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ARCH 793AB: TRANSLATIONS

Instructor: Gillian Shaffer

Adaptive Micro-Architecture: A Tool for the Urban Commons

Adaptive micro-architecture operates as a spatial counter-strategy to the rigid and exclusionary logics of single-zoned urbanism, particularly within the fragmented terrain of Los Angeles. Through small-scale, mobile, and modular interventions, it reclaims latent spaces—flatlands, alleyways, freeway edges, parking voids—not as overlooked remnants but as fertile grounds for collective life. These architectures reject the architectural object […]

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ARCH 793AB: Hallucinations and the Fabrication Gap

Instructor: Lisa Little

Desert Biomimetics

Natural systems often display a balance of order and randomness—seen in honeycombs, soap bubbles, and plant growth—demonstrating highly evolved, efficient solutions developed over millennia. Designers have long drawn on such biological intelligence to solve architectural challenges. Bio-inspiration, encompassing bionics, biomimetics, and bioinformed design, offers powerful strategies for enhancing performance. This thesis explores how AI tools […]

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ARCH 793AB: Hallucinations and the Fabrication Gap

Instructor: Lisa Little

Hallucinating Heritage: Reimagining Spatial Boundaries as Non-Rigid Surfaces

This research repositions textiles as generative design elements challenging traditional architectural notions of rigidity and structure. By integrating indigenous textile traditions with digital fabrication it proposes a material and spatial framework that reintroduces cultural specificity into contemporary practice. The project develops interlocking, flexible connections for 3D-printed textile modules that enable adaptable fabric-inspired architectural systems. It […]

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ARCH 793AB: Hallucinations and the Fabrication Gap

Instructor: Lisa Little

Ornamental Hallucination: Aggregational Structure & Generative Scenery

This research blends computational design, artificial intelligence, and digital fabrication to challenge the traditional dichotomy between ornamentation and structure in contemporary architecture. Through algorithmic deconstruction and reinterpretation of historical ornamentation, decorative elements are reconceived as integral components of building frameworks, transcending their traditional role as superficial adornments. A novel methodology redefines the conventional role of […]

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ARCH 793AB: Hallucinations and the Fabrication Gap

Instructor: Lisa Little

Suspended Symbiosis: Displacing Density Through a Lightweight, Adaptive Superstructure

As humanity continues to expand, we have occupied over 6.24% of the Earth’s total surface, even though only 9.6% is truly habitable. That means 65% of livable land is already developed—leaving just 3.36% untouched. In consuming so much of what little Earth can offer, we’ve erased ecosystems, forests, and biodiversity. This thesis is an experimental […]

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ARCH 793AB: Hallucinations and the Fabrication Gap

Instructor: Lisa Little

Synaptic-smith

In the near future, as humans live increasingly isolated lives within high-density vertical towers, traditional circulation systems will no longer suffice. With advancements in vertical mobility, such as passenger drones, architecture must adapt to facilitate multidimensional movement and social interaction. This thesis explores neuroscience-inspired circulation strategies that are incorporated into vertical architecture system. Drawing from […]

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ARCH 793AB: Hallucinations and the Fabrication Gap

Instructor: Lisa Little

Embedded Ontology: Object Ontologies through higher dimensional word embeddings in AI architecture

This research examines how object relationships encoded in AI embedding spaces manifest as formal properties through vicarious causation, where AI-generated forms reveal dormant connections between objects. Through Object-Oriented Ontology and vector space analysis, we investigate how AI mediates object relationships in architectural design, suggesting that AI latent spaces partially model a deeper topology containing all […]

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ARCH 793AB: Hallucinations and the Fabrication Gap

Instructor: Lisa Little

A Collapsing Environment

As the frequency of natural disasters continues to increase, we must ensure that our response to these events is as quick, reliable, and effective as possible. Earlier this year, thousands of emergency personnel were actively helping to manage and extinguish an unprecedented series of wildfires across Los Angeles County, many of whom traveled from out-of-state […]

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ARCH 793AB: Hallucinations and the Fabrication Gap

Instructor: Lisa Little

ANOMALOUS ASSEMBLAGES: Reconfiguring Memory, Material, and Space Beyond the Ground for New Spatial Formations and Material Legacies

There is an architecture that exists beyond the ground—one that is suspended, entangled, and radically assembled from fragments of the past. But what happens when these fragments are not just structural remnants, but carriers of memory, layered with histories of use, abandonment, and transformation? If the ground has long been a contested site—marked by power, […]

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ARCH 793AB: Hallucinations and the Fabrication Gap

Instructor: Lisa Little

Crafting Excess: AI, Poche, and the New Ornamental

This thesis reclaims ornamentation as a democratized and emotionally resonant language for the digital age. It leverages AI’s capacity to generate semantically ambiguous motifs—hyper-complex geometries that challenge traditional craftsmanship and aristocratic symbolism. By combining these with advanced additive fabrication, the work proposes a new paradigm of architectural expression. The forms created through human-AI collaboration prioritize […]