USC Architecture XpoInstructor: Rob Berry
MacArthur Park is a liminal zone between place and non-place, an area of the city that oscillates between cultural identity and anonymity. Differing ideas and perceptions of the park are shaped by the range of memories of those who occupy, and move around and through, this space daily. R.A.M. leverages these random, everyday memories of […]
The porch is an ideal place for community engagement, offering an architectural element that is simultaneously intimate, familiar, and public. Equally, the porch, with its varied lineage, holds deep significance in African-American history as an element whose development traces back to West Africa and continues to be a marker of black domesticity within the United […]
In Los Angeles, urban boundaries, shaped by capitalist development, restrictive infrastructure, and fragmented governance practices, reinforce spatial and social divisions across the city. These conditions often lead to neglect, fragmentation, and disinvestment. However, by leveraging components of control and separation—such as jurisdictional edges, zoning lines, and infrastructural barriers—and making them visible and interactive, boundaries can […]
Innovation in the public realm relies on acknowledging and reinterpreting the past to address urgent environmental, social, and spatial challenges. Using the LA River as a testing ground for deployable, community-driven infrastructure, this project draws from the adaptive principles of the Metabolist movement to propose a modular system of small, medium, and large-scale interventions. These […]
Streets increasingly have become edge conditions—fractures in the urban fabric that privilege movement over interaction, functioning more as corridors of separation than spaces of connection. Yet public space is fundamentally about relationships—between people, programs, and places—and the street must reclaim its role as an active field of engagement. Here, movement becomes more than just passage; […]
What if the fragments of the past could shape the public spaces of the future? Spolia, as a contemporary architectural strategy, leverages digital technology to reimagine fragments of existing structures, creating spaces that foster human encounters within the public realm. Through a process of extracting, transforming, and grafting these fragments, a new language is developed—one […]
This project explores the potential of in-between space to challenge traditional architectural boundaries through ambiguity, adaptability, and dynamic transitions. It aims to create hybrid environments that promote connectivity, inclusivity, and resilience in urban design. Located at Taylor Yard, where urban development meets ecological restoration, the project introduces an architectural system that operates between infrastructure, landscape, […]
By preserving the value of architectural ornamentation—continuing its historical significance while simultaneously adding, merging, and evolving new forms—architecture can shift traditional hierarchies and give rise to a new, dynamic type of ornament. While traditional ornamentation, ranging from classical motifs like human figures and fleurons, once held deep cultural and aesthetic value, modern architecture often stripped […]
Architecture is inherently public. Our work as architects necessarily engages with the concerns of the world around us. We do not (and cannot) work in isolation; rather, through our actions, we enter into an exchange with the interests and welfare of the common good. Any act of architecture—building, drawing, idea—is a public proclamation about the […]
The city is structured around function, reinforcing society’s expectations of productivity and efficiency. In Los Angeles, this is evident in the logics of the freeway system and the street grid, both designed to maximize movement and economic output. But what if we resisted this logic and reconceived how we navigate and engage with the city? […]