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MELTED FORMS: BULLOCKS WILSHIRE BACKYARD PLAZA

1: STUDIO DESCRIPTION

This semester, superfluous studio focuses on melted forms explored through a physical model-oriented design process. The studio's main objective is to transform an existing private parking structure in the backyard of the historic art deco Bullocks Wilshire Building on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles' Koreatown neighborhood into a public plaza.

At the moment, this parking building occupies one of the largest surface areas with a temporary-use architectural program, thus creating a barrier to the movement of the district's inhabitants and visitors. Apart from mainly staying empty the majority of the time, the private parking lot caters only to the university program currently housed in the Bullocks Wilshire Building. This condition deepens the border of privacy between public, commercial and institutional programs. 

To meet the pedestrian potential of the historic district of Koreatown, the students are asked to design an open-air mixed-use plaza. This plaza will be a space that can be used by university students and staff, the general public, local working body as well as, residents, etc.

The infrastructural focus of the design process will be to produce accessibility to the backyard of the Bullocks Wilshire Building from the main access points, such as Wilshire Boulevard and 7th Street, as well as the various public transportation stations of the district for pedestrians.

The studio will result in the design of a place for gathering that allows the existing programs on the project site to function as they previously did with the integration of new interwoven public spaces and semi-private architectural programs while concentrating on designing new forms of landscapes.

2: COURSE ORGANIZATION & DESIGN PROCESS

The course will be held in English, and the students will be working in teams of 2. To respond to the design brief, the teams will observe and analyze the general Los Angeles area, followed by the district of Koreatown and the Bullocks Wilshire Building. Then, they will use a form-oriented design process in which each group will look at different ways to shape wax to make a new melting form. The teams will then make digital collections of these various explorations that will become libraries of 3D models, 2D drawings, lines, forms, images, stories, etc. This library will then be utilized for the architectural production and design processes.

The courses will be structured around various discussions on architecture such as; form & shape, solid & void, softness & hardness, stability & instability, line & surface, image & object, content & context, ground & figure, as well as landscape & architecture. 

The design process will consist of several tasks and steps, which will be introduced in the first class. Through various steps, the students will be asked to construct and imagine formerly unexplored urban applications and experiment with new materials in architectural models. 

The main goal of the studio is to get a better understanding of the architectural, urban, and graphic information that is usually available in cities. This is so that new and complex urban relationships can be made within the existing contexts and so that the physical models can be used to learn new architectural information. 

Lehrveranstaltungsprüfung gemäß § 7 Satzungsteil, Studienrechtliche Bestimmungen.

Wird im Rahmen der ersten Lehrveranstaltung besprochen.

Class will be held in English.
First Class will take place on the 8th of March, 09:00 am at the Institute of Urban Design (Staedtebau 3.OG). Please bring your laptops!