Five questions with Martin Francis Hitch
Get to know CCA alum Martin Francis Hitch (MArch Architecture 2023)
Martin Francis Hitch. Photo by Breyden Anderson. Courtesy of the artist.
Martin Francis Hitch is an artist, practitioner, builder, and educator. He holds a BA in Architecture from Judson University (2014) and a Master of Architecture from California College of the Arts (2023). Martin has nearly a decade of experience in the San Francisco Bay Area, including work at Arcsine Architecture in beautiful downtown Oakland, California. As an architecture instructor at Arizona State University’s Design School, Martin has helped shape the design-build curriculum, emphasizing hands-on learning and material exploration. As the co-founder of i/thee, a family-and-friends design studio, he has led international design-build workshops, including Hello Wood Festival and SpaceSaloon Design Laboratory. An experienced thru-hiker, Martin has completed expeditions such as the Pacific Crest Trail. His adventurous spirit mirrors his approach to design and education.
1. What is your current practice/business?
i/thee LLC is a family-and-friends design collaborative with projects around the world. Our designs celebrate the co-sentience of everything in the environment: living and non-living, past and present, I and thee. Where some wish to draw distinctions, we wish to shed light on what we all have in common: to demonstrate that the appearance of difference is an illusion. Within this universe, there are not many things but just one thing: one life, one love, one eternally temporary moment. The world is not made up of separate entities and forces that sometimes overlap; rather, all things are born from the same circle with one boundary—a perfectly overlapping Venn diagram containing all there is. Our clients and collaborators include Teva, Bethel Woods Center for the Arts (the historic site of Woodstock), the Imperial Valley Desert Museum, Hello Wood Studio, Space Saloon, Global Inheritance, Roundhouse Platform, Oakes Creek Ranch, and more.
The Dining Room by Martin Francis Hitch is part of five installations with the City of Bondurant, Iowa. Courtesy of the artist.
A closeup shot of The Dining Room by Martin Francis Hitch. Courtesy of the artist.
2. Why did you choose CCA?
I chose CCA because it was the right environment for the kind of interdisciplinary exploration I wanted at that point in my career. As a non-traditional student, I came in with seven years of experience, having worked at Bay Area firms and also started my own practice focused on large-scale sculptural work. I was looking for a place where I could connect architecture with other disciplines, especially sculpture, and bring a hands-on, material-driven approach to my design process. CCA’s focus on digital craft, fabrication, and its deep arts and crafts heritage offered an ideal setting for that integration. The faculty’s expertise across these areas and the school’s art-centered approach to architecture were also big draws for me. CCA allowed me to bring my professional background into a rich, experimental context and push my work in new directions.
“Different creative outlets can shift your mindset and feed back into your primary work. Creativity isn’t a silo; everything is interconnected.”
(MArch Architecture 2023)
A project by Martin Francis Hitch for the 2024 Bethel Woods Art and Architecture Festival. Photo by Breyden Anderson. Courtesy of the artist.
3. If you could share one piece of advice with current or future students, what would it be?
One thing I’ve found to be true in both my life and my practice is that one creative practice always informs another. If you’re stuck in a rut with architecture, don’t just scroll through Pinterest for inspiration—design a piece of clothing, start a blog, dive into a writing habit, or take a film class. Different creative outlets can shift your mindset and feed back into your primary work. Creativity isn’t a silo; everything is interconnected… and I guess I really do mean everything is interconnected.
4. What's your secret to staying inspired and creative?
Honestly, my secret to staying inspired and creative is surrounding myself with other creative people. That’s what was so great about CCA, and it’s what makes teaching at ASU so rewarding. It’s also what fuels my practice, i/thee, which I run with my brother and his wife. We feed off of each other, share work often, and let the energy of those around us push our ideas forward.
5. What do you have coming up?
The biggest thing I’ve got going on is a long-term project with the City of Bondurant, Iowa, designing a public art trail around Lake Petocka. The plan includes five installations (The Dining Room, The Foyer, The Living Room, The Gallery, and The Garden) plus an additional piece at a nearby location (The Puddle Pavilion). Each “room” invites interaction with natural processes—geological, environmental, or biological—creating dynamic relationships with the surrounding landscape. We just finished the first installation, The Dining Room, with notable help from CCA alumni Claire Leffler (BArch Architecture 2023), with more on the way over the next couple of years. I’ve also started an indie rock blog called Old Folks Music.
