Charlotte architect builds a career in West Africa

How do you go from Charlotte to Africa with a used Volkswagen Jetta?

It’s a fair question for Antonio Nevada Martinez, a UNC-Charlotte-trained architect who specializes in sustainable and efficient building methods.

Michael Clement, a Charlotte public relations consultant and a friend of Martinez, 32, calls him “one of the most creative, unusual individuals I think I’ve ever met.”

“He’s not bound by the normal conventions of mortgage and career and family as opposed to making a difference in the world.”

Since March 2013, Martinez has been in the Democratic Republic of the Congo working on a project supported by Myers Park Presbyterian Church to renovate a hospital in Kananga and another to build health centers in outlying villages.

He was in Charlotte last week to speak at UNC-Charlotte, part of an extended trip to visit family around the United States. He heads back to the Congo on Monday.

His journey started when he was a student. Born in Texas, Martinez came to the East Coast when he was in the Air Force. He came to Charlotte to go to school and was living in the Hidden Valley neighborhood.

“I became socially conscious, you could say,” he said. He took a course on African history and applied for a scholarship to go to West Africa to study design efficiency in overpopulated countries. He didn’t get the scholarship, but he decided to go anyway.

He sold his Jetta, getting around town by bicycle, to get the money for his first trip to West Africa. He made connections there that helped him get another scholarship, from the American Institute of Architects in Charlotte, to go back.

After he graduated, he was working in Charlotte, designing restaurants and hotels, when he heard Myers Park Presbyterian was looking for help to renovate a hospital in the Congo.

In the Congo, he found more projects, like school additions. One is a $300 million grant from IMA World Health, a nonprofit health care organization, to build 200 health centers in outlying villages, with solar panels to provide power.

Martinez refines the design every few projects, getting more efficient and affordable as it goes along. Each center now costs $100,000, but he thinks they can get it down to $50,000 to $60,000 as they improve the design and building methods.

Getting around the country is the hardest part.

“There are no roads,” he said. “I ride a dirt bike everywhere.”

Teams travel in a Land Cruiser with a wench and a snorkel in case they get stuck on flooded roads or when crossing rivers. Moving materials is so difficult that a bag of cement that costs $11 in the capital, Kinshasa, costs $35 in Kananga.

An irony of sustainable architecture: In the villages, houses are mostly mud huts with grass roofs. Martinez would like to build centers that are more like that, from sustainable and local materials. But local leaders want something more.

“They see stuff on TV and they see their own buildings, with mud walls and grass roofs. They want something modern and imported. It’s human nature to think that’s better.”

His goal now, he says, is to find a way to make low-tech and natural materials look modern.

What does he miss most from his life in Charlotte? Martinez admits a longing for hot showers and cheese. When people go on a mission trip from Myers Park Presbyterian, they bring him care packages with Starbucks Via packets and chocolate. Clement once brought him makings for a pizza.

Clement admits he’s envious of Martinez. “It’s an easy thing to live vicariously through the life he’s accomplishing.”

This story was originally published January 23, 2015 at 3:55 PM with the headline "Charlotte architect builds a career in West Africa."