RH1-RH3

2008

 

My wife and I have purchased a lot to build a house for ourselves and our three boys. This is our reality: The lot is 4,500 square feet. It is a 1:2 down-slope hillside property located in an area with one of the most restrictive zoning overlays in the entire city. The budget is tight and the program is challenging. While the opportunity to design for your own family is unique, the scenario is not. For that reason we endeavored to explore many iterations in what came to be called the RH (Reality House) series. The series is comprised of about six different schemes and RH3 is being moved towards construction.

 

 

client:    J5

 

date:    2008

 

type:    residential

 

location:    Los Angeles, California

 

size:    1,800 sq ft

 

status:    on hold

Energy Gazebo

2012

 

This project wonders about the architectural folly and mass produced backyard icon: the gazebo. This object, evolving from a point of visual splendor to capture the gaze of the viewer in a landscape, has moved from the picturesque to the ridiculous. It is the venue for backyard wedding receptions and hosted pool parties but more often than not it stands empty as a reminder of a general lack of beauty in the sub-urban landscape. Visual attention should be paid here but there is nothing to see. There is nothing to do. An intense distaste for this object (and type) compelled us to design one. With something firmly posited in the territory of the useless the only thing to do is make it useful. From futility to (f)utility. In this case we overwrote the object with the values of 'greenness' and energy production. We did this not so much to solve problems, though perhaps it does, as to give traction and direction to the thing. Moreover, we strived to amplify issues of utility beyond mere use. We strived to foster strangeness and to once again capture the gaze and engage the imagination.

 

 

Client: DJA R&D

 

Date: 2012

 

Location: none

 

Size: 500 sf

 

Status: unbuilt

Flatlot

2013

 

The American Institute of Architects – Flint and Flint Public Art Project announced the first annual Flat Lot Competition, a program to design and build a temporary summer pavilion in the central parking lot in downtown Flint.

 

Formerly occupied by a series of office buildings and storefronts along Saginaw Street, the full–block surface parking lot known as the Flat Lot has become a staging ground for parades, flower–plantings, car shows, road races, and almost every sort of public event that draws large crowds. The Flat Lot Competition sought proposals to design and build an innovative temporary structure to provide shelter, shade, and seating for a wide range of public events, define space within the lot, and demonstrate the capacity of contemporary architectural form–making to transform space and captivate the public imagination – all while occupying no more than eight parking spaces during normal business hours.

 

The Flat Lot will be a new center and symbol for the city, an attraction for regional visitors, and a site that amplifies the many existing events that help define cultural life in Flint.

 

 

Client: AIA Flint design Competition

 

Date: February 2013

 

Location: Flint, Michigan

 

Size: 16,000 sf

 

Status: Unbuilt

City Park

2011

 

Client: SWA

 

Date: 2011

 

Location: Withheld

 

Size: 1,000,000 sq ft

 

Status: Pending Final Judging

v12

2011

 

DJA set out to explore the flower vase as an aggregated set of objects allowing for tight floral compositional arrangements or loose indeterminate floral arrays. The object itself is an exploration of rapid prototyping with some of the smaller vases set to be directly outputted to high end 3d print (simulated plastic) and the larger ones to be 3d printed as molds for porcelain. The objects are shaped with ergonomics in mind but, toy with erotic symbolism and never forget the role flowers often play in romantic pursuits.

 

 

Client:   DJA  R&D

 

Date:   2011

 

Location:   none

 

Size:   ranges from 3" to 16" in diameter

 

Status:   unbuilt

Soundfield

June 2009

 

The work on the soundfield doors is the first in a series of investigations we are referring to as environmental augmentations. In this series we are interested in exploring parametric software and contemporary fabrication techniques to amplify responses to rather prosaic architectural problems. In a way there is an intended misuse of the software. We are aiming off center from the strictly performance driven solution and certainly away from pure optimization, towards excess and strangeness with a bizarre alibi.

 

 

Client: DJA R&D

 

Date: June 2009

 

Location: Los Angeles, CA

 

Size: (2) 7'x6' panels

 

Status: unbuilt

Drylands Design

April 2012

 

This competition entry, the result of collaboration with Herrera environmental consultants, explores the ramifications of water futures in the American west. We believed the only way to answer the competition brief challenge to 'uncouple water' capture, treatment, distribution, and use from energy-intensive delivery systems' was to address the problem at multiple scales simultaneously. Imbedded in the premise is ta desire to address one of the most pervasive and problematic conditions in the American west. Our proposal is to completely reimagine the ubiquitous sub-urban development and address issues of consumption; energy use, water use, water variability and scarcity, at the scale of a single family residence, and at the scale of developments they exist within. The idea is to design a model for growth to create wondrous living environments that go beyond mere sustainability. The project is a planning proposal, a landscape proposal, and an architecture proposal.

 

 

Client: Arid Land Institute

 

Date: April 2012

 

Location: Fresno, CA

 

Size: 200 acres

 

Status: exhibited at A+D museum los angeles

Lambina Hills

August 2008

 

The architecture featured here is the result of schematic design for a 4200 acre resort development. The site for the project was in Krasnodar, which is the southern region of Russia, about 90 miles north of the Black Sea. The site is a beautiful green rolling terrain with forest glens, open meadows, and a small lake.

 

We were asked to develop 'pre-fab' designs and we partnered with empyrean building systems to design prototypes for a kid's club, a golf club, a wellness center and a boutique hotel.

 

 

Client: SWA

 

Date: August 2008

 

Location: Krasnodar, Russia

 

Size: 1,100,000 sf

 

Status: unbuilt

Qingpu Pagoda Pavillions

November 2005

 

In an ongoing series of collaborations with SWA group we were asked to design a series of five pavilions / tea houses in the context of a new park surrounding a 100 year old pagoda. The pagoda itself is a vertical moment in an overwhelmingly horizontal context and serves as a marker along a water gateway to the district. The pavilions were designed as nodes along a pathway through the park alternately disorienting and reorienting the viewer to the pagoda.

 

 

Client:   SWA

 

Date:   November 2005

 

Location:   Qingpu district, Shanghai

 

Size:   (4) pavilion, 500-1,500 sq. ft. ea.

 

Status:   unbuilt

Lambina Hills

May 2006

 

Client:   MAK Center

 

Date:   May 2006

 

Location:   Los Angeles, CA

 

Size:   2,000,000 sq. ft.

 

Status:   unbuilt

San Jose Art Museum

November 2002

 

The San Jose State University Museum of Art and Design, even in its most gestational stage as mission, objectives and requirements demanded a multiplicitous architectural agent. It demanded both an infrastructural operative and a symbolic icon. It demanded Architecture. A scrupulously rigorous pursuit of the essential goals the University intended to accomplish through the Museum resulted in the deployment of a set of architectural performers or operatives pre-selected to act in concert.

 

 

Client:   SJSU

 

Date:   November 2002

 

Location:   San Jose, CA

 

Size:   35,000 sq. ft.

 

Status:   awarded honorable mention

Pixels Animation

October 2000

 

The virtual and the real co-mingle in this design for the offices of Pixels Animation Software Company. The client came to us with the desire to create a customer orientation center where they could demonstrate, explain and market their 3D software and services. Using the client’s Non-Rational B-spline (NURBs) modeling product in a process of experimentation, the solution emerged as an architectural manifestation of the software itself. Didactic clarity to support a marketing notion ‘what you see and experience is what you get’ allowed for spatial and tectonic innovations.

 

 

Client:   Pixels Animation Software Co.

 

Date:   October 2000

 

Location:   San Diego, CA

 

Size:   2,000 sq. ft.

 

Status:   unbuilt

(Re)condo

January 2000

 

The spatial and chromatic implications of sweeping ocean views became the impetus for the transformation of the interior of this beachfront condominium in Redondo Beach. The client came with a desire to take full advantage of the beachfront lifestyle and a need to leverage spatial variation into the banal condo box standing shoulder to shoulder with the other identical units. A set of spatial compressions and expansions were implemented to draw the inhabitant in and to the upper level, where simple ceiling variations served to demarcate programmatic zones and frame the view.

 

 

Client: withheld

 

Date: January 2000

 

Location: Redondo Beach, CA

 

Size: 1,500 sf

 

Status: built

SCI-Arc Vehicles

July 2003

 

Program:

 

(180) folding chairs stored

 

(60) overflow lecture seats

 

300 square feet of sonic baffling

 

72 linear feet of pin-up space

 

movable, configurable, durable

 

designed, constructed, deployed in (30) days

 

 

Client: SCI-Arc

 

Date: July 2003

 

Location: Los Angeles, CA

 

Size: (6) units, 7'h x 12'l x 2'd

 

Status: built

PROJECTS

Archive

RH1-RH3

2008

My wife and I have purchased a lot to build a house for ourselves and our three boys. This is our reality: The lot is 4,500 square feet. It is a 1:2 down-slope hillside property located in an area with one of the most restrictive zoning overlays in the entire city. The budget is tight and the program is challenging. While the opportunity to design for your own family is unique, the scenario is not. For that reason we endeavored to explore many iterations in what came to be called the RH (Reality House) series. The series is comprised of about six different schemes and RH3 is being moved towards construction.

client:    J5

 

date:    2008

 

type:    residential

 

location:    Los Angeles, California

 

size:    1,800 sq ft

 

status:    on hold

Energy Gazebo

2012

This project wonders about the architectural folly and mass produced backyard icon: the gazebo. This object, evolving from a point of visual splendor to capture the gaze of the viewer in a landscape, has moved from the picturesque to the ridiculous. It is the venue for backyard wedding receptions and hosted pool parties but more often than not it stands empty as a reminder of a general lack of beauty in the sub-urban landscape. Visual attention should be paid here but there is nothing to see. There is nothing to do. An intense distaste for this object (and type) compelled us to design one. With something firmly posited in the territory of the useless the only thing to do is make it useful. From futility to (f)utility. In this case we overwrote the object with the values of 'greenness' and energy production. We did this not so much to solve problems, though perhaps it does, as to give traction and direction to the thing. Moreover, we strived to amplify issues of utility beyond mere use. We strived to foster strangeness and to once again capture the gaze and engage the imagination.

This project wonders about the architectural folly and mass produced backyard icon: the gazebo. This object, evolving from a point of visual splendor to capture the gaze of the viewer in a landscape, has moved from the picturesque to the ridiculous. It is the venue for backyard wedding receptions and hosted pool parties but more often than not it stands empty as a reminder of a general lack of beauty in the sub-urban landscape. Visual attention should be paid here but there is nothing to see. There is nothing to do. An intense distaste for this object (and type) compelled us to design one. With something firmly posited in the territory of the useless the only thing to do is make it useful. From futility to (f)utility. In this case we overwrote the object with the values of 'greenness' and energy production. We did this not so much to solve problems, though perhaps it does, as to give traction and direction to the thing. Moreover, we strived to amplify issues of utility beyond mere use. We strived to foster strangeness and to once again capture the gaze and engage the imagination.

Client: DJA R&D

 

Date: 2012

 

Location: none

 

Size: 500 sf

 

Status: unbuilt

 

Client: DJA R&D

 

Date: 2012

 

Location: none

 

Size: 500 sf

 

Status: unbuilt

 

Flatlot

February 2013

The American Institute of Architects – Flint and Flint Public Art Project announced the first annual Flat Lot Competition, a program to design and build a temporary summer pavilion in the central parking lot in downtown Flint.

 

Formerly occupied by a series of office buildings and storefronts along Saginaw Street, the full–block surface parking lot known as the Flat Lot has become a staging ground for parades, flower–plantings, car shows, road races, and almost every sort of public event that draws large crowds. The Flat Lot Competition sought proposals to design and build an innovative temporary structure to provide shelter, shade, and seating for a wide range of public events, define space within the lot, and demonstrate the capacity of contemporary architectural form–making to transform space and captivate the public imagination – all while occupying no more than eight parking spaces during normal business hours.

The Flat Lot will be a new center and symbol for the city, an attraction for regional visitors, and a site that amplifies the many existing events that help define cultural life in Flint.

 

The American Institute of Architects – Flint and Flint Public Art Project announced the first annual Flat Lot Competition, a program to design and build a temporary summer pavilion in the central parking lot in downtown Flint.

 

Formerly occupied by a series of office buildings and storefronts along Saginaw Street, the full–block surface parking lot known as the Flat Lot has become a staging ground for parades, flower–plantings, car shows, road races, and almost every sort of public event that draws large crowds. The Flat Lot Competition sought proposals to design and build an innovative temporary structure to provide shelter, shade, and seating for a wide range of public events, define space within the lot, and demonstrate the capacity of contemporary architectural form–making to transform space and captivate the public imagination – all while occupying no more than eight parking spaces during normal business hours.

The Flat Lot will be a new center and symbol for the city, an attraction for regional visitors, and a site that amplifies the many existing events that help define cultural life in Flint.

 

Client:   AIA Flint Design Competition

 

Date:   February 2013

 

Location:   Flint, Michigan

 

Size:   16,000 sq. ft.

 

Status:   unbuilt

 

Client:   AIA Flint Design Competition

 

Date:   February 2013

 

Location:   Flint, Michigan

 

Size:   16,000 sq. ft.

 

Status:   unbuilt

 

City Park

2011

Client:   SWA

 

Date:   2011

 

Location:   Withheld

 

Size:   1,000,000 sq. ft.

 

Status:   unbuilt

 

Client:   SWA

 

Date:   2011

 

Location:   Withheld

 

Size:   1,000,000 sq. ft.

 

Status:   unbuilt

v12

2011

DJA set out to explore the flower vase as an aggregated set of objects allowing for tight floral compositional arrangements or loose indeterminate floral arrays. The object itself is an exploration of rapid prototyping with some of the smaller vases set to be directly outputted to high end 3d print (simulated plastic) and the larger ones to be 3d printed as molds for porcelain. The objects are shaped with ergonomics in mind but, toy with erotic symbolism and never forget the role flowers often play in romantic pursuits.

 

DJA set out to explore the flower vase as an aggregated set of objects allowing for tight floral compositional arrangements or loose indeterminate floral arrays. The object itself is an exploration of rapid prototyping with some of the smaller vases set to be directly outputted to high end 3d print (simulated plastic) and the larger ones to be 3d printed as molds for porcelain. The objects are shaped with ergonomics in mind but, toy with erotic symbolism and never forget the role flowers often play in romantic pursuits.

Client:   DJA R&D

 

Date:   2011

 

Location:   none

 

Size:   ranges from 3" to 16" in diameter

 

Status:   unbuilt

 

Client:   DJA R&D

 

Date:   2011

 

Location:   none

 

Size:   ranges from 3" to 16" in diameter

 

Status:   unbuilt

 

Soundfield Doors

June 2009

The work on the soundfield doors is the first in a series of investigations we are referring to as environmental augmentations. In this series we are interested in exploring parametric software and contemporary fabrication techniques to amplify responses to rather prosaic architectural problems. In a way there is an intended misuse of the software. We are aiming off center from the strictly performance driven solution and certainly away from pure optimization, towards excess and strangeness with a bizarre alibi.

 

The work on the soundfield doors is the first in a series of investigations we are referring to as environmental augmentations. In this series we are interested in exploring parametric software and contemporary fabrication techniques to amplify responses to rather prosaic architectural problems. In a way there is an intended misuse of the software. We are aiming off center from the strictly performance driven solution and certainly away from pure optimization, towards excess and strangeness with a bizarre alibi.

Client:   DJA  R&D

 

Date:   June 2009

 

Location:   Los Angeles, CA

 

Size:   (2) 7' X 6' panels

 

Status:   unbuilt

 

Client:   DJA  R&D

 

Date:   June 2009

 

Location:   Los Angeles, CA

 

Size:   (2) 7' X 6' panels

 

Status:   unbuilt

 

Drylands Design

April 2012

This competition entry, the result of collaboration with Herrera environmental consultants, explores the ramifications of water futures in the American west. We believed the only way to answer the competition brief challenge to 'uncouple water' capture, treatment, distribution, and use from energy-intensive delivery systems' was to address the problem at multiple scales simultaneously. Imbedded in the premise is ta desire to address one of the most pervasive and problematic conditions in the American west. Our proposal is to completely reimagine the ubiquitous sub-urban development and address issues of consumption; energy use, water use, water variability and scarcity, at the scale of a single family residence, and at the scale of developments they exist within. The idea is to design a model for growth to create wondrous living environments that go beyond mere sustainability. The project is a planning proposal, a landscape proposal, and an architecture proposal.

 

This competition entry, the result of collaboration with Herrera environmental consultants, explores the ramifications of water futures in the American west. We believed the only way to answer the competition brief challenge to 'uncouple water' capture, treatment, distribution, and use from energy-intensive delivery systems' was to address the problem at multiple scales simultaneously. Embedded in the premise is the desire to address one of the most pervasive and problematic conditions in the American west. Our proposal is to completely reimagine the ubiquitous sub-urban development and address issues of consumption; energy use, water use, water variability and scarcity, at the scale of a single family residence, and at the scale of developments they exist within. The idea is to design a model for growth to create wondrous living environments that go beyond mere sustainability. The project is a planning proposal, a landscape proposal, and an architecture proposal.

 

Client:   DJA  R&D

 

Date:   June 2009

 

Location:   Los Angeles, CA

 

Size:   (2) 7' X 6' panels

 

Status:   unbuilt

 

Client:   DJA  R&D

 

Date:   June 2009

 

Location:   Los Angeles, CA

 

Size:   (2) 7' X 6' panels

 

Status:   unbuilt

 

Lambina Hills

August 2008

The architecture featured here is the result of schematic design for a 4200 acre resort development. The site for the project was in Krasnodar, which is the southern region of Russia, about 90 miles north of the Black Sea. The site is a beautiful green rolling terrain with forest glens, open meadows, and a small lake.

We were asked to develop 'pre-fab' designs and we partnered with empyrean building systems to design prototypes for a kid's club, a golf club, a wellness center and a boutique hotel.

 

 

The architecture featured here is the result of schematic design for a 4200 acre resort development. The site for the project was in Krasnodar, which is the southern region of Russia, about 90 miles north of the Black Sea. The site is a beautiful green rolling terrain with forest glens, open meadows, and a small lake.

We were asked to develop 'pre-fab' designs and we partnered with empyrean building systems to design prototypes for a kid's club, a golf club, a wellness center and a boutique hotel.

Client:   SWA

 

Date:   August 2008

 

Location:   Krasnodar, Russia

 

Size:   1,100,000 sq. ft.

 

Status:   on hold

 

Client:   SWA

 

Date:   August 2008

 

Location:   Krasnodar, Russia

 

Size:   1,100,000 sq. ft.

 

Status:   on hold

 

Qingpu Pagoda Pavillions

November 2005

In an ongoing series of collaborations with SWA group we were asked to design a series of five pavilions / tea houses in the context of a new park surrounding a 100 year old pagoda. The pagoda itself is a vertical moment in an overwhelmingly horizontal context and serves as a marker along a water gateway to the district. The pavilions were designed as nodes along a pathway through the park alternately disorienting and reorienting the viewer to the pagoda.

 

In an ongoing series of collaborations with SWA group we were asked to design a series of five pavilions / tea houses in the context of a new park surrounding a 100 year old pagoda. The pagoda itself is a vertical moment in an overwhelmingly horizontal context and serves as a marker along a water gateway to the district. The pavilions were designed as nodes along a pathway through the park alternately disorienting and reorienting the viewer to the pagoda.

 

Client:   SWA

 

Date:   November 2005

 

Location:   Qingpu district, Shanghai

 

Size:   (4) pavilion, 500-1,500 sq. ft. ea.

 

Status:   unbuilt

 

Client:   SWA

 

Date:   November 2005

 

Location:   Qingpu district, Shanghai

 

Size:   (4) pavilion, 500-1,500 sq. ft. ea.

 

Status:   unbuilt

 

Lambina Hills

May 2006

Client:   MAK Center

 

Date:   May 2006

 

Location:   Los Angeles, CA

 

Size:   2000,000 sq. ft.

 

Status:   unbuilt

Client:   MAK Center

 

Date:   May 2006

 

Location:   Los Angeles, CA

 

Size:   2000,000 sq. ft.

 

Status:   unbuilt

San Jose Art Museum

November 2002

Client:   SJSU

 

Date:   November 2002

 

Location:   San Jose, CA

 

Size:   35,000 sq. ft.

 

Status:   awarded honorable mention

Client:   SJSU

 

Date:   November 2002

 

Location:   San Jose, CA

 

Size:   35,000 sq. ft.

 

Status:   awarded honorable mention

Pixels Animation

October 2000

Client:   Pixels Animation Software Co.

 

Date:   October 2000

 

Location:   San Diego, CA

 

Size:   2,000 sq. ft.

 

Status:   unbuilt

Client:   Pixels Animation Software Co.

 

Date:   October 2000

 

Location:   San Diego, CA

 

Size:   2,000 sq. ft.

 

Status:   unbuilt

(Re)condo

January 2000

Client:   withheld

 

Date:   January 2000

 

Location:   Redondo Beach, CA

 

Size:   1,500 sq. ft.

 

Status:   built

Client:   withheld

 

Date:   January 2000

 

Location:   Redondo Beach, CA

 

Size:   1,500 sq. ft.

 

Status:   built

SCI-Arc Vehicles

July 2003

Client:   SCI-Arc

 

Date:   July 2003

 

Location:   Los Angeles, CA

 

Size:   (6) units, 7'h X 12'l X 2'd

 

Status:   built

Client:   SCI-Arc

 

Date:   July 2003

 

Location:   Los Angeles, CA

 

Size:   (6) units, 7'h X 12'l X 2'd

 

Status:   built

RH1-RH3

2008

My wife and I have purchased a lot to build a house for ourselves and our three boys. This is our reality: The lot is 4,500 square feet. It is a 1:2 down-slope hillside property located in an area with one of the most restrictive zoning overlays in the entire city. The budget is tight and the program is challenging. While the opportunity to design for your own family is unique, the scenario is not. For that reason we endeavored to explore many iterations in what came to be called the RH (Reality House) series. The series is comprised of about six different schemes and RH3 is being moved towards construction.

client:    J5

 

date:    2008

 

type:    residential

 

location:    Los Angeles, California

 

size:    1,800 sq ft

 

status:    on hold

Energy Gazebo

2012

Flatlot

February 2013

City Park

2011

v12

2011

Soundfield Doors

June 2009

Drylands Design

April 2012

Lambina Hills

August 2008

Qingpu Pagoda Pavillions

November 2005

Lambina Hills

May 2006

San Jose Art Museum

November 2002

Pixels Animation

October 2000

(Re)condo

January 2000

SCI-Arc Vehicles

July 2003