International Guest House for MOCA ︎ Studio Five
ARCH
691
Fall 2019 ︎
Los Angeles
Fall 2019 ︎
Los Angeles
Instructor
Ryan Tyler Martinez
Ryan Tyler Martinez

Drawing by M.Arch student Mher Khachikian
Housing Housing
We use different models of ambiguity in architecture. Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown used photographs and drawings of buildings as examples for inexactness within our discipline. We can also look at architectural software and tools as a vehicle for the production of uncertainty through techniques, method and procedures. In the end, architects use multiple readings as a productive tool for the development of design and decision making. In this studio we looked at both definitions of housing – something that covers or protects - as a progenitor for ambiguity and the production of an international guest house – housing as dwelling - for a local museum in Los Angeles.


Work by M.Arch student Andras Rosner
Indifference and Exuberance
There has been much debate on how architects should work on architecture today. In this studio students looked at two different approaches: First, at examples of indifference within today’s context. Architect Michael Meredith defines indifference as an architecture that performs and is defined by nondesign: the banal, generic, the unoriginal; the weak; the antidramatic, obscure referents, citations, and mashups; chance; the cheap; a focus on architecture’s representation of itself, as opposed to realism. This type of approach has been proven a clever - simplicity is the ultimate sophistication - output for design. Second, using advanced techniques to produce descriptive objects and exuberance: photorealistic renderings, figuration, descriptive form and shape, color, graphics, projection, boolean operations, volume, mass, accidents, playfulness, intricacy, decoration, a focus on the way things look and work formally. Students worked between these two different modes of production questioning if more is less or less is more. The studio was broken into two (2) parts; Housing – covers or enclosure, and Housing – dwelling, domestic typology, house.



Looking at housing as a tool for enclosure, students reimagined the housing facade. As a point of departure, students investigated the possibility of indifference and exuberance as a design tool. Each student started with a housing precedent to explore the opportunity of misaligning work for creative speculation. The facade was used as a mediator between the interior - exterior, function - form, and the aesthetics and representation of the project. The plan was used as a section, the section used as an elevation. Students blurred the boundary between different modes of representation. This initial study was used as a tool to help make design decisions during the housing (house) development of the project.



Work by M.Arch student Hitisha Kalolia
The Museum of Contemporary Art
Students designed an international guest house for MOCA in downtown Los Angeles. The design focused on the diverse needs, values, behavioral norms, physical abilities, and social and spatial patterns that characterize different cultures and individuals who might visit Los Angeles from around the world. Students looked to ensure access to the house through a rigorous investigation of plans, sections and circulation. The program of the house is a single-family guest house with an additional program that each student had to identify within their own project’s context.





Work by M.Arch student Parsa Rezaee
Catalog Description
Students study a contemporary architectural design topic through a vertical option studio orspecialize through the selection of a focus studio. Topics vary and focuses correspond to the post professional tracks.
Students study a contemporary architectural design topic through a vertical option studio orspecialize through the selection of a focus studio. Topics vary and focuses correspond to the post professional tracks.