Building Design and the Urban Landscape is the fourth studio in the core sequence, and it concerns itself specifically with the city’s infrastructure, fabric and public spaces–in this case an under-utilized site in Culver City adjacent to the concrete basin of Ballona Creek. From the architectural prompt: “We will be concerned not with the architecture of the individual icon building, which assumes the city as a deferential background, but rather with the architecture of the prototypical–the invention of new typologies (in this case, of urban living),whose potency lies not in their rarity, but repetition.”
Derived from the precedent of The Circus in the city of Bath, England, the design extracts the eccentric, variegated profiles of The Circus in plan and places it upright on its head. What results from a simple rotation of the plan extrusion is a building that orients itself vertically to the ground below and the sky above; an emphasis is placed on the articulation of a profile in section as opposed to the articulation of the plan. What is front and back thus becomes ambiguous and a provocative question for inquiry.
Of secondary emphasis is the radial nature of the precedent in its context, and this circular logic is echoed in the ribbon-like footprint of the design. The linear language of the ribbon becomes evident in the site plan and further so in the sectional qualities of the building, simultaneously allowing for a seamless extension of a line as well as allowing for a layering of adjacent profiles in elevation. The Circus’ unwavering, monumental façade is transferred and transformed to the design as well, evidencing itself in a continuous building footprint of 40-feet that simultaneously restricts plan-based eccentricities and focuses attention back to the profile and section.
Instructors: Kevin Daly, Georgina Huljich, Jimenez Lai, Roger Sherman
