Off The Wall ︎ Visualization 3
ARCH 564
Fall 2019 ︎
Los Angeles
Fall 2019 ︎
Los Angeles
Instructor
Anali Gharakhani
Anali Gharakhani

Work by M.Arch student Cody Carpenter
Graffiti art, although technically illegal, has become a Los Angeles staple since the 1980s. Much of the existing architecture in the city occupy some form of it. Often seen in railroad yards and along the walls of the LA River, “tagging” has gone from low brow visual vandalism to commissioned and well-paid urban murals illustrated by street artists. Today graffiti symbolizes accessible art that defines the city’s expression of multicultural demography. Meanwhile works of graffiti can occupy a multitude of surfaces that are not necessarily indicative of any given city’s native architecture. Generic or specific, any and all, mostly vertical, rigid surfaces are fair game to becoming the host of graffiti. The subject matter of the work, although specific to the artists’ style, color palette, geometric language, use of symbolism, etc. in most cases does not address the location or characteristics of its host. This relationship between the host (architecture) and the parasite (graffiti) will drive our visualization investigation.












Work by M.Arch student Mahzad Changalvaie










Work by M.Arch student Nick Daniel
While artists like Banksy and Shepard Fairey are widely credited by the media for popularizing graffiti art, many of today's most iconic pieces in the graffiti scene are created by women. In this course we examined the notion of de-contextualization and de-familiarization of an iconic figure through two and three-dimensional modes of representation derived from works of graffiti created by female artists. This process involved subjective two-dimensional analysis that will materialize in an empirical three-dimensional manner. Ultimately, we used graffiti as a generative point of departure while considering its many characteristics to arrive at an architectural representation that best encapsulates two and three-dimensionality. At each stage that which is being de-familiarized is assessed and methods are developed to achieve a transformation.








Catalog Description
Students are exposed to the aesthetic and philosophical objectives of drawing and modeling. The complexities of dependency between architectural conceptualization and representation are analyzed through a study of changing techniques within mixed media.
Students are exposed to the aesthetic and philosophical objectives of drawing and modeling. The complexities of dependency between architectural conceptualization and representation are analyzed through a study of changing techniques within mixed media.