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KEEP IT ALL INSIDE Hernan Diaz Alonso
HERNAN DIAZ ALONSO Hernan Diaz Alonso is founder and principal of Xefirotarch, a Los Angelesbased design practice. Considered one of the most influential voices of his generation, Diaz Alonso assumed the role of Graduate Programs Chair at SCI-Arc, after having coordinated the school’s graduate thesis process for several years. He was honored by Yale University with the Louis I. Kahn Visiting Assistant Professorship of Architectural Design for fall 2010. Diaz Alonso has lectured extensively at major institutions around the world. His architecture designs have received numerous awards and have been displayed in both architecture and art museum exhibitions, and published in magazines, books, and periodicals worldwide. Selections from the Fall 2011 Vertical Studios: 1. Jason Orbe-Smith. Instructor: Hernan Diaz Alonso. Vertical Studio: Rituals of Form (ESTm ) 2/3. Ayaka Ono. Instructor: Elena Manferdini. Vertical Studio: Elena Manferdini 4. Gustavo Omar Gonzalez. Instructor: Xu Weigu. Vertical Studio: Digital Diagram for Form Finding 5. Vehbiye Inal. Instructor: Peter Zellner. Vertical Studio: Re-Envisioning Downtown Los Angeles (SCIFI) 6. Dale Strong. Instructor: Ben Nicholson. Vertical Studio: Who Goes & Who Stays 7. Erin Besler, Eugene Kosgoron, Siim Tuksam (exchange student from the Vienna University of Applied Art), Peter A. Vikar. Instructor: Peter Testa. Vertical Studio: ‘Real-Time’ 8. Wisarut Wattanachote. Instructors: Michael Rotondi, Wes Jones. Vertical Studio: Roto/Jones 9. Ta (David) Yu. Instructor: Eric Owen Moss, Hsinming Fung, John Enright. Vertical Studio: Urban Strategies for the Future of SCI-Arc 10. Zidan Zhao. Instructor: Tom Wiscombe. Vertical Studio: Thick Skins and Deep Cavities (ESTm )
“You do an expansive celebration of a dance! First you do Fosse, Fosse, Fosse! You do Martha Graham, Martha Graham, Martha Graham! Or Twyla, Twyla, Twyla! Or Michael Kidd, Michael Kidd, Michael Kidd! Or Madonna, Madonna, Madonna. But you keep it all inside.” - Armand Goldman (Robin Williams), The Birdcage I know this is not an academic quote, but the truth is that I could not come up with anything that could better define the wonderful cacophony of Vertical Studios at SCI-Arc. My interpretation of what Robin William’s character established in the aforementioned quote is about a desire to overreach and be grandiose about a disciplinary knowledge, but at the same time being coherent and elegant within the confines of its expression. Therefore my argument (and now I am talking about Vertical Studios) is that it is possible for a system of parts that has an abundance of different ideas, gestures, movements and ideologies, to become a coherent, long-formed argument. One that necessitates the exuberant and the restrained in a single take. I think that SCI-Arc is a test probe of architecture itself, the stage of a cast of characters that play different roles within the school, all for the setting of a larger narrative. SCI-Arc is an argument about architecture—not just the cast of characters, but also the school itself.
Indeed, in many academic environments the act of teaching and the curricular content aren’t supposed to be personal, they are supposed to be part of some sort of clever critical comment on the state of the profession and the discipline of architecture. But what happens at SCI-Arc is that curricular content is not defined as a top-down structure, where course requirements, disciplinary focus and typological basis are pre-defined. Here it is actually a bottom-up network—it starts from the personal interests of its faculty and it trickles up to the consolidation of an ‘academic curriculum.’ I believe that this bottom-up arrangement allows the school to always question the state of the discipline, and to come up with unique and original ways that architecture can be challenged. Therefore, Vertical Studios at SCI-Arc, are—and must be—personal.
“You do an expansive field of Architecture! First you do Zago’s Awkward, Awkward, Awkward! You do Wes Jones’ Solar, Solar, with a hint of Oil Ring(intrinsic contradiction)! Or Wiscombe’s Butterfly, Butterfly, Butterfly! Or Spina’s Stacked, Stacked, Stacked! Or a Manferdini Paintbrush, Paintbrush, Paintbrush! Gow’s Sticky, Sticky, Sticky! Diaz Alonso’s Grotesque, Grotesque, Grotesque! Or the Directors’ Policy, Politics, and City! Or Testa’s Robots, Robots, Robots. But you keep it all inside.”
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