Charles Louis Lafon Portfolio 2024

portfolio c h a r l e s l o u is laf on

CONTENTS

HINGE & WEAVE (art foundation)

spring 2024

AMERICAN DREAM (reuse/master plan)

january 2024

COMMUNAL THREADS (mass timber co-housing)

fall 2023

BIENNI-L (pop-up pavilion)

october 2023

CLOUD-COLUMN CITY (urban speculation)

spring 2020

HINGE & WEAVE

comprehensive design for a local art foundation Work type: student, individual Faculty: Gesa Büttner-Dias, USC Corita Kent (1918–1986) was a Los Angeles artist, activist, and educator.

The Corita Kent Foundation preserves her archive and carries on her work by engaging local communities in art programs.

Unlike a typical museum, the Corita Kent Center aims to be an extension of the neighborhood. Public and private areas are connected by a shared circulation strategy: a central elevator core (“hinge”) accommodates functional needs, while a winding indoor/outdoor ramp (“weave”) leads patrons and staff alike from a ground-floor café through to the lobby, galleries, offices, and terraces.

As a comprehensive design exercise, this building responds to a range of conditions, including environmental forces, zoning constraints, parking requirements, structural feasibility, MEP integration, and accessibility and egress codes.

axonometric view (southwest)

Concrete egress stair core (1/3) Tall CLT panels in ceiling reflect warm light through upper gallery Steel exterior/interior ramp: 1/13 slope, 84” min. head height L4 Gallery w/ roof access Beams sitting on top of girders create zones for MEP along ceiling CLT floor panels do not intersect load path, preventing shrinkage L3 Enclosed gallery Exterior timber members clad with weather-resistant siding

L2 Terrace, reception

L1 Café

30’ typical span aligns with below-grade columns B1 Parking, mechanical

materials overview, section “chunk” model (1/4” = 1’)

10

7

14

4

16 11

13

9

6

8

5

15

12

3

2

1

1. reception/gift shop

2. outdoor terrace

3. security office

8. public lecture hall

second floor plan

4-16. offices (various)

I. Full skylight with E-W louvers

II. Full skylight with E-W louvers, parapet

Daylight Autonomy: % of occupied hours (9AM–7PM) that a minimum of 400 lux is achieved at viewing level (5’)

overall: 93.6%

100

92

84

overall: 87.6%

Glare Autonomy: % of occupied hours (9AM–7PM) that area is free of glare

overall: 68.8%

III. Full skylight with E-W and N-S louvers

100

76

68

< 60

overall: 85.1%

88

overall: 75.3%

daylight analysis on gallery prototypes

76

64

52

overall: 78.4%

< 40

mezzanine/reading room

ramp, 3rd-floor gallery

entrance/café terrace

section perspective

massing/site model

Massing responses to site conditions: • Operable windows oriented to prevailing winds for passive cooling • South-facing overhangs minimize solar gain in summertime • Open space protected from traffic/street noise on Vermont Ave.

site analysis diagrams

THE (AMENDED) AMERICAN DREAM historic preservation and mixed-use community plan Work type: competition, group (with Ernest Tse and Gregor Tillman) 2nd Place, USC Architecture Guild Design Charrette Over the course of a one-week charrette, our team produced a proposal for redeveloping the former Lincoln Heights Jail into a mixed-use public market and work space. A new Metro stop serving the adapted jailhouse also presented the opportunity to create a new walkable residential community. Various housing types, including co-housing, townhomes, and convertible lofts, are integrated with access to gardens and the natural landscape.

We identified equality, freedom, and individuality as core components of the traditional American Dream. In our proposal, these ideals are expanded to encompass equity, “freedom from”, and community.

Single Loaded Apartments Metro Station

Ed P. Reyes River Greenway Forum

Small Grocer on ground floor

Courtyard Townhouses

Daycare Center

Bird Habitat

Community Garden Co-Housing on Uppper Floors

Pier Over Tracks

5

Studio TLT

top: site overview bottom: perspective, plaza and transit hub

COMMUNAL THREADS

modular co-housing with cross-laminated timber Work type: student, group (with Toby Yang) Faculty: Hadrian Predock, USC This project targets mostly young workers and is situated in a dense but low-rise neighborhood near central Los Angeles.

Residents live in modular bedroom units and share other spaces with progressively wider circles of neighbors. A living room and two bathrooms are shared between groups of five, while each kitchen and courtyard accommodates ten residents or more.

The anonymous hallway is replaced with a continuous interior “street” anchored at each end by public spaces: a resale shop and a gallery/market hall, both meant to support local economic activity.

In a moment marked by scarcity and shortages, sharing is a necessity. More than just space, we might also share our time and resources with one another; communal living offers a way of life that is not just affordable, but resilient.

axonometric view (northwest)

modularity diagrams

longitudinal section

ground floor / site plan

interior perspective

living “pod” model (1/4” = 1’)

BIENNI-L

public pavilion in a repurposed traincar Work type: competition, individual Honorable Mention, Spectacular Weekend Competition Competitors had 48 hours to deliver a proposal for a pavilion located in the Chicago Loop to serve as part of the 2023 Architecture Biennial.

A decommissioned 2600-series “L” car offered a small footprint and ready-made shell ideal for this purpose, while also expressing the character and history of the city.

The short lifespan of the pavilion presents an opportunity to give back to the city.

Once the biennial closes, the train car can serve as a pilot for a new type of public space to populate the central business district.

interior perspective

top: site, axonometric view (northeast) bottom: plan

Ho

1980s-2020s CTA rolling stock

wa

rd

d ar

w

Ho

2023

B

CA

Exhibition space

Future

Small business/ Public amenity

evolution diagram

CLOUD-COLUMN CITY lofty speculations on urbanism Work type: student, individual Faculty: Aura Venckunaite, UIC Selected, UIC School of Architecture Year-End Show Cloud-Column City is an urban environment that pushes Modernist pilotis to their greatest possible extent with a compacted canopy of buildings set high above the ground. The city is no longer organized by a horizontal grid of streets but rather by a vertical grid of “cores,” inside of which are all the necessary utility lines, circulation, and structural support for the buildings above.

The variegated underside of these buildings produces a cloud-like effect at ground level, where the landscape is transformed into an endless field for recreational activities. Greenery is kept in round-the-clock artificial daylight by hanging lanterns. Pedestrians benefit from the extremely close arrangement of buildings; getting across town is literally a walk in the park. Here–in a garden hidden beneath a vast work of architecture–it never rains, it never gets dark, and one can never truly go “outside.”

axonometric cut-away view

As a precedent assignment, I drew and analyzed a quarter-quarter (40 acre) section of downtown Los Angeles.

downtown los angeles, axonometric view

cloud-column city, axonometric view

schematic section

section detail