USC Architecture XpoInstructor: Andy Ku
My thesis explores how modular design can transform overlooked urban gaps into a dynamic network of third spaces—flexible platforms for social and cultural exchange that evolve with time and community needs. The project reactivates underused paths and spaces by clearing informal enclosures, restoring pedestrian flow, and introducing a multi-layered system organized as points, lines, and […]
The built environment in America has long been designed in ways that neglect—if not actively harm—Black health, reinforcing systemic disparities that leave Black Americans with fewer opportunities for physical activity, evoke generational trauma, and increase exposure to stress-inducing, unhealthy conditions. These environments offer no space for Black Americans to self-actualize and connect with their divine […]
The unregulated rise of privatized open space in urban high-rises has deepened economic inequality, pushing communities away from opportunities. This exclusionary model calls for urban renewal through a new framework, one that fosters a balance of cultural identity with advanced infrastructure. My thesis addresses this problem by exploring how modern stadiums provide more than just […]
“Sports Mixed-use” focuses on providing physical health and active social space that adapts and improves the current LA Lifestyle. The LA city planning caused the car-dependent commute mode. People sit for hours in their cars to travel between each bubble. Having the space for home and work fixed, people need the third spaces and physical […]
In the effect of climate change across the world, each city near the coast has to account for sea level rise, and how humans will evolve around it. The proposal is looking to create dynamic, multi-functional hubs that have sports facilities, retails, housing, and that could be raised as the water rises. The flexibility of […]
Sports have become a manifestation of values and traditions in modern American culture. Looking at the relationship between sports and culture, this thesis explores how this relationship realizes itself in the different cultural densities of urban, campus, suburban and rural. Understanding sports as both formal and informal spatial assembly, the relationship between Architecture and culture […]
While John Chase’s design contributions have helped establish West Hollywood as a haven for queer identity through its inclusive, flexible mixed-use outdoor spaces, the built environment still lacks meaningful representation of people of color. By incorporating Yona Friedman’s principles of flexible, adaptable structures and José Muñoz’s vision of queer futurism, a tensile canopy inspired by […]
Both dance and architecture serve as spatial arts that shape and define human movement, with dance embodying fluid, ephemeral structures in motion and architecture providing the physical framework within which movement occurs. This thesis explores the symbiotic relationship between the two disciplines, examining how architectural design influences choreography and how dance, in turn, informs spatial […]
Contemporary sports arenas in Asian cities remain introverted, bounded by orthodoxal stereotypes and limited in function beyond primary purpose. Much like an unhatched egg, domes have the tendency to distinguish clear boundaries, mirroring cultural tendencies to wander within familiar comfort zones. Much like an unhatched egg, domes delineate rigid boundaries—symbols of containment that reflect a […]
What makes an environment socially inaccessible? Rooted in affluence, tennis perpetuates environments of exclusivity through its refined aesthetics and longstanding association with the social elite; minimalism operates behind a veil of universality that conceals to create illusions of simplicity; gentrification leverages minimalist design principles to manipulate the social contours of marginalized neighborhoods through sleek developments. […]