Blake Shiu

Design Communications 1

Professor: Heather Flood

Despite the fact that architects are incontrovertibly associated with buildings and more broadly the built world, we do not in fact make buildings; which is to say, that only in very rare instances will you find architects swinging the hammer as it were. By and large, we traffic in representations of architecture, and this is our medium… drawings, renderings, photographs, models, constructs, films, animations, text/writing, and hybrid objects. In this course we will focus primarily on the range of forms and types which constitute the architectural drawing, and on how architectural drawings assume generative, developmental, and anticipatory responsibilities within the discipline of architecture and the broader cultural landscape

Design Communications 2- Spring 16'

Professor: Jason King

The Great Wall will introduce students to the parametric software grasshopper and to digital fabrication tools such as milling, vacuum forming, and 3D printing. Grasshopper will be introduced in a series of ‘definition tutorials’ where instructors will present completed definitions and students will be expected to customize the definitions for their use. The result of these computer generated exercises will be output using a range of digital fabrication tools.  

The digital modeling techniques introduced methods of operating on primitives. The drawing techniques introduced conventions of two-dimensional architectural representation. Emphasis was placed on slicing objects and extracting information. Design Communication 2 will further the skills of first year students by introducing them to techniques for modeling and drawing surfaces and frames. The shift from primitives (cube) to surfaces will be marked by a shift from Rhino to Grasshopper as the primary means of design generation and from drawing to model making as the primary means of design output. 

Studio 1A

Professor: Wayne Chiu (LACC)

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Studio 1B- Spring 16' 

Professor: Heather Flood

The aim of this assignment is to establish overall building mass in response to basic site and program variables. We began with specific parameters for defining mass. We are working with bar buildings. Each student began with a bar that measures 30’W x 300’L x 20’H. This bar should be understood as a single story mass with a floor area of 9,000 square feet. Using simple modeling techniques in Rhino, each student transformed the original bar into a new mass that organized both site and program in a thoughtful manner. The new mass had to retain bar-like proportions (long and narrow) and must retain the 9,000 square foot floor area.

The site for the studio is located in Frogtown, one of the smallest neighborhoods in Los Angeles with an emerging cultural presence. Geographically, Frogtown is an island that’s bound by the 110 fwy to the south, the 2 fwy to the north, I-5 to the west, and the LA River to the east. The neighborhood is a mix of small single-family residences, manufacturing facilities, and under-the-radar art communes. The redevelopment of the LA River has had a major influence on the shifting demographics of the area. The site for this studio is located on Denby Avenue between Blake Avenue and the Los Angeles River Greenway Trail. It can be accessed via automobile from Blake Avenue, via foot from Denby Avenue, and via bike from the Greenway Trail. The massing strategies should be responsive to the different edge condition of the site and should consider the negative space as well as the positive space. 

The program for the studio is a Bike Station that aims to provide a link between the Greenway Trail and the surrounding community. The LA River is very active in the Frogtown neighborhood and the Greenway Trail is used by bicyclist year-around. Recently a number of establishments have been opened in Frogtown that orient themselves towards the river. The Bike Station will house three micro programs that are 2,000 square feet each.

Studio 2A- Fall 16'

Professor: Anali Gharakhani

Curves are not simply loose figures but rather precise sets of geometric relationships that are intentionally defined through a careful process of description.  The selection of a curve type and its deployment in the production of an architectural project engenders specific formal relationships both interior and exterior to proposed project.   Unlike a straight line, a curve offers difference between one side and the other.  One side is convex, while the other is concave.  Furthermore a curved line within rectilinear site boundary structures a relationship of difference and distinction between the object of the building and the site boundaries that contains it.  In lieu of sameness it asserts its limits and distinctness from the surrounding territory. 

This studio will use curvature to introduce students to the architectural discourse of geometry as a means of engaging form, interiority, and the city.   Issues of circulation, building mass, frame, enclosure, and ground will be studied through the development of architectural proposals that use the description of curvature as it primary means of formal development.  The studio will begin with a study of two- and three-dimensional methods of curve description and quickly shift into the development of architectural objects with interior conditions.

Studio 2B- Spring 17'

Professor: Stephen Marshall

“The Difficult Whole presents a radical strategy for architecture in a world without rooted physical or cultural contexts… a self sustaining idea of context: an architectonic composition where each element depends on the other through inflection, a universe on itself, potent enough to survive as an independent settlement.” Kersten Geers (The Difficult Whole – A Reference Book on Robert Venturi, John Rauch and Denise Scott Brown)

Through rigorous analysis and manipulation, students will explore the tectonics and qualities of as found generic building types as a point of departure in speculating on new programmatic relationships. Critical readings of a number of influential projects from an alternative canon of architecture, will allow contemporary notions of program, organization, context, and content to be addressed. Subsequently, a final design provocation will exploit the difficult dichotomy of the generic and specific, and the potentiality of the complex relationship between function and form, in a highly articulated and vital whole; a new educational & cultural Exploratorium for Los Angeles.

Studio 3A- Fall 17'

Professor: Berenika Boberska

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Studio 3B- Spring 18'

Professor: Melissa Peter

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Materials and Methods- Fall 16'

Professor: Eric Olsen

“The reciprocal relationship between materials and humans is the basis of attachment and even obsession. From the appreciation of tactile materials to the experience of immaterial qualities registered through other human senses, the direction of research starts to move in the direction of psychology. Material is a universal language of culture and civilization. It is accessible and understandable to young and old. As an artifact, it carries with it many messages pertaining to: the place of origin, the reason for its having been made, the history of its use, its mythical and cultural meaning, its performance value, its economic value, and its life cycle - including the possibility for recycling or eventual disposal.” Toshiko Mori - Immaterial | Ultra material