Irregular Pavilion

Seeking Balance: Chicano Art Center Design

Individual Graduate Academic Work

Course Name:

Foundation studio IV ARCH 7020

2021-2022 Spring Semester

Instructor: Jonah Coe Scharff

E-mail: jcoescharff@gmail.com

Design Concept:

This project is to design an art center in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles. Boyle Height is special, as the neighborhood has long been known as a bustling, somewhat insular, Latino enclave in Eastside Los Angeles. The arrival of the city’s light rail system changed the whole neighborhood and made Boyle Heights more accessible to outsiders, and since then, a wave of gentrification has swept the area. Whether it is a good thing is hard to judge, but the specialty of this issue makes our site become more sensitive to design.

Through the site visit and interviews of local residents, I can feel strongly about their intentions to try to maintain their community and resistance to new constructions. What they need is PROTECTION. This community is full of creation and passion. Murals can be seen everywhere around the corner. Even metal barriers around a parking lot can be used by vendors to display their wares. Their talent needs to more attention.

Taking those considerations, the core idea of this design responds with a designed roof structure which allows a variety of activities to happen harmoniously underneath it.

Context Development

Through preliminary investigation, we observed that this community is full of various fresh artistic elements. The emergence of Chicano murals has brought vitality to this community and street views, but it is also a conflict for the architectural elements here. So that leads to my argument, balance of irregularity.

Taking carefully consideration of the vernacular climate and topography, the building is intended to engage into the community with a low height as well as to open the ground level for people to display and discuss their work.

Roof Configuration

Vegetation plays another important role in structure design. Local desert plants inspires the form of roof shape.The structure details is taken from the Forest Building designed by Li Hua. The structure pursues irregularity in regular form.

Plan Aggregation

Plan aggregation is followed based on the grid system of structure detail. Those angular walls increase the complexity of use of space, furthermore, meet with various needs for art workshop. I tried to blur the definition of outdoor and indoor space to achieve a strong extroversion.

Those walls naturally form a vertical area for people to use them as a exhibition of their productions.

A welcome entrance that attracts people to engage in the activities