We commissioned leading architects to imagine the buildings, landscapes, and
recreational spaces of Oh La La Land.
dan brunn L.A.-based Dan Brunn Architecture develops commercial and residential projects worldwide. Inspired by the Bauhaus architecture of his native Tel Aviv, Brunn reinterprets Modernist principles in minimalist designs. Written and Designed by Dan Brunn Outside of the city, a structure capitalizes on the allegiance to self, while acting as a refuge for those wanting to further connect with the growing virtual world. A spectator stadium overlooking the Megalopolis? A pied-à-terre? A sanctuary to build your own reality? The ability to both create a world and live within it may lie in the not-so-distant future. Looking forward, this realm sits between the blurred lines of reality and the virtual world. Borderless within this dominion, Los Angeles, a metropolis whose legacy and foundation rests upon its highways, and Paris—‘une ville de grands boulevards’ as the city is affectionately known—combine the old guard and the new as the future of travel and transportation evolves. The advancement of technology dictates, both in the present and near future, the discount and concession of our physical essence. Limitless is one’s ability to build a reality in the virtual domain.
AWP AWP are a leading Paris-based, international architecture firm under the leadership of Marc and Matthias Armengaud, and Alessandra Cianchetta. They recently designed the 400-acre La Défense business district masterplan, which included reimagining the million square feet of public space beneath La Grande Arche.
WRITTEN AND DESIGNED BY ALESSANDRA CIANCHETTA The drawing presented here merges the artificial underground topography of Paris—as planned in its second modernity—with L.A.’s fabric and sensual topography. The angular multi-layered, subterranean world of La Défense is overlapped with the curvaceous topography of the Santa Monica Mountains and Hollywood Hills, with the scenic Mulholland Drive in-between, as if a border. The two worlds collide, merging different scales in a blurred super-position. What defines our approach to architecture and to cities is the way that soft and hard, slow and fast, rough and smooth, natural and artificial co-exist and collide. Betty Elms meets Monsieur Hulot. In Paris, we chose a location both emblematic of modernization in post-war Europe, and notorious for its disconnected and inhospitable environment. The only high-rise cluster in an otherwise exceptionally homogeneous city in skyline, materials, textures and urban composition, the CBD also represents a reference and a tribute
to American Modern Architecture and an idea of modern living. This mega infrastructure is only apparently driven by rationality: it indeed seems much closer to radical—even utopian—architecture. It aimed at rationally separating flows and activities but ended up being an “unpredictable and irresistible” site. The place shows a somehow dystopic image of modernity. Not even a Clay or a Patrick Bateman here, making the subterranean deck a scene for pulpy noirs. The hardness and the greyness of the concrete deck contrasts with L.A.’s soft topography, merging in a grid only disrupted by hardcore “unforgiving” freeway infrastructure. As English architectural critic Reyner Banham puts it, Los Angeles breaks all urban rules compared to Paris or to London. Paris’ highly codified and choreographed gloom and pompous seriousness merges wonderfully with a landscape of delusional, somewhat toxic, yet always-appealing happiness.
FUKSAS
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Massimiliano Fuksas is a major Italian architect, and the principle of FUKSAS alongside his wife Doriana. They have offices in Rome, Paris, and Shenzhen. Their major works include the New National Archives of France in Paris, and the $500 million Beverly Center renovations in Los Angeles, scheduled for completion in 2018.
WRITTEN AND DESIGNED BY MASSIMILIANO FUKSAS You see the Seine with its typical bateau mouche. The river goes through the city that becomes L.A. then we see the skyscrapers against the backdrop. The escalator brings us into a cloud-shaped structure. This structure contains numerous public facilities for the surrounding community. It will become a concentration-point for activities: a second civic center.
EDWIN CHAN
A former Design Partner at Gehry Partners, L.A.- based Chan worked on the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, and the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. He launched his own practice EC3 in 2012. Amongst other accolades, Chan has been recognized with a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from France. WRITTEN AND DESIGNED BY EDWIN CHAN AND JORDAN SQUIRES In 1925, legendary architect Le Corbusier unveiled the Plan Voisin for Paris. The controversial plan proposed to replace the dense Quarters on the Right Bank of Paris by iconic cruciform towers situated in an open, garden-like setting. As expected, the Plan Voisin was met with strong resistance and skepticism from the citizens of the city. Who wants to see beloved Quarters like the Marais demolished, only to be replaced by towering behemoths? Had Le Corbusier been able to realize his vision, there would be no Centre Pompidou or the Picasso Museum today! Plan Voisin remained a utopian dream, unrealized in the City of Light. In 2015, 90 years after the debut of Plan Voisin, an anonymous Cahier surfaced at a Christie’s Auction in Paris in November. This Cahier, referred to as “Auction Lot 323,” contains five drawings that seem to describe an urban proposal, labeled as Plan Oh-La-LA. The first impression of these drawings—two plans and three perspective views— evokes some form of mixed-media collage on top of freehand sketches reminiscent of Le Corbusier’s style. But more peculiar about Plan Oh-la-LA is its resemblance to the “negative impression” of the Plan Voisin—a dense urban fabric grafted onto a cityscape of a larger urban grid. How is it related to Le Corbusier’s original proposal? Initial examination of this so-called Plan Oh-laLA has identified the dense urban fabric to be the same Quarters on the Right Bank that had been surgically removed from the Plan Voisin. Is that a coincidence or by design? The other drawings describe a structure comprised of a cluster of three towers of different heights, situated on a triangular site in the center of the dense urban fabric. Comparison of this
structure to Le Corbusier’s famous manifesto Five Points Towards a New Architecture yields the following speculations: - The plan of these towers resembles the geometry of three “leafs”, spreading outward towards the corners of the triangular site. Has the free plan (Le Plan Libre) taken on an organic form? - This structure appears to be floating above the surface, which slopes up gently to provide a delicate balance for the towers. Instead of an entry vestibule, the slopes split open discreetly to invite access to the interior. What happened with the structural columns (Les Pilotis) favored by the Five Points? - Rather than being constructed by raw concrete (Le Bêton-Armé)—Le Corbusier’s material of choice, this triangular structure has the appearance of glass—a literal transparency. The
free-façade (La Façade Libre) and the horizontal window (La Fenêtre en longueur) have been transformed into a vertical “glass curtain” (La Façade Vitrée). Could this be the logical next step in the evolution of the Five Points? - Finally, in lieu of the roof gardens (Les ToitsJardins), the three towers embrace a landscaped terrace in the middle. What seems to be a digital projection of floral bouquets ascends its vertical walls in a continuous loop. Is this a digital-garden for the new millennium? - What exactly is the function of this structure? Housing? Office? Recreation? Culture? It is not immediately evident. But In the new spirit (L’EspritNouveau) of Universal Space championed by Modernism, does it matter? Perhaps, the key to unlocking the mysterious origin of this “Plan Oh-La-LA” is to be found
by taking a closer look at the site plan. Evidently, the large urban grid is not Parisian by nature; but instead, it is reminiscent of the scale of industrial building blocks generic to the American City. This triangular structure located at the heart of the dense urban fabric is clearly intended to provide a contrast to its surrounding—an ephemeral presence in an industrial wasteland. The most striking feature of this drawing is a red cross marking the intersection of two streets that traverse from the dense urban fabric to the surrounding cityscape. Obscured beneath the red cross, one could vaguely discern the names of these streets as Alameda + 6th Street—Are they referring to the same streets at the Arts District in Downtown Los Angeles? Most certainly, Le Corbusier never travelled to
California. However, it is conceivable that after the disappointment of Plan Voisin, the legendary architect continued to develop his urban vision with a counter-proposal, envisioned for a presumably more open society in the New World. How ironic if Le Corbusier’s progressive urban vision would find its ultimate realization almost a century later in the City of Angels? Furthermore, although Christie’s has attributed “Auction Lot 323” as “Anonymous,” its fine print does identify the former owner to be a certain Café Voltaire, located in the heart of the same dense Quarters on the Right Bank of Paris in Plan Oh-la-LA. How did the Cahier come into possession by the Café Voltaire? Could the “Plan Oh-la-LA” be the “Lost” next chapter for the Plan Voisin? The evidence so far is inconclusive, raising more questions than providing answers.
marc ange Marc Ange is a French-Italian designer raised in Paris. Originally a car-designer for Pininfarina and Bertone, his creative agency Bloom Room has two studios in Paris and Los Angeles.
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WRITTEN AND DESIGNED BY MARC ANGE I believe that Paris and Los Angeles are two cities as different as they are complementary. Paris excels at seducing by what it is, L.A. by what it is doing. Paris disappoints nobody, but promises nothing beyond its sensational beauty. L.A. is hopeful and its beauties are hidden from the eyes of passers-by. Paris stuns by its lighting at night, but in the daytime, its sky is grey. In L.A., every day the sun gives unique colors to the sky, but its nights are dark and empty. The City of Lights takes its nickname from being one of the first cities to adopt electric lighting, to try to make itself less dangerous at night, and The City of Angels is also one of devils. Paris is L.A.’s counterpart and L.A. is Paris’ one. I drew this imaginary lounge as a reality floated between two complementary worlds. From the soft Californian freshness, to the strict Parisian elegance; from the nature to the sophistication, from the destitution to the refinement, from the dumped to the staged, from the cartoon to the history, from the rock to the poetry.
marin + TROTTIN Emmanuelle Marin and David Trottin form the French firm Marin + Trottin, Peripheriques Architectes. In 2015 they won first prize Duo @ Work 2015 for the Cultural Space of La Hague, and in 1995 their “Maison M” won first prize in the Euro-Belgian Architectural Awards. Written and Designed by Marin + Trottin We chose to approach the subject by confronting our project Paris par Nous Paris pour Nous with Los Angeles. We imagine our project repositioned into the L.A. urban landscape. This imaginary journey throughout time and space is fed by an experimental simulation referencing L.A.’s emblematic places. Our building results from mixing typologies, lifestyles, and ways of inhabiting, and draws its references from the history of Parisian architecture. This village-building belongs to past and present— it becomes an iconic element, capable of reuse in pastiche illustrations. We have designed five visuals as postcards from Oh La La Land. We considered that Oh La La Land doesn’t belong to the time, and that its reflection will be richer if considered through different periods. These illustrations refer to ‘30s travel posters. Our imaginary castle building appears like a pastiche of Château Marmont in a phantasmagoric universe. We didn’t forget the ocean, and we also imagined a luxury building overlooking the beach boulevard. Next we took the reference of fashion since Paris and Los Angeles are two ambassadors of glamour. This work opened our reflection on the temporality of architecture and the ability of a building to exist in several epochs without anachronisms, but also the ability of it to switch context and make sense of different meanings. By mixing these two principles we created a new universe.
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(fer) STUDIO (fer) studio is an award winning multidisciplinary architecture and urban design office based in Los Angeles. Lead by Principal Christopher L. Mercier, they explore the condition of contemporary abstraction, spatial imagination, and the relationship of painting, sculpture, and architecture. WRITTEN AND DESIGNED BY (FER) STUDIO Somewhere between Paris the City of Love and Los Angeles the City of Angels there might be a place. A place where Angels can be seen strolling the streets on a regular basis and where they have woven a sort of urban blanket that floats over the city like a delicate cloud. A collection of hopes, dreams, and desires of what a city could really be, all fabricated from the imagination of its dwellers. A city where with enough shared love between its inhabitants, one can trace across bridges, along paths, over networks, and actually maybe even touch the clouds. A place with intimate gardens with connecting walkways, linking to large open spaces that transform into networks of spatial environments, some overhead, some underneath, some off to the side. A place where scale and space start to implode, so that the 12 lane freeways that bisect neighborhoods, compress into connected cobblestone walks and then back again, and the sound of music spills from exhaust pipes filling the
streets with lyrical joy. It’s a city where urban-scale at the macro (Los Angeles), and urban scale at the micro (Paris), have somehow merged to become one. This conglomeration allows the larger global networks of connectivity— social, digital, or other— to comingle with smaller more intimate face-toface personal social networks of local commuities, creating a sort of intimaCITY. Oh La La Land—intimaCITY is a fictional proposal for a more livable global city. One envisioned through an imaginative investigation on how communication flows across varying scales of distance, space and experience. A city striving for more personal connective experience through the development of pedestrian scaled streets and spaces, intermixed into a larger angelic halo of urban infrastructure that, although grand in size, still scales down, slows down, and increases the palpable opportunity of intimate exchange between people, place and environment.