Design Studio 3

An in-depth analytical study is made of everyday domestic, work, and recreational rituals through written research and case study, with an emphasis on spatial accommodation of program through materiality, finish, structure, and form. Projects set in limited contexts emphasize the influence of internally driven relationships, with a special focus on hybrid programming. Students will be asked to position their projects within a specific site within the city of the Los Angeles and in so doing confront one of the central problems of round buildings. As students position, shift, and transform their proposals, they will also be asked to take clear stance (in writing) on how their round buildings, despite its formal separation from the ground, engages the context of the city. Questions of porosity, opacity, orientation, elevation, and egress will be of key importance.

By looking at symmetry as a default value of the overall plan, as said by William Bateson, the Santa Maria della Consolazione has a default of five circles and one centralized square, allowing variations to be done throughout the plan to create unique interior and/or exterior shapes. By then selecting certain components of the horizontal diagram the Santa Maria della Consolazione begins to take the same shape in the vertical form of the church. Similarly, this project’s vertical form is also constructed by the horizontal diagram. This aquatic center has a default value of one hexagon and five circles with the center points located at the corners of a central pentagon. Through the development of selected areas in the diagram the plan displays global asymmetry with local symmetries. The Santa Maria della Consolazione has a large open center and located at each of the sections are niches with different statues and art. In this project the center of each level is open space and programs are fitted around the default circles. By then taking the same diagram to the site of the aquatic center, this project creates a relationship through the same shapes used to create the levels into the site.