Open Form Architecture Blog

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.

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.

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’

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’

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)’

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’

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’