Assistant Professor

School of Architecture and Planning

University of New Mexico

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Tim B. Castillo

Tim B. Castillo is an Assistant Professor at the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of New Mexico.  He is currently the Coordinator of Undergraduate Design and the director of the Laboratory for Digital Research.  While at the University of New Mexico he has rigorously been pursuing new pedagogical courses that explore applications related to digital technologies.  His studios and seminars continue to investigate new progressive strategies for design that are defined by informatics, digital media and CAD/CAM processes. 

Professor Castillo has served as co-director of the international summer abroad program in Vico Morcote, Switzerland.  He was also coordinator of the "Next"-Digital Evolution's Symposium and traveling exhibit.  This fall 2006 he was co-coordinator of the Architecture, Film + Digital Media Symposium that focused on interdisciplinary research with the Art, Research and Technology Laboratory at the University of New Mexico.  He serves on several boards and is the chair of the Resource Center for Raza Planning at the School of Architecture and Planning.

Tim B. Castillo is the founder of Hybrid Environments, a critical design office that focuses on new technologies for architecture, research and design. His work has been published and exhibited nationally and internationally in various locations including theInstitute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (Spain), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland), Pavillon de l'Arsenal (France), Bienal of Sao Paulo (Brazil), University of Waterloo (Canada), University of Utah, University of Colorado, and the University of Texas-Arlington.

Tim received a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from the University of New Mexico and a Master of Architecture from Columbia University.  He has worked and consulted for many offices world wide including Skidmore, Owings and Merril in New York and Design Development International in Toronto.  

Jeremy Sanchez

I am a student at the School of Architecture at UNM and will be graduating with my Bachelors in May 2007.  My interest in architecture before I was accepted to the program was mainly in local adobe design.  Now, I have much more interest in the use of sustainable materials and the expanding problems of energy-consumption.  I have enjoyed learning about design from my teachers and have acquired an insatiable hunger for seeing architecture from all over the world.  After I graduate, I aspire to own a firm where I can practice my design abilities. I am very much intrigued with the use of organic materials like native grasses as construction materials. I hope to find a method for fusing my loves of architecture, music, art and technology in a meaningful manner.

Lance Begaye

My name is Lance Begaye. I’m Native American belonging to the Navajo People of the Southwest United States. The past 26 years of my life have been mostly spent here in New Mexico where I’m currently studying architecture. Although it wasn’t my first passion, architecture stemmed from my interests in Graphic Design. I‘m intrigued by the design process and formulating innovative solutions that architecture offers. I have met many challenges, some of them crashed and burned while many others succeeded. All in all, these challenges were all worth learning from and have added to my learning experience. Aside from learning in school, my other interests include traveling, hiking and just hanging out with my wife and two kids.

Renee Smith

My name is Renee Smith and I was born on October ninth 1983 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  New Mexico is a beautiful place to grow up and has influenced me a great deal.  Though I have done a lot of traveling in the US, Mexico, and Canada there really is no place that compares to the uniqueness of New Mexico.  During the summer when I am home I like to spend my free time outdoors doing a number of activities like back packing, exercising, boating, and drawing. Some of my favorite things are to draw, cook, and watch auto racing.  I am a huge race fan and have had a growing interest into the sport as far as the technical aspects of the car.  In saying that, my career goals are influenced from my love of home and also technology.  After graduation in May of this year I will pursue a job in design.  Focused on architecture and space and how they influence and relate to sustainability of the environment, transportation, and technology.

Alexa Roderick

Alexa Roderick is a fourth year undergraduate architecture student in the UNM School of Architecture and Planning. Before attending university, she grew up in several different states on the Eastern and Midwestern United States.  Besides travel, in her spare time she likes to see films, spend time with friends and family, make things, weave, and read.  Her architectural interests are varied, and include transparency and material, the intersection between architecture and other creative disciplines, and history.  Her other academic interests include visual culture, media, literature, fine art, urban history, and anthropology.  She is currently a student employee at the university Fine Arts Library, where she enjoys assisting with research and processing new acquisitions.      

Jessica Medrano

Jessica Medrano grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico as an only child.  Shortly after childhood Jessica’s family moved to the Albuquerque area, where she still resides today.  Jessica is currently a senior in the Architecture program at the University of New Mexico.  Jessica is a well rounded individual, and hobbies range from buying clothes out of catalogs to watching reality television, “The Hills.”  She also enjoys shredding the snow on her snowboard, viewing art, and eating one of her favorite candies the banana flavored Laffy Taffy. One may note that Jess is a fashion connoisseur, and could be considered the peer fashion consultant of our studio.  Jessica can be distinguished easily by her four inch high heels, Louis Vuitton purse, and her Coco Channel sun glasses.  Jessica is a very picky eater, but is most often un-willing to try new food.  She regularly vacations in warm and sunny areas so she can achieve her golden brown tan.  After Jessica graduates, she hopes to live in an exciting new place and live life to the fullest.

Jacob Semler

Jacob Semler is an architecture student in his final year at the School of Architecture and Planning at UNM. Jake grew up in Tijeras Canyon, aka the mountains east of Albuquerque. Jake enjoys drawing, painting and creating mass amounts of art at any possible moment. He is a fine caricature artist; his subjects most often ranging from people in his studio, especially professors. Jake is an avid snowboarder and goes whenever possible. He enjoys hiking up the mountain and rides the untouched snow of the back-country. Among snowboarding Jake is a connoisseur of gourmet sandwiches. Almost daily he can be found enjoying a toasted pastrami sandwich on a bagel with cheese. Jake recently traveled to Japan and enjoyed the fine sushi dining offered throughout the country. In Japan Jake received his most noted nickname: “Most American.” He attained this nickname for his loud, sometimes booming voice quoting anything from Zoolander, Seinfeld, Simpsons, etc. etc. etc.  Jake’s more recent and frequent travels have taken him to DC and Squam Lake. Here he enjoys yachting, tanning and sipping umbrella drinks by the shore. Aside from Jake’s leisurely activities he is genuinely nice person and a dedicated student. 

Michelle Metzner-Quintana

My name is Michelle Metzner-Quintana, I’m currently finishing my last semesters at the University with a BA in Architecture. I am also pursuing a BA in photography at the University of New Mexico. My main interest in architecture is in sustainability. I stay active in understanding sustainable living through learning of the processes. I am an active member of the New Mexico Solar Energy Association.  I have taken classes in the making of Biodiesel and Photovoltaic (Solar Panels) Installation, and will continue to further my education with renewable resources.

I believe in the power in nature and the respect it deserves from all its in habitants. I have a tattoo of the elements on my arm as a constant reminder of that respect.  I like outdoor activities such as rock climbing, snowboarding, soccer, rollerblading, hiking, and camping. Since most of my love for photography is its use as a great artistic medium, I enjoy roaming the earth taking photos, and setting up staged shoots that really deal with societal issues.    

My plans for the future are to pursue a business in development. I have always had an interest in real estate, and city planning. Albuquerque and New Mexico have full potential to be a positive role model in energy use and positive city planning with out sprawl, but education is the key to making any of that happen. I volunteer to help educate younger children in understanding renewable resources through the NMSEA Sunchaser program, and hope that others in the architecture field make time to pass on such valuable knowledge. 

Dominic Sategna

The intentionality of space and form communicates everything that we are.  And that we are not.  Age, race, birth place, political affiliation, money, religion, family, sex and who we do it with……these things, they do not define us but only inform our next moment in space. From womb to tomb, sometimes I think that the space we do not occupy takes up all of the space that we fill.  From purpose to realization I would like to fill places and be places and go where these two clash or make friends.  Shape and form us. Drops of water in the placid lake some would say we learn.  They do not see space but samsara. Let shape and space mold you, inspire you to learn and see in a new way. Employment and all other concerns do not concern me but they are necessary like floors and walls and ceilings.  We need these things. I hear construction work pays well.  What did people do without the virtual world?  The world is ours.  I wonder what we will do with it.  I wonder what I will do with it.  How will I affect this?  Is this what we do?  I would do it well. If we see space and form in its true sense time will reveal our purpose.  Be patient.  The world is ours if we can build it. Or build over it. Or get a job. Create the change you want to see in the world.

Those who truly see, create… those who create…..truly live?

John Dillander

In 1979 a spark of life that amounted into a furious ball of design energy was born, that was me, John Dillander. I was born in Phoenix, Arizona on an accident and early, during a trip my parents took to visit some family. Although I was born in Phoenix I was quickly brought to what will always be my home Albuquerque, New Mexico. At an early age, even before I was in school, I started to draw. Drawing is the earliest of my memories. During my high school years I came to the realization that in order to be a successful artist I would have to either be dead or at the very least cut my ear off. Not wanting to part with my ear I started to look into alternatives that would allow me to create and express myself artistically but also give me a sense of fulfillment and future growth. I had a fight with an art instructor in high school and I decided to drop the class taking an F for my final grade. That is when my advisor introduced to an architectural drawing class, which I took for the next 3 years. Looking back, my life has revolved around art and design, yet because of the randomness of life I have fallen in love with art’s misunderstood sister Architecture.

My major influence is not the architecture or the architect, it is nature. Whether we acknowledge it or not architecture strives to emulate nature because of man’s disconnection for nature.

It is not the interpretation of my architecture or the critic that matters, it is the imagination.

Antoinette Perkins

I will give a brief background and then talk about my passions. I grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico in the United States of America. After I graduated in 1994 I moved to Los Angeles, California and lived one block away from Hollywood and Sunset Boulevard. I lived there for six years but then moved back here after my Grandmother got sick. I then went back to school and first majored in Biology with hopes of doing something in the medical field. For fun I took a drawing class, because I love to draw, my art teacher encouraged me to look into architecture because what I drew was focused on architecture. I took the intro class and fell in love. I took all the classes I needed on my own and then submitted my portfolio. I have been in school now for six years after changing majors and will graduate in the Spring. I have four nieces whom of which I just adore, seeing the world through there is a blast and teaches me something new everyday. I am passionate about architecture, I dream about it, and have hopes of one day contributing to society through sustainable architecture in our built environment. A few of my favorite architects are Daniel Liebeskand, Zaha Hadid, Santiago Calitrava, and am inspired of course by all of the forefathers of architecture. My other passions are singing and playing guitar and I collect old vinyl records from famous artists in the UK and in the US.

Alberto Rodriguez

I’m about to finish Architecture School, which I am thoroughly stoked about! My journey through architecture school has forever changed my perception of the world and life.  I look and the world more critically and try to understand the inherent complexities that make us human. It has challenged the limits of my mind, body, and soul. Its taken me to places that I never thought I would go such as Japan. By the way, Japan ROCKS!! (I would live their without any hesitation.) Architecture will also take me places I haven't yet experienced. Architecture and Design are my life.  It consumes my entire being and I wouldn't change it for the world.  The experience of architecture school has given me some life long friends who’s friendship I will cherish because we all endured the same fun and tortuous journey. I have been through so much and I can’t believe it’s almost over.  I didn’t sleep countless nights, sometimes in a row.  I believe that there is no other profession like architecture because it is not a 9-5 job.  Its 24/7. It becomes your life, which fascinates me and it is always evolving and challenging me to think more critically.

Arturo Nunez

Arturo Nunez’s family roots stem from Sacatecas, Mexico, his parents and most of his bothers and sisters where immigrants to the United States.  Initially, his family migrated to Chicago, Illinois where a large portion of his extended family also migrated to, in pursuit of the “American dream,” and would eventually be the place were he was born, making him a Hispanic by ethnicity.  He has spent the past 20 years in the state of New Mexico, where he is now in the 4th year of a four-year architecture program at the University of New Mexico.  His pride and joy is his beautiful wife, Bethany and his beautiful 18-month-old son, Nehemiah. 

 Architecture has allowed him to critically evaluate the world around him and the way he experiences it.  What he has found is an unfortunate misunderstanding of the essential role an architect can play, a role that has been undermined by the misguiding principles of American capitalism.  In this environment driven by the bottom dollar, architecture is forced to confront challenges in new and innovative ways in order to advance the field.  His hope is to find his place in this dilapidated market and inspire a more creative generation.

James Chesnut

James Chesnutis a carpenter/builder by profession with eight years of experience and a student of architecture in the academia for the past four years. 

Thoughts:  Understanding multiple disciplines of a single process are important to establishing viability as an individual and community.  It is the philosophy of James that the process of architectural thinking is as important if not more important than the product itself.  The art of thinking critically has been lost when it comes to the reality in which we live, both theoretically and mechanically.  It is necessary to understand and question environments, holistically, in terms of politics, culture, and economics as well as formal, spatial, and structural.  One should inform the next. The belief of James is that these are the multiple disciplines of architectural thinking that manifest informed designs that seek greater meaning.  Maintaining a progressive design approach must be enabled by the optimism that those who design, also behold the character and ability to confront and enhance the world in which we live via architectural production.  In short:  It is the duty of the students of architecture to first pin point failing systems and act upon rather than within.  From this a mindful process of designing and constructing the world we live in may become resolute.

Christian Prior Kidd

I am really excited about starting my architecture career after I graduate. I am a Colorado native and have lived in New Mexico for 5 years attending UNM. My love for the outdoors and sports, like skiing and soccer, along with creating and admiring good design, is what keeps me happy. I love learning about new and old architecture and I can appreciate what others have accomplished. I try to find a lesson in everything I see. School related or not, there are lessons to be learned from anything and everything. I have been told I have really great ideas and I am now learning how to present my ideas in a manner that people will better understand the ideas I am trying to get across. thanks! "Good designs to you!"