Proto-architecture - Design Studio
UCLA - Architecture and Urban Design - M.Arch 1st year 411 - Fall 2024The studio posits that architecture can transcend any specific program and its duration, and can establish spatial and tectonic order that can lead to the invention of new programs during the life of a building. Unlike subsequent studios, during which an analysis of a given site or program may drive the design process, this studio reverses the sequence and instead begins with the organizational and experiential capacity of form. As such, form will inform the program and context within which it is situated. Rooted in representational conventions, namely the orthographic projection, students will experiment with the creation of proto-architectural conditions, examining how their formal and representational approaches imply specific ways of inhabiting and experiencing space.
It could be argued that the environment we live in, the buildings we inhabit, and the public spaces we gather around, are the most substantial results of our work as architects. As many have pointed out before, however, as architects we do not make buildings. We make representations – images, drawings, models – which then lead to buildings through various processes of translation. It is often in this translation across media that possible discoveries emerge and innovation takes place. In this context, architecture is understood as a form of mediation between its discipline and the larger world beyond.
Unlike a napkin sketch, which typically originates during an isolated process of introspection, the two initial exercises – Part A and Part B – each begin with an artifact already found in the world. One is a 3-dimensional physical object, the other is a 2-dimensional digital image of an abstract drawing or pattern. The intent is to provoke inclusion of diverse ideas and contexts, evoking the multivalent and collaborative nature of architectural formation through shared authorship, re-purposing, and ubiquity of visual media present today. It will be crucial for students to properly credit their sources and document their process throughout the entire quarter.
Students work by Brittany Min, Hardy Wang, Chengdong Ying, Shane Zhang, Joanne Qiongdan Liang, Jacob Brown, Yige Cai - UCLA - Architecture and Urban Design - M.Arch 1st year - Fall 2024