatic blocks are deliberately separated and connected through a series of courtyards, voids, and open-air passages that interrupt the flow of space and encourage sensory transitions.

Drawing from natural processes like erosion and glacial calving, the project creates a rhythmic sequence of enclosure and exposure, designed to mirror and celebrate the therapeutic journey of the individuals it serves.

Overview

The program is divided into a series of buildings that extend across the site. This allows for separation of function as well as creating moments for experience regularly throughout the project.

Timber Corridor

Business Incubator

The Timber Corridor is an urban micro-manufacturing facility constructed from CLT, combining together spaces for artisans, vertical farming, and hemp product production. The design explores the concept of the urban corridor. The building mass is divided to create a central public pathway, creaating ecological, environmental, and social impact. The facade plays with layers of transparency, transitioning between clear, semi-transparent, and opaque sections, offering glimpses of activity within.

Internally, vertical connections and split floors, voids, and open spaces encourage visual curiosity, transforming the interior into a visual corridor that invites discovery and reflects the collaborative emphasis of the corridor and internal systems.

CLT FLOOR PLANELS

SCREEN SYSTEM

ALUM. PANELING

+ GIRDER

a: double glaze window system

b: j-clip

c: .5” aluminum cladding system

d: fluid applied vapor barrier

e: 2” foam rigid insulation

e: .5” plywood sheithing

f: 5-ply clt wall system

a: aluminum panel finish

b: fluid applied vapor barrier

c: 1.5” rigid foam insulation

d: 1/2” plywood sheithing

e: 5.5” batt insulation

f: 3ply clt ceiling assembly

g: aluminum fascia & soffit assembly

a: 10x5’ aluminum panel cladding

b: 1/2” sheithing

c: 3ply clt wall assembly

d: 10x5’perforated screen panel

e: wood floor finish

f: 40mm screed

g: 1/8” acousting floor padding

h: 3ply clt floor panel

j: 1/2” insulation

k: acoustic ceiling board

m: wall mounted track

STUDIO

VEG. FARMING

HEMP FARMING

WOODSHOP

GERMINATION

BUSINESS

REST AREA

LABORATORY

HEMP INSULATION

Denver Central Market Apartments

Denver, Colorado

Located in the heart of Denver’s vibrant RiNo district, the apartment complex stands on top of Denver Central Market. Designed with a focus on an active lifestyle and wellbeing, it seamlessly merges into the urban fabric of Denver while offering a haven for residents who seek a dynamic lifestyle. The building’s main feature is its bike ramp which wraps around its face and extends into the existing bike lanes. Providing a Direct connection between building and city.