Category: ARCH 793AB: Tactical Techniques

Contemporary Asian cities grapple with a pressing issue: insufficient residential spaces in the urban core. Urban stagnation, exacerbated by restrictive zoning, fuels congestion and inflates property prices, rendering existing urban housing unattainable for the average worker. Drawing inspiration from geological strata, “City above Cities” proposes a novel approach to urban renewal. This concept involves layering new architectural designs atop the existing urban fabric, akin to geological strata formation. By preserving the old while accommodating organic growth, this method offers a comprehensive solution to urban revitalization. Through strategic integration of new structures, the initiative aims to alleviate housing shortages, foster sustainable urban regeneration, and promotes inclusive growth in cities everywhere.

“Archipelagos of the Line” explores the creative genesis of architecture, starting from the most fundamental utility at the architect’s disposal: the line. This speculative approach attempts to tackle the daunting blank page by cataloging the many definitions of the line and the form it creates in or on the landscape. This lexicon serves as a tool to assess form and structure, enabling the creation of individual architectural languages. A line embodies both physicality and metaphor, manifesting paths, barriers, armatures, tethers, or events within each archipelago. Through this endeavor, “Archipelagos of the Line” aims to distill the built environment to its elemental essence, simplifying complexities inherent in architectural creation.

While political agendas and colonial presences have blurred the intangible barriers of sovereignty, the border has transformed into a new spatial element breaking free from its traditional framework of demarcation and division. Instead, it embraces the socio-economic territories, hybrid cultures, and historical narratives that interact through this threshold.

Through the erosion of the border, the intervening spaces will bridge global and continental networks of economic and migratory patterns passing through the demarcated area. Utilizing planar and extruded topographic lines within the “gray zone,” its architectural tectonics define and reinforce the historical, cultural, and individual narratives of those traversing the space.

“Reimagining the Remnants: Transformative Strategies for Post-Expo Sites” explores the potential of repurposing expo site remnants to spur architectural innovation, cultural revitalization, and sustainable urban development. This thesis employs a multidisciplinary approach encompassing architectural theory, cultural studies, urban planning, and environmental sustainability to uncover creative and practical strategies for reimagining these residual spaces. By examining historical precedents, analyzing contemporary case studies, and proposing design interventions, this research illuminates the possibilities and challenges of transforming expo remnants into vibrant urban landscapes that resonate with their cultural and historical contexts. Most important however, it addresses the evolving needs and aspirations of communities in the post-expo era.

Concert halls consist of two forms. The engineered form of the auditorium and the expressive form shaped by the envelope. But between these two forms lies a third:

Poche Space

Amidst the grandeur of concert hall spaces, attendees forget about this architectural element. I want to take the opportunity to reclaim this space.

This thesis explores the reimagining of poche space within concert halls, focusing on its reshaping in terms of shape, form, and program. The incorporation of music notation and transcription influences its shape, while Boolean methods contribute to its form. Ultimately, this approach leads to an architectural transformation that not only affects the spatial arrangements within contemporary concert halls but also has the potential to redefine the performance itself.

In the case of Los Angeles, the necessity for future expansion has been curtailed by the prevalence of single-family housing. As the population continues to increase, the question arises: What will become of our perception of the suburbs? Acknowledging that planning policies alone cannot resolve the housing shortage, and recognizing that the modern metropolis must adapt to thrive, this project proposes a strategy of “feral urbanism” to transform low-density housing types in Los Angeles. Employing collage techniques to speculate on the future of California’s suburbs resulted in the creation of a walkable block with additional layers of density incorporated to form a cohesive “knowable area,” that will give birth to a denser city capable of supporting the housing needs of the region.

The street and the built environment have historically separated public and private spaces. Mike Davis’ essay, City of Quartz, discusses the transformation of Bunker Hill into a commerce-focused Central Business District. This thesis aims to deconstruct the 20th Century C.B.D., reviving the idea of the Piano Nobile to create a dynamic cultural amenity. The urban park redefines Bunker Hill’s landscape by subtracting the pedestrian layer from Grand Avenue, creating a unique spatial experience. This intervention transforms Bunker Hill into a dynamic hub of activity, breaking down barriers and revitalizing the urban experience.

Dream City recognizes the potential of liminal and underutilized spaces within the contemporary metropolis. It re-imagines the void alley network of DTLA as a threshold to alternate urban possibilities. This thesis blurs reality and fantasy, presenting a liminal network shaped by dreams and desires. Void spaces are hijacked by dreamscapes, fusing themselves into a heterotopic network adjacent to the built environment.
Speculative narratives exploit the potential of navigating these environments, prompting reflection on spatial perception. It inspires new ways of thinking about the relationships between architecture, narrative, and time.
This thesis challenges designers to reconsider their role in shaping reality and imagine new transcendent experiences beyond spatial limits and disciplinary devotion to the “real.”

In order to create meaningful architecture, one must apply critical tools that obstruct and metamorphose traditional architectural form and materiality. Using methods of transformation and transmogrification as a foundation for design, it is possible to demonstrate how meaning revamps in relation to context. Utilizing the vernacular of the simple forest cabin, one is able test their understanding of architectural syntax through the operations of swapping, souping, and swouping. These operations explore form and the significance of evolution within the forest cabin vernacular. Enabling us to demonstrate and develop our own architectural language. Creating a meaning that is unique to oneself.

The Caribbean house in the context of the inner-city is a product of autoconstruction, where the resident embodies several roles as the architect and builder. This process results in an urban fabric rich in character, with a vernacular language of immediacy, ingenuity and resourcefulness born out of circumstances of scarcity that exemplify the Jamaican maxim “make something out of nothing”. Within inner-city communities, undesirable parcels of land are claimed along drainage pathways known as gully banks that bisect communities, creating conditions ripe for unrest. This thesis project proposes a revitalization of the gully bank that stitches volatile autoconstructed areas together to foster community building.