Open Form Architecture Blog

Cells in­vol­ved, of car­ti­lage, con­nec­tive tis­sue and skin, are doing the same jobs, only the lo­ca­tions change. The shape of life by Lio­nel G. Harrison.

I was fas­ci­na­ted by a post from Avery, a high school math teacher in the US, ca­lled Ha­bits of Mind. It has a great way of sum­ming up a mathe­ma­ti­cal thin­king pro­cess that can be ap­plied to other dis­ci­pli­nes, es­pe­cially design.

There is another great event co­ming in Ca­na­dian his­tory, our 150th birth­day in 2017. This is es­pe­cially a chance to re­de­fine what Ca­nada is and where the country is hea­ding. As archi­tects and ur­ba­nists, it is a chance to de­fine our vi­sion for ci­ties in our nor­dic cli­mate and vast geo­graphy, and to con­si­der the ur­ban im­pli­ca­tions of our new de­mo­graphic cha­rac­te­rist from years of con­ti­nual im­mi­gra­tion. An ins­pi­ring and thought pro­vo­king call-to-action from Pe­ter Mac­Leod (vi­deo) at MASS LBP at TEDx To­ronto is worth watching.

I think that this is a great op­por­tu­nity for Ca­na­dian de­sig­ners to chan­nel ef­forts into rec­rea­ting and re­freshing a vi­sion to our society.

2010.01 // Sta­giai­res Recherchés

Archi­tec­ture Open Form est à la recherche de co­lla­bo­ra­teurs étu­diants afin de pour­suivre une recherche sur la fa­bri­ca­tion numé­ri­que. Nous recherchons, si pos­si­ble, des per­son­nes qui con­nais­sent les lo­gi­ciels Rhi­no­ce­ros ou au­tre lo­gi­ciels de pro­gram­ma­tions ou 3D. Nous de­vons faire des ma­quet­tes à par­tir de modè­les numé­ri­ques sur des ap­pa­reils tels que dé­coupe au la­ser ou CNC mi­lling machi­nes. Nous de­vons aussi ter­mi­ner no­tre pro­pre CNC et la tes­ter afin de fa­bri­quer des ma­quet­tes ou tou­tes sor­tes de for­mes com­ple­xes. Cette co­lla­bo­ra­tion sera pour vous une chance de faire vos heu­res de stage ou bien de pra­ti­quer ce genre de tech­ni­ques avec les nou­veaux ou­tils – AOF est la seule firme ou pres­que à tra­vai­ller de ce genre au Québec.

S’il vous plaît con­tac­tez Mau­rice Mar­tel au bu­reau AOF.

2010.01 // In­terns Needed

Open Form Archi­tec­ture is see­king stu­dent in­tern co­lla­bo­ra­tors to help with di­gi­tal fa­bri­ca­tion re­search. Our ideal can­di­date al­ready has some know­ledge of Rhi­no­ce­ros 3D and other 3D soft­wa­res and an in­te­rest in pa­ra­me­tric mo­de­ling and sc­rip­ting. We need to build phy­si­cal mo­dels from di­gi­tal mo­dels using nu­me­rous pro­ces­ses inc­lu­ded la­ser cut­ting and CNC mi­lling. Also inc­lu­ded is the buil­ding of our own in-house CNC machine to test dif­fe­rent fa­bri­ca­tion pro­ces­ses and com­plex sha­ping. This co­lla­bo­ra­tion is a chance to count your pro­fes­sio­nal in­ternship hours and to prac­tice these new form-making tech­ni­ques with new tools and soft­wa­res –OFA is one of the few of­fi­ces in Qué­bec to use such tools.

Please con­tact Mau­rice Mar­tel at the OFA of­fice.

The CNC Machine pro­to­toype at the SAIC, Chi­cago; Photo by DIYLILCNC

At Open Form we’re busy coor­di­na­ting our cons­truc­tion of our first CNC machine, the DIYLILCNC. It’s an open source DIY pro­ject de­ve­lo­ped by Ch­ris and Tal­yor — two staf­fers at the SAIC — School of the Art Ins­ti­tute of Chi­cago. The 3-axis machine has a cut­ting area of 12″ x 14″ x 2″ (x,y,z), but these li­mits can be pla­yed with crea­ti­vely. We have all the parts on or­der, and will post more when we have pho­tos of the pro­ject and our ex­pe­ri­ments. In the mean time, if you’re in­te­res­ted in buil­ding the machine, we have star­ted a post on the web­site for Buil­ding a LILDIYCNC Machine in Ca­nada.

I have been wor­king on de­ve­lo­ping a set of ef­fi­cient Rhino3D Short­cut Alia­ses (Goo­gle Code link) for Rhi­no­ce­ros 3D, ver­sion 4.0. These are ba­sed on the work of Max­wan Archi­tects + Ur­ba­nists in Rot­ter­dam, and their long-term de­ve­lop­ment of Au­to­CAD short­cuts that you can down­load from Dysturb.Net. I have de­ve­lo­ped the Rhino3D sys­tem in pa­ra­llel for ease of in­terchange bet­ween the two softwares.

The ins­ta­lla­tion is sim­ple, and fully ex­plai­ned on the Goo­gle Code page (link above). You simply im­port the .txt file and overw­rite the de­faults. A Mic­ro­soft Ex­cel file shows the list of used com­mands (and unu­sed com­mands for fu­ture de­ve­lop­ment). Feel free to make sug­ges­tions on further commands!

Op­tion Ex­pli­cit
’Sc­ript writ­ten by Ma­xime Mo­reau
’Sc­ript copy­righ­ted by Open Form Archi­tec­ture
’This sc­ript lo­cate a new point on a curve ac­cor­ding to its dis­tance from either the CurveDomain(0), the Cur­ve­Sart­Point or the CurveDomain(1), the Cur­veEnd­Point.
’Sc­ript ver­sion Tues­day, No­vem­ber 24, 2009 11:26:07 PM

Call Main()
Sub Main()

Dim ob­ject, do­main, crvNewLength

” dis­tance of the new point
crv­New­Length = 50

ob­ject = Rhino.getObject(“select cur­ves”, 4)
do­main = Rhino.CurveDomain (object)

” new point from the CurveDomain(0) or the Cur­veS­tart­Point
If crv­New­Length > do­main (1) Then
Rhino.MessageBox “Curve new length > Cur­ve­Do­main: ” & CStr(domain(1))
Else
Rhino.AddPoint Rhino.EvaluateCurve (ob­ject, (domain(0) + crv­New­Length))
End If

” new point from the CurveDomain(0) or Cur­veEnd­Point
’ If crv­New­Length > do­main (1) Then
’ Rhino.MessageBox “Curve new length > Cur­ve­Do­main: ” & CStr(domain(1))
’ Else
’ Rhino.AddPoint Rhino.EvaluateCurve (ob­ject, (domain(1) — crv­New­Length))
’ End If

End Sub

Vi­deo show­ca­sing Hol­ger Schubert’s Ma­se­rati Ga­rage in Los An­ge­les, CA

Ear­lier this year, Ma­se­rati and Archi­tec­tu­ral Di­gest ma­ga­zine to­gether in­vi­ted in­di­vi­duals who ap­pre­ciate fine de­sign in ge­ne­ral and cars in par­ti­cu­lar to join in a com­pe­ti­tion tit­led “De­sign Dri­ven.” Two ca­te­go­ries — Exis­ting and Con­cept — as­ked en­trants to sub­mit a ga­rage de­sign that inc­lu­ded a no­ted archi­tec­tu­ral ele­ment, uni­que­ness and in­di­vi­dua­lity, while pro­vi­ding a com­ple­men­tary en­vi­ron­ment for a Ma­se­rati car. Hol­ger Shubert’s exis­ting Los An­ge­les ga­rage, as well as the de­sign of Ch­ris Alt­man, of Stubbs Mul­drow He­rin Archi­tects of South Ca­ro­lina, in the con­cept ca­te­gory de­mons­trate that the au­to­mo­bi­les con­ti­nue to create the or­ga­ni­za­tio­nal lo­gic of Los An­ge­les. Cars re­main ine­ra­di­cably as­so­cia­ted with Los An­ge­les. All en­tries can be vie­wed at De­sign­Dri­ven.

Vi­deo, by LA Times

Here is the la­test pre­fab ur­ban pro­ject, the Palm House, in Ve­nice, Ca­li­for­nia, by the archi­tects Mar­mol Rad­zi­ner and as­so­cia­tes. The house will be open to vi­si­tors and Leo Mar­mol will speak on the pre­fab pro­cess and its role in today’s hou­sing mar­ket. This is also a nice op­por­tu­nity to see the Vienna Way re­si­dence which sits right be­side. Please see their web­site for more in­for­ma­tion. The Palms House is lo­ca­ted at 734 Palms Blvd. in Ve­nice, CA.

Will’s Bar pro­ject, Dra­wing (what I re­mem­ber of it)

Bri­tish archi­tect, Will Al­sop, of­fe­red a vi­brant lec­ture at the Ca­na­dian Cen­tre for Archi­tec­ture in Montréal, pre­sen­ting his de­sign pro­cess and a va­riety of crea­tive works (sho­wing every­ting from con­cep­tual mo­dels to pain­tings, dra­wings, pho­to­graphs and di­verse ani­ma­tions). Here is one dra­wing for the Will’s Bar pro­ject that ex­plo­res the idea of crea­ting an unu­sual buil­ding to at­tract peo­ple; to make them cu­rious about the space.

The exhi­bi­tion Will Al­sop: OCAD, An Ur­ban Ma­ni­festo will be, fea­tu­res Will Alsop’s pre­pa­ra­tory work for the Sharp Cen­tre for De­sign at the On­ta­rio Co­llege of Art & De­sign (OCAD) in To­ronto and re­veals spe­ci­fi­cally the role of pain­ting in his de­sign process.

We will pre­sent our la­test work at the Spe­cial Edi­tion of Pecha Kucha Montréal, as part of the Por­tes Ou­ver­tes De­sign Montréal. The event will take place at the SAT — So­ciety for Arts and Tech­no­logy on the 3rd May 2008. The doors open at 20:00 and OFA will be the first pre­sen­ters, star­ting promptly at 20:20.

Open Form Archi­tec­ture launched a new ver­sion (2.1) of its web site. The pro­cess is still un­der­way, and the new pro­ject ima­ges are being uploa­ded, but lots of new ma­te­rial is now al­ready on­line. Enjoy!

Here are two vi­deos in re­la­tionship with our re­search on the Image, Iden­tity and In­te­gra­tion in the Los An­ge­les hou­sing de­ve­lop­ment. The Rain­bow Apart­ments is a sig­ni­fi­cant pro­ject, de­sig­ned by Michael Mal­tzan Archi­tec­ture, for the ho­me­less com­mu­nity in Los An­ge­les. Ac­cor­ding to the Ins­ti­tute for the Study of Ho­me­less­ness, an es­ti­ma­ted 254,000 men, wo­men and chil­dren ex­pe­rience ho­me­less­ness in Los An­ge­les County.

This buil­ding goes well be­yond the kind of pro­ject that would be de­ve­lo­ped for this kind of com­mu­nity — the ho­me­less. With this pro­ject Michael Mal­tzan breaks the tra­di­tio­nal pa­ra­digm of what af­for­da­ble hou­ses are and chan­ges its dy­na­mic. “The Rain­bow apart­ments set up a new mo­del not only for a buil­ding, but for an en­tire com­bi­na­tion of so­cial en­ter­pri­ses, and not only pro­du­ces a new pa­ra­digms just for Los An­ge­les, but the pos­si­bi­lity of crea­ting a new na­tio­nal mo­del,” says Mal­tzan. Be­si­des, the pro­ject ad­dres­ses how to coun­te­ract the in­su­la­rity and her­me­tic na­ture of the inha­bi­tants’ daily li­ves and con­cerns over sa­fety and se­cu­rity, in­tro­du­cing open­ness, so­cial spa­ces, and ena­bling a rein­te­gra­tion of their li­ves into pu­blic life as a whole. Arran­ged in a par­tially open U-shaped con­fi­gu­ra­tion, five floors of re­si­den­tial units cradle a cen­tral court­yard on top of a socle of par­king and ad­mi­nis­tra­tive func­tions on the ground floor. A chain of pu­blic spa­ces and ex­te­rior gathe­ring areas are car­ved out or ex­tru­ded from the mass to erode the building’s ap­pa­rent so­li­dity, crea­ting var­ying depths of con­nec­tion and views bet­ween the in­ter­nal life of the court­yard and the world outside.

OFA’s co­lla­bo­ra­tor, Ch­ris­tophe Platt­ner, wrote us, while vi­si­ting his home town in Ba­sel, Swi­tzer­land, about this new pro­ject of Zaha Ha­did Archi­tects, the Stadt­ca­sino, to in­form us that the new city ca­sino was re­jec­ted at the urn by a clear ma­jo­rity, not only be­cause the ci­ti­zens found it too large and ex­pen­sive, but also be­cause they felt not enough in­for­med by the autho­ri­ties. Here is an ani­ma­tion, by Neu­tral, which in­ves­ti­ga­tes the buil­dings in­te­gra­tion into the archi­tec­tu­ral and cul­tu­ral fa­bric of Ba­sel — a new short­cut con­nec­ting two ma­jor squa­res de­ter­mi­nes an archi­tec­tu­ral lands­cape to ac­cess the old and new parts of a mu­sic ve­nue — and de­mons­tra­tes the inc­rea­sing con­ver­gence bet­ween mo­tion graphics and the built environment.

Vi­deo by Brooklyn Di­gi­tal Foundry

Here again, we ea­sily dis­tin­guish REX’s ope­ra­tion to comb, con­so­li­date, and iden­tify a set of pro­gram­ma­tic clus­ters de­sig­ned with dif­fe­rent pur­po­ses: a 5,000 m² con­tem­po­rary art cen­tre; 3,400 m² of stu­dios, glass shop, and ga­llery for the Uni­ver­sity of Louisville’s Mas­ter of Fine Arts pro­gram; a 250-room Wes­tin Ho­tel; 98 lu­xury con­do­mi­niums; 117 lofts; 25,000 m² of of­fice space on 13 floors; 1,860 m² of res­tau­rants and shops; un­der­ground par­king ga­rage for 800 cars.

The fi­nal re­sult is a 214-meter-tall, 62-story skysc­ra­per, dis­pla­ying another dis­tinc­tive and ico­nic fi­gure which par­ti­ci­pa­tes in what Koolhaas desc­ri­bes as: “an archi­pe­lago of ci­ties in the city”. One might see a co­llec­tion of tra­di­tio­nal skysc­ra­pers pla­ced on top of each other above a tra­di­tio­nal ur­ban pat­tern, but in rea­lity, even if the Mu­seum Plaza doesn’t re­vise the su­per­po­si­tion of floors in the ty­pi­cal Ame­ri­can high-rise –in the same way as the Seattle Li­brary– this pro­ject is a beau­ti­ful and in­ven­tive va­ria­tion on the clas­sic skysc­ra­per; a new vi­sion of skysc­ra­per. The Mu­seum Plaza will doubt­less re­de­fine the Loui­siana sky­line and cer­tainly change the way archi­tects, ur­ba­nists, and en­gi­neers shall think about tomorrow’s new high-rises and the pro­cess of urbanization.

Ima­ges by Pugh+Scarpa Architects

In De­cem­ber 2006, Brad Pitt con­ve­ned a group of ex­perts in New Or­leans to­brains­torm about buil­ding green af­for­da­ble hou­sing on a large scale to help­vic­tims of Hu­rri­cane Ka­trina. Ha­ving spent time with com­mu­nity lea­ders and­dis­pla­ced re­si­dents de­ter­mi­ned to re­turn home, Pitt rea­li­zed that anop­por­tu­nity exis­ted to build hou­ses that were not only stron­ger and healthier, but that had less im­pact on the en­vi­ron­ment. Af­ter dis­cus­sing the hurd­les as­so­cia­ted with re­buil­ding in a de­vas­ta­te­da­rea, the group de­ter­mi­ned that a large-scale re­de­ve­lop­ment pro­ject fo­cu­sed on green af­for­da­ble hou­sing and in­cor­po­ra­ting in­no­va­tive de­sign was in­deed pos­si­ble. Con­ti­nue rea­ding ‘Brad Pitt an­nou­ces vi­sion for Lo­wer Ninth Ward’

Ne­vada House 1, by Mar­mol Rad­zi­ner Prefab

Af­ter the big suc­cess of the De­sert House, a pre­fab home de­sig­ned by Mar­mol Rad­zi­ner Pre­fab, here is their new arri­val: the Ne­vada House 1. This pro­ject not only com­bine the be­ne­fits of a cus­tom re­si­den­tial de­sign with the ef­fi­ciency of factory-built hou­ses, but also clearly ex­press this change in the way hou­ses are now thought and bought. Be­fore Thanks­gi­ving, Mar­mol Rad­zi­ner Pre­fab ins­ta­lled the thirty five mo­du­les of Ne­vada House 1 in just th­ree days without a glitch. Check out their new vi­deo for a glimpse of the ex­ci­ting de­li­very and installation.

Nearly-completed mo­du­les arri­ved at the Las Ve­gas site with pre-installed ca­se­work, win­dows, doors, fix­tu­res, and wood si­ding. A crane set the mo­du­les on the foun­da­tion to create 8,100 square feet of in­te­rior li­ving space and 3,400 square feet of co­ve­red deck for indoor-outdoor living.

Ne­vada House 1 is Mar­mol Rad­zi­ner Pre­bab first two-story pre­fab home. At the same time as their fac­tory was fa­bri­ca­ting the mo­du­les, the site foun­da­tion was being pre­pa­red. The foun­da­tion inc­lu­des a sun­ken auto court and sub­te­rra­nean bas­ket­ball court, wine sto­rage, and me­dia room to create more usa­ble spa­ces be­low grade.

Af­ter se­ve­ral years of de­ve­lop­ment, the archi­tect, Mar­mol Rad­zi­ner Pre­fab, de­mons­tra­tes that it is pos­si­ble to make sty­lish and sus­tai­na­ble pre­fab hou­sing rea­lity while suc­cee­ding to un­ders­tand the cul­ture of buil­ding in Southern California/Nevada — to take ad­van­tage of indoor/outdoor living.

Pro­cess

Few months ago, I got the chance to in­ter­view the archi­tect Law­rence Scarpa, prin­ci­pal of Pugh+Scarpa, on the im­pact of sus­tai­na­ble de­sign on the fi­gure and in­te­gra­tion of his own house, the So­lar Um­bre­lla, in Ve­nice. Ins­pi­red by Paul Rudolph’s Um­bre­lla House of 1953, the So­lar Um­bre­lla pro­vi­des a con­tem­po­rary rein­ven­tion of the so­lar canopy—a stra­tegy that pro­vi­des ther­mal pro­tec­tion in cli­ma­tes with in­tense exposures—using pho­to­vol­taic pa­nels to pro­vide 100% of the home’s energy needs. Con­ti­nue rea­ding ‘Che­ro­kee Lofts Breaks Ground?, Pugh+Scarpa Architects’

Stock­man Re­si­dence, © Ro­ger Ku­rath, Designer

Lo­ca­ted in Santa Mo­nica, the Stock­man Re­si­dence sits on a tight cor­ner lot, at a very busy street in­ter­sec­tion. The house is su­rroun­ded by tall apart­ment buil­dings on the south side and a mo­dest park with dense treed areas on the east side. “Within this con­text, the tra­di­tio­nal house ty­po­logy with front yard, front porch and back yard is ill-suited and de­mands to be re-imagined so to bet­ter res­pond to its su­rroun­ding,” says the de­sig­ner, Ro­ger Ku­rath.
Con­ti­nue rea­ding ‘Stock­man Re­si­dence, Los Angeles’

Bet­ween 12pm on Sep­tem­ber 22nd and 12pm on Sep­tem­ber 23rd, Open Form Archi­tec­ture will par­ti­ci­pate to a 24-hour, non-stop, Surf-a-Thon or­ga­ni­zed by Make a wave pro­ject to help sup­port Oceana and their ef­fort to clean and pro­tect our world’s oceans. I will be sur­fing the event Sa­tur­day, Sep­tem­ber 22nd from 3pm-6pm and Sun­day, Sep­tem­ber 23rd from 9am-12pm with Team Sandshark. You can ex­pect two days of mu­sic and fun in the sun and sea.

Our friends from De­bon­naire were re­cently hi­red by a yoga com­pany to re­cons­truct their image. Debonnaire’s bran­ding re­flects sim­pli­city and qua­lity. The way the let­ters are grou­ped and in­tert­wi­ned to­gether, com­bi­ned with the way the in­for­ma­tion is cen­tra­li­zed create a clean and sim­ple pat­tern — a light de­sign that re­minds us that yoga is a dis­ci­pline that pro­mo­tes the con­trol of the mind (the let­ter M of da­li­Mama) and the body (the A of yogA) th­rough a se­ries of pos­tu­res. The MA sym­bol clearly ex­pres­ses this idea.

Thom Mayne, archi­tect, and 2005 Pritz­ker Prize lau­reate, in in­ter­view with Char­lie Rose

Ja­mie Re­si­dence. Photo cour­tesy of Escher Gu­ne­War­dena Architecture

Cul­ture in Los Angeles

In the Los An­ge­les me­tro­po­li­tan area, the image and iden­tity of the archi­tec­tu­ral lands­cape is not only as­so­cia­ted with the di­ver­sity of cul­tu­ral in­fluen­ces, but also de­fi­ned by the com­plex, ex­ten­sive free­way net­works that criss-cross the still fast-growing region.

Along with the beaches, palm trees, and mo­vie stu­dios, the free­ways of Southern Ca­li­for­nia –and au­to­mo­bi­les– create the or­ga­ni­za­tio­nal lo­gic of Los An­ge­les. To­gether; they re­pre­sent one of the main tra­de­marks of the me­tro­po­li­tan re­gion. “Vi­si­tors to Los An­ge­les most of­ten re­mem­ber its free­ways, either with ad­mi­ra­tion or dis­gust. The free­ways (rather than in­di­vi­dual buil­dings, or grand ave­nues or pu­blic spa­ces) re­main ine­ra­di­cably as­so­cia­ted with Los An­ge­les. Be­cause the free­ways create the to­tal con­text of Los An­ge­les and be­cause they con­di­tion the per­cep­tion of Los An­ge­les,” ex­plains the his­to­rian Paul Zy­gas. Con­ti­nue rea­ding ‘Ja­mie Residence’

This is the re­sult of a study with Mathe­ma­tica on the way to “pro­duce” an enor­mous pos­si­ble range of sha­pes. This tool that we’ve made allows us to create any shape by set­ting re­gu­lar or irre­gu­lar boun­da­ries. then the soft­ware com­pu­tes and gi­ves born to some alien ba­bies. This is all pa­ra­me­tri­cal and ba­sed on mathe­ma­ti­cal func­tions. Mathe­ma­tica is a po­wer­full soft­ware that Open Form will use ef­fi­ciently from now on.

These are the re­sults of one of our pro­ject at the sum­mer school of New Kind of Science.

Con­ti­nue rea­ding ‘Trac­ta­ble Shape II’

to­tal­ru­les = 3¹⁵ — 1
14348906

fa­vo­ri­te­rule = 5448110;

Array­Plot[
CellularAutomaton[{favoriterule, {3, {3, 1, 3}}}, {{1},
0}, {{0, 2000}, {-2000, 2000}}], Pi­xel­Cons­trai­ned -> 1,
Co­lo­rRu­les -> {0 -> Ye­llow, 1 -> Red, 2 -> Gray}]
Con­ti­nue rea­ding ‘Th­ree Co­lors Ou­ter To­ta­lis­tic Ce­llu­lar Automaton’

What if a buil­ding could shape itself de­pen­ding on the con­text where it is built!
This sta­te­ment might be hard to un­ders­tand in a phy­si­cal world, but let’s as­sume, for ins­tance, that it is a theo­re­ti­cal pro­blem. In fact, a buil­ding al­ways has to res­pond to cer­tain cons­traints due to the con­text whe­rein it is insc­ribe. In­deed, streets, su­rroun­ding buil­dings, mu­ni­ci­pa­li­ties’ ru­les and co­des, to­po­graphy, the pro­gram of the buil­ding (its use), etc. are the tip of the ice­berg of what an archi­tect has to deal with when he is de­sig­ning a building.

Con­ti­nue rea­ding ‘Trac­ta­ble Shape I’

POPULATION GROWTH VS HOUSE TYPOLOGY
Los An­ge­les con­ti­nues to inc­rease in den­sity and there is now an ur­gent need for more peo­ple to find a place to live in­side the city. Ho­we­ver, the de­sire of the inha­bi­tants who al­ready live within the ur­ban areas is to con­ti­nue kee­ping the cu­rrent low den­sity which re­sem­bles that of a su­burb. Con­se­quently the re­sults of this ten­sion dis­turb not only the form of the ur­ban lands­cape of LA, but also be­gin to se­ve­rely trans­form both the shape and iden­tity of its do­mes­tic ty­po­lo­gies. Ro­ger Sher­man of Ro­ger Sher­man Archi­tec­ture + Ur­ban De­sign sta­tes that to­day “Los An­ge­les needs to build more within its exis­ting size, within its exis­ting foot­print.”
Con­ti­nue rea­ding ‘3-in-1 House (Schab-Sherman Residence)’

Please click here for PDF

Main entry from Wood­lawn Avenue

Du­ring the 2005 AIA Ve­nice Home Tour, I got the chance to vi­sit the So­lar Um­bre­lla House. I was in­te­res­ted by the way the archi­tect and ow­ner, Law­rence Scarpa, in­te­gra­ted a new ad­di­tion to an exis­ting 1920’s one story bun­ga­low. Soon af­ter, I con­tac­ted him to dis­cuss on the image, iden­tity and in­te­gra­tion of his house.

Here is my in­ter­view with Law­rence Scarpa of Pugh + Scarpa Archi­tec­ture
Pic­tu­res by Mar­vin Rand
Con­ti­nue rea­ding ‘So­lar Um­bre­lla House, Pugh+Scarpa Architecture’

Con­cept Diagram

Fun­da­men­tally the house is our shel­ter, but it is also a place of ap­pro­pria­tion, where we create our iden­ti­ties and our me­mo­ries. An in­ter­face with the world, the home is a de­vice in which we fil­ter our en­vi­ron­ment and trans­fer in­for­ma­tion about our­sel­ves to others. Our pro­po­sal for the plan-less house seeks to create a sim­ple sys­tem of mo­va­ble ele­ments which to­gether yield al­most an in­fi­nite com­bi­na­tion of spa­tial con­fi­gu­ra­tions. The idea of the home is no lon­ger a plan dia­gram in­di­ca­ting a hie­rarchy of di­vi­sions, but a set of va­ria­bles which crea­tes a fle­xi­ble sys­tem adap­ting to the user. Now a more in­te­res­ting and com­plex exchange and in­te­rac­tion can oc­cur, one in which the inhabiter(s) can cons­tantly re-appropriate, re-territorialize space as nee­ded. The house con­cep­tually be­co­mes a stage set, in which many ac­ti­vi­ties and story­li­nes take place si­mul­ta­neously in the same “space” and can also be re­con­fi­gu­red for dif­fe­rent “sce­nes.” A mu­ta­ble code for li­ving, the plan-less house ful­fills the need for the spa­tial com­ple­xity which our li­festy­les de­mand.
Con­ti­nue rea­ding ‘Plan-Less House, OFA’

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In 2004, “Open Form Archi­tec­ture” was crea­ted by th­ree in­tern archi­tects – Ma­xime Mo­reau, Mau­rice Mar­tel and Da­rrel Ronald.

We are an ec­lec­tic group of friends whose li­ves have cros­sed in many dif­fe­rent pla­ces and spa­ces th­roughout the years. Inc­lu­ding our core group, we have had many spe­cial, ex­ci­ting co­lla­bo­ra­tions with friends from around the world.

Even though we have li­ved in dif­fe­rent coun­tries and con­ti­nents, we are ex­ci­ted to an­nounce that we have re­gis­te­red our stu­dio in the pro­vince of Que­bec, Ca­nada. Since re­gis­te­ring in a French pro­vince, we are le­gally tit­led: Archi­tec­ture Open Form. Both the En­glish and French na­mes will be in use!

Thank you for you sup­port th­rough all these years.

In 2006, I par­ti­ci­pa­ted at the NKS Sum­mer School, which was a de­fi­ning ex­pe­rience. The to­pic of my re­search was THE SPACE BETWEEN THE CELLULAR AUTOMATA: Re­wor­king the Spa­tial Di­vi­sion in Archi­tec­ture. Du­ring the last year, I con­ti­nued to ex­plore this idea and used it in va­rious in­ter­na­tio­nal archi­tec­tu­ral com­pe­ti­tions en­tries, such as the Plan-Less House (Ja­pan) and The Stockholm Li­brary (Sweden).This sum­mer, I will par­ti­ci­pate for a se­cond time to the NKS Sum­mer School at the Uni­ver­sity of Ver­mont, Bur­ling­ton, Vt. Du­ring this year’s pro­gram I will ad­vance my re­search by ex­plo­ring Net­work Struc­tu­res in architecture.

As Ste­ven Wol­fram ar­gues, “Space is a giant net­work of no­des” we see that, as op­po­sed to the me­tro­po­li­ses of the twen­tieth cen­tury, con­tem­po­rary so­ciety pro­du­ces Net­works of Ci­ties. These ci­ties work si­mul­ta­neously on their in­ter­nal re­no­va­tion, inc­rea­sing their ef­fi­ciency from within, while they or­ga­nize them­sel­ves te­rri­to­rially in the form of a NETWORK OF CITIES.
Con­ti­nue rea­ding ‘Net­work Struc­tu­res in Architecture’

Exis­ting house

The Box House re­pla­ces one of se­ve­ral California-modern ho­mes built in a 1950’s plan­ned de­ve­lop­ment in Por­tola Va­lley, Ca­li­for­nia. This neigh­borhood was la­ced with wal­king trails and ma­ture lands­cape that hel­ped se­pa­rate the clo­sely si­ted dwe­llings that were ba­sed on a style ce­le­bra­ting inside/outside qua­li­ties of li­ving. Within this cons­truc­ted en­vi­ron­ment, fa­bri­ca­ted on con­ven­tio­nal mid-twentieth cen­tury no­tion of “mo­dern li­ving,” the house found itself in di­rect dia­lo­gue with past and con­tem­po­rary no­tions of lands­cape, dwe­lling, and the func­tions of the “mo­dern” home.

The in­te­rac­tion of pu­blic and pri­vate space within the home — al­ways a pro­gram­ma­tic con­cern — was heigh­te­ned in this case. Yet the clients also de­si­red pri­vacy from the su­rroun­ding neigh­borhood while ope­ning the house to de­si­ra­ble lands­cape ele­ments. The cha­llenge was then to pro­vide pri­vacy within the house from the ou­tside neigh­borhood while allo­wing for free flo­wing pu­blic spa­ces. Pu­blic spa­ces en­gage and create an ac­tive dia­lo­gue with both dis­tance lands­cape views and the tem­pe­rate Northern Ca­li­for­nian climate.

Street fa­cade, Photo by Tim Griffith

The so­lu­tion that emer­ged was a 2900 square foot house fo­cu­sed on the archi­tec­tu­ral ar­ti­cu­la­tion of its pu­blic and pri­vate spa­ces as well as its ma­te­rials. An ele­va­ted vo­lume of be­drooms is con­tai­ned within a wood clad box. The box is ro­ta­ted on the site an­ne­xing the space of an ad­ja­cent ea­se­ment. Held above the pu­blic spa­ces of the house, the be­drooms are lo­ca­ted re­la­tive to the view in and out to the site. Hill­side views are fra­med while the views to the neigh­borhood are bloc­ked and fil­te­red by the de­tai­ling of the wood screen.

The wood box is struc­tu­red by a se­ries of li­near site walls that stretch the length of the site. These richly co­lo­red plas­ter piers create a dis­tinct di­rec­tio­nal field ac­ross the site that be­co­mes the walls of the li­ving, di­ning and stu­dio spa­ces on the lo­wer le­vel. An in­fill win­dow and pa­nel sys­tem com­ple­tes the enc­lo­sure while allo­wing for large ope­nings to the gar­den and te­rrace areas.

In the end, the Box House res­ponds to its in­di­vi­dual site and clients’ needs, as well as to the ty­pi­cal su­bur­ban con­di­tions. Ove­rall, the pu­blic and pri­vate spa­ces of the house come together.

Sec­tion and Plan

Lo­ca­ted on a cor­ner site at 17th and Hope streets in down­town Los An­ge­les, the pro­ject pro­po­ses a 6-story apart­ment buil­ding that inc­lu­des ap­pro­xi­ma­tely 87 ef­fi­ciency units of se­nior af­for­da­ble hou­sing, com­mu­nity rec­rea­tion room, com­mu­nal di­ning room, kitchen, laundry, and ad­mi­nis­tra­tive spa­ces. The site is ad­ja­cent to a free­way on-ramp con­nec­ting to the 10/110 Free­way in­terchange and is within blocks of the Sta­ples Con­ven­tion Cen­ter to the west and the Ca­li­for­nia Hos­pi­tal Me­di­cal Cen­ter to the north. The tran­si­tio­nal cha­rac­ter of its lo­ca­tion at the edge of down­town and ad­ja­cency to the free­way re­qui­res the pro­ject ad­dress en­vi­ron­men­tal fac­tors such as sa­fety, noise, and pri­vacy.
Con­ti­nue rea­ding ‘New Car­ver Apartments’

(John­son House street facade)

THE EVOLUTION OF LOS ANGELES
The image and iden­tity of Los An­ge­les archi­tec­ture, es­pe­cially its hou­sing ty­po­logy can best be un­ders­tood th­rough the evo­lu­tion of the city as a cul­tu­ral entity.

Los An­ge­les al­ways has been a me­tro­po­lis with great dis­tinc­tions and as Michael Webb has sta­ted: “Los An­ge­les has lu­red the strug­gling and the am­bi­tious from all around the world.” For archi­tects, the city is a uni­que te­rri­tory to test news forms, pro­grams and arran­ge­ments as well as to ex­plore au­da­cious and ec­cen­tric buil­ding design.

Con­ti­nue rea­ding ‘John­son House, John­son Fain Architects’

Im­pos­si­ble to ex­press in plan due to the cons­trai­ned size of the site, this 2400sf re­si­dence di­ver­ges from the pre-established res­ponse to front and back yards by ba­lan­ced ar­ti­cu­la­tion of the skin on all fa­ces in the ver­ti­cal di­rec­tion.
Con­ti­nue rea­ding ‘Ver­ti­cal House, Lor­can O’Herlihy Architects’

THE CONTEXT OF LOS ANGELES

“When I first arri­ved in Los An­ge­les, I was sur­pri­sed by the size and den­sity within the re­si­den­tial lots,” says Swiss-born archi­tect Ro­ger Ku­rath, of Cul­ver City’s De­sign 21. It is not unu­sual to see se­ve­ral single-family hou­ses pla­ced on one long, na­rrow site. This type of den­sity is of­ten the re­sult of the inc­rea­sing po­pu­la­tion Los An­ge­les is experiencing.

(Du­plex with a se­pa­rate of­fice, Santa Mo­nica)
Con­ti­nue rea­ding ‘Reitz Residence’