: rayce quintana :

Rayce Quintana is a designer, drawer of maps, maker of garments, and occasional boat crew. Based in Honolulu, they work at the intersection of architecture, graphic design, sewing, and storytelling—blending spatial thinking with material play and emotional depth.

With a Master of Architecture and a background in multidisciplinary design, Rayce’s work explores the poetic and often unseen layers of place: memory, rhythm, texture, and time. Their creative process is intuitive and hands-on, shaped by experiences both on land and at sea.

They have taught architecture studio at the University of Hawai‘i and continue to explore fabric as a spatial language. Whether designing a visual identity or hand-stitching a form, Rayce looks for the connective threads that hold people, materials, and meaning together.

They are currently seeking opportunities with creative studios or design agencies—remote or island-based—where collaboration, experimentation, and curiosity lead the work.

> CONTACT raycequintana@gmail.com> CV
> INSTAGRAM 

ARTIFACT : A01
DRAPED PNEUMATICS

2023

Investigating the Morphogenic Potential of Inflatable Textile Structures


         Draped Pneumatics, 2023 :  video performance (2:13).                                                         

Draped Pneumatics is an exploration into the flexibility and performative potential of soft-form architecture. This sewn structure was designed to inflate — to press outward, collapse inward,and shift with breath and pressure. It was sewn to explode.

Drawing parallels between the folding of fabric and the division of boundaries in the built environment, this work questions how cities are "folded" by concrete and steel. Through air, tension, and textile, Draped Pneumatics proposes an alternative logic—one of softness, adaptability, and responsive form.

As our built environments become increasingly rigid, the urgency for flexible, reconfigurable systems grows. This project investigates folding not just as a fabrication method, but as a spatial strategy—challenging fixed notions of boundary, permanence, and enclosure. In this way, the piece becomes both a model and a metaphor: for buildings that breathe, and boundaries that bend.

Construction patterns for the inflatable garment, mapping how form is guided by seam and fold





This piece began as a series of sketches, material tests, and air experiments. Working with duck canvas and a fish tank air pump to test how fabric would inflate, drape, and collapse. The seams were carefully designed — both structurally and visually — to guide airflow and form.

Folding became both a construction technique and a conceptual framework: a way to explore how softness might resist the static, and how tension might create new spatial possibilities. 

As the piece came to life, it behaved less like a model and more like a body— breathing, shifting, resisting formality. 

Each test was an encounter with unpredictability, a reminder that responsive architecture might begin with materials that change form.


ARTIFACT : A02
THIS . THAT . THEN

2021

Outdoor Activation for Englewood,Chicago // Public Space





This / That / Then is a three-part spatial study that invites users to engage through movement, interaction, and time. Each piece explores a different layer of spatial experience — form, transition, and shadow — offering a modular system for both presence and passage.

This is a reconfigurable structure composed of triangular modules. Designed for movement, it allows users to manipulate its shape and orientation, redefining boundaries and crafting new spatial conditions.

That is a temporary open-air pavilion situated as a threshold to an existing building. Acting as both a moment of pause and a point of passage, it gives users the option to sit, gather, or move through as they transition toward a programmed space.

Then is the ephemeral counterpart to That: the shadow it casts throughout the day. As the light shifts, Then traces time’s passage across the site, inviting subconscious engagement with the changing environment.

Together, these three elements form a spatial triptych—exploring how we shape, move through, and are shaped by space in time.






ARTIFACT : A03
THE PITCH

2022

An Advocacy Studio for the AIA // Washington D.C.










The Pitch is an architectural proposal for an advocacy center imagined as an extension of the American Institute of Architects headquarters in Washington, D.C. Rooted in the spirit of the pickup soccer match, the center becomes a space where ideas—like players—are constantly in motion.

Just as a match unfolds in the streets or backyards with little more than a ball and a few goal markers, this center provides an open framework for exchange: a place where anyone can show up, speak up, and move the conversation forward. Advocacy here is not static—it is practiced, spontaneous, and embodied.

The space acts as both field and forum. Ideas are pitched, passed, debated, and defended. There is room to sprint, pause, reframe, and support. The act of drawing—whether a plan, a diagram, or a protest sign—is treated like play: purposeful, communal, and generative. The studio becomes a site where pencils are always sharpened, voices are always welcomed, and collective momentum takes shape through shared cause.


Program & Spatial Strategy

The Pitch unfolds across three levels, each designed to foster connection, visibility, and collective action.

Level One grounds the space in public life. A street-facing café invites casual gatherings and conversations, while a gallery offers rotating exhibitions that highlight design for social impact. Adjacent to this is the Team Store—a flexible pop-up retail space where independent designers, local makers, and advocacy groups can showcase and sell their work in support of community-driven causes.

Level Two is dedicated to expression and production. A professional recording studio and adjacent stage provide space for performances, podcasts, and panel discussions. A small dressing room supports these activities, while two open studios offer space for collaborative design, campaign planning, or spontaneous ideation.



Level Three creates room for reflection and amplification. A conference room hosts formal gatherings, workshops, and strategic planning sessions. From the third-floor balcony, visitors can look down onto the event hall and stage—blurring the line between audience and advocate, participant and performer.

This new structure intersects with the existing AIA building, puncturing the former conference space to create a shared threshold between institution and public. What was once a private room becomes an open platform—an advocacy stage designed for participation, visibility, and voice.



ARTIFACT : T01
THE PLANS WE WEAR

2024

Unfolding the Architecture of Garment

The Plans We Wear is an ongoing exploration of how garments hold spatial logic. Through sewn forms and abstracted diagrams, the project investigates how the hidden geometry of folds, seams, and pleats gives structure to the body—and how these soft constructions echo the language of architecture.

By reimagining sewing patterns as plan drawings, the work maps the transformation from flat to form, line to volume, surface to enclosure. Garments, unlike buildings, move with us. They stretch, collapse, conceal, and reveal. This project examines how everyday clothing becomes a site for spatial storytelling—a way to diagram not just how we dress, but how we carry space.
jumper : 
: the diner uni :

: 2022





sketch bag :
: the A^2 :
: 2022





ARTIFACT : P01
GENETIC GENRE

2021

Composing the music of our matter


A poetic device that composes music from the intimate code of our own biology.

This project explores the sonic potential of the self by transforming strands of human hair into instruments of expression. Through a simple gesture—snipping a lock of hair and connecting it to an Arduino sensor—the unseen data embedded in our bodies is interpreted as sound. Each strand generates a unique pattern, creating a one-of-a-kind symphony tied directly to the individual.

Genetic Genre dwells in the space between science and intimacy, making the genetic audible, the personal performative. It invites participants to engage with their physical identity not only as biology, but as rhythm, tone, and harmony. In this experimental interface, we ask: what does our body sound like when translated into music? What stories lie waiting in the strands?

This project is both instrument and experience—an invitation to listen inward, and a reminder that creativity is coded into us all.




: video performance :




ARTIFACT : P02
IMPULSE CARTOGRAPHY

2020

Mapping the in-betwen


Its feeling the inclination to act.

A scent drifts through a crowded train car. 

Impression Lingers.

A voice. 

Captures your attention

Becomes

Your new favorite sound

You can’t locate its operator 

But you can

map the spaces in-between

Measure its distance
Impulse Cartography is a wearable tool — a piece of jewelry — that investigates liminal spaces, where environments blend and distinctions blur. 

It captures the subtle language of the body, an eye twitch, a quivering lip— and translates those involuntary gestures into experiential maps. 

Acting as both artifact and interface, the piece visualizes “masked moments” where fear and desire intersect.

Through abstraction and delicate design, it invites reflection on the thresholds we cross —between places, emotions, and perceptions — and what we reveal in the act of crossing.
jewelry : 
: eye : lip : nose :
: 2020


map : 
 : fear : desire :
: 2020