3RDLA

Los Angeles is often reduced to a handful of stereotypes. In its infancy, it was the agricultural West with opportunities for industry, oil, and filmmaking. Following World War II, L.A. was the home of the modernist American Dream, with suburban sprawl, freeways, and smog. As populations move back into urban centers, cultural shifts and new transportation infrastructure are redefining the built environment.

-KCET

Join the conversation at:

www.kcet.org/discussion/what-features-will-define-las-future

AN OPTIMAL WORKSPACE

As we move into the twenty-first century it has become evident that we are hungry for a new understanding of what our workspaces not only look like but how they can enhance our work life and productivity. Here are a few principles I keep in mind when creating a workspace:

LIGHTING

www.sheyi.com

Natural light contains what is called "blue light". It increases dopamine levels, boosts the immune system and lowers cortisol levels. This means that being in a naturally-lit room will make you feel less anxious, happier and more productive.

INDOOR AIR QUALITY

Wilson Architects - Australia

Indoor air is essential in establishing a productive work space. Good air circulation and outdoor air is great for any work environment, adding plants can enhance it even further. Research shows plants instantly boost productivity by 15% in creating an optimal concentration while amplifying workplace satisfaction.

PRIVATE/PUBLIC SPACES

Built by Domaen

A workspace that provides a private/public layout is optimal. Having a private space for focus and concentration with the flexibility of transitioning into a public area that can facilitate dynamic collaboration is more in line with our Twenty-first century needs.

FLEXIBILITY AND COMMUNITY

Multifunctional, auditorium-style steps in New York’s co-working space Neuehouse, designed by Rockwell Group, are used for meetings, lectures and concerts; photos Eric Laignel.

Having communal areas to interact with colleagues is a great way to break away from the monotony of the workday. It is an ideal catalyst to bond and collaborate with coworkers.

INDIVIDUALITY

AcousticPearls Architects

Homogenous "herded" workspaces are thankfully dying out. Businesses are becoming aware that when a team member has a sense of a space they are more creative in their contributions to the collective. 

-Malek Alqadi

LANDSCAPE CONTEXTUALISM | Part 1

Contextualism is the reaction of architecture to its environment – it is how buildings and forms fit into their surroundings. There are various approaches and to creating modern designs the fit within the context they are placed in – wheather it is through use or vernacular typology, environmentally responsive forms, use of appropriate materials, or responses to surrounding landscapes. The following are a few examples of interesting design approaches that respond to the environments they have been places in.

Forest House

The first is a recreational cabin in Utrecht, Netherland, designed by Zecc Architecten. The form is a traditional gable cabin typology, designed in a modern, open style. The choice of materiality -shake and wood siding – reflect on traditional material choices, but detailed in a very clever way, transforming the siding slats into operable louvers which retract and open up the interiors to the forest.

The Residence of Daisen by Keisuke Kawaguchi + K2 Design redefines what a typical house is, by pulling apart each room, and placing the series of inter-connected volumes in the middle of a forest. Aside from preserving the natural landscape, each room becomes surrounded by the forest.

The Loblolly House by Kieran Timberlake features an exterior wood screen system, with planks arranged in random patterns to reflect the gaps of light between trees in the forest behind the building; on the front the house opens up completely to the view of a lake. The structure is lifted off the ground, sitting angled pilotis that mimic the tree trunks around the building.

Desert

In the desert, which often times has monotonous stretches of repetitive features, camouflage can be powerful tool to blend in without disturbing the landscape. The Lucid Stead installation took and old cabin, which was a noticeable object in the empty landscape, and transformed into a much lighter structure though use of mirrors that reflect the surrounding desert make the cabin appear with a mirage-like quality.

Amangiri Resort and Spa, a collaboration between Marwan Al-Sayed, Wendell Burnette, and Rick Joy, is a series of structures sited against rock formations in Southern Utah. Through use of neutral pastel colors and stone features that are delicately built in/around the rocks, the designers are able to preserve the landscape and blend in the buildings without causing a visual disturbance.

The desert is often associated with a nomadic lifestyle, that rely on mobile living conditions. Prefab houses like Rock Reach House in Yucca Valley have a sense of lightness and impermanence – it can be disassembled and moved as easily as it was dropped into the surrounding rocky landscape in the first place. The use corrugated corten steel siding panels and wood patio planks blend in well against the orange rocks. If you love this house, you could rent it for the weekend!

- Xander Tertychny 

#PROGRESS

-Chris Sowers

THE BOWTIE PROJECT

JSA often works with the ACE Center (Agency of Civic Engagement) at Woodbury University. Below are photos of last semester’s studio work:

THE BOWTIE PROJECT

The ACE architecture studio, in collaboration with California State Parks and Clockshop has built several structures on the grounds of the Bowtie, a nineteen-acre site adjacent to the LA River.  This site is slated to become a permanent State Park for Los Angeles.  Clockshop manages cultural programming that is open to the public during the lengthy planning process required to implement this public infrastructure.  These projects by Woodbury students are used during campout events, film presentations, poetry readings, and other cultural events open to the public. 

Media for Social Justice Students collaborated with architecture students to create a video of the projects created during the Spring 2016 semester.

The Outdoor Classroom for John Muir Middle School

Architecture students designed and built a classroom on the campus of the John Muir Middle School in Burbank, CA.  This design gives form to this leftover space and creates a functional classroom under the canopy of trees.  Plastic wood is used in non-conventional ways to create textures and patterns.

-Sonny Ward

Attention Students: Innovation Grant

CARDBORIGAMI

$5,000 to be rewarded to any student or group of students who can improve (waterproof) on the design of Cardborigami.

http://cardborigami.org/

-Sonny Ward

What's Inside My House?

A selection of progress photos from a recent project showcasing vital pieces of the house which you never see or think about (unless they stop working). 

-Corey Miller

COUP DE COEUR

Finding new contemporary furniture in Los Angeles has gotten a lot easier and more fun over the past decade or so. Yet, when searching for the more unique and refined but unpretentious modern furnishings for a new project, I invariably find myself drawn to products from places a lot further afar than the handful of local stores I like.

My European sensibility usually has me stop in Brooklyn first, before inevitably traveling electronically to a design studio in London, checking out a cool collection of modular casegoods from Spain, or pining for the right client/project when discovering an amazing new line of plumbing fixtures from Italy. This is when not buying a lamp from an obscure lighting company in Argentina, by far the best fit for the dining room of a recent remodel in Cheviot Hills.

Here are some of this month’s ‘coup de coeur’, i.e. a few of my favorite finds that I came across while furniture scouting for up and coming projects.

-Emmanuel Cobbet

#contemporary #interiordesign #furniture #meubles #mobile #muebles #möbel

 ‘STAND’: a bathtub, sink and washbasin by Norm Architects for ex.t, Italy. www.ex-t.com

‘AURA’, a collection of customizable consoles, sideboards and buffets (from 24 colors incl 5 woods) by Angel Marti and Enrique Delamo for Treku, Spain. www.treku.es

‘TULL’, a re-interpretation of a basic workshop lamp by Tommaso Caldera for Incipit, Italy. www.incipitlab.com

living legacy |dame Zaha Hadid

Impact is the action of one object coming forcibly into contact with another. It can be mental or physical, positive or negative and will always have a reaction to the action.

 Artists impact us in countless ways whether it be through film, art, photography, music, architecture, etc. Some of us perceive architecture at face value and nothing more than an enclosure to seek shelter in but I believe as the late Zaha Hadid stated, "architecture is not just a shelter or a simple enclosure. It should be something that excites you, calms you, makes you think.”

 While transforming urban fabrics and pushing boundaries of the building form with her own voice Hadid was criticized for her headstrong behavior and uncensored self-expression through concrete form. As a designer I strive to do just that; to impact the subconscious through expression that moves from my mind to the physical world in concrete form hopefully leaving behind an echo that will influence the way future generations feel and interact within it.

 Zaha lives on through her exemplary work and extraordinary creations that continue to impact people’s experiences and as an example of an unwavering creative mind with a unique voice that will speak to the masses.

 -Malek Alqadi

MASSING DEVELOPMENT

A LOOK INSIDE THE DESIGN PROCESS FROM SPACE PLAN TO MASSING.

Begin with the blank site and overlay preliminary plans.

Massing takes shape (one of many iterations) and major site elements (pool, deck) added.

Refinement of spaces based on office input and client feedback.

Rendering at the end of design development.

After Structural Engineer refines design, changes are made.  Design will stay as-is unless value engineering is necessary.

-Corey Miller

#progress

Orlando Avenue

-Chris Sowers

Design development Charette in progress...

As a team, we are exploring building envelope geometry to derive a cohesive design before proceeding with construction documents.