Experimental Ground: L.A. by Daniel Springer

EXPERIMENTAL GROUND: L.A.

Seminar Title University Term Lecturer

Experimental Ground: L.A. HafenCity UniversitĂ¤t Hamburg WS 19/20 MA (Arch) Daniel Springer

EXPERIMENTAL GROUND: L.A.

Content This winter semester we will set out to study the contemporary and experimental architecture and art production in the notorious sunny US West Coast City Los Angeles. Since at least the 1970’s, Los Angeles is gaining more and more international attention, specifically in relation to its progressing architecture scene and its ever–expanding vibrant art scene. Surely Los Angeles is famous for Hollywood and its influential movie industry already since the turn of the last century, but its image as an interesting city concerning lifestyle, architecture, art and design wasn’t very widespread. However since the rise of the counterculture movements like surfing, skateboarding and hippie–culture from the 1960s onwards and through the visual influence of various key figures in the 1960s art movements related to painting, conceptual art and landart (Ed Ruscha, John Baldessari, David Hockney) the image of Los Angeles started to change. In architecture, an influx of immigrants before the Second World War started to craft the Californian vision of Mid–Century Modernism and International Style (eg. Richard Neutra, Rudolph Schindler, Eames) and in a publication with the title “Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies” published in 1971, the british architectural historian Reyner Banham praised not only the architectural endeavors but even dedicated a public love letter to the whole city. Especially remarkable is hereby the fact that Banham highlighted an anti-aesthetic landscape which, according to him, is something that architects and planners could learn from. (see Varnelis in „The Infrastructural City“, P. 12) According to Banham’s notion, we want to understand what might the anti-aesthetic landscape of Los Angeles be and from there we will set out to explore the notion of the experimental in general. In this context, we will investigate on the one hand contemporary architecture practices in Los Angeles (Michael Maltzan Architects, Bureau Spectacular, Johnston Marklee, etc), the importance and impact of mid-century modernist Architecture (Rudolph Schindler, Richard Neutra, Eames, etc) and also the ecologies which gave shape to the architecture of the city (According to Reyner Banham or Kazys Varnelis). In relation to this, we will also have a closer look into artistic movements and positions since the 1960s while also investigating contemporary artistic practices and notions developed in and around Los Angeles (Sterling Ruby, Martine Syms, Paul McCarthy). On the other hand we will also have a look at the borders of the city and investigate the desert as an alternative place for experimentation. This means from an artistic point of view (Andrea Zittel, HDTS–High Desert Test Sites, DESERT X) as well as techno–ecological point of view (Center for Land Use Interpretation, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Hyperloop) and also from the perspective as a non-place and sanctuary for a certain dropout-milieu (Slab–City). Furthermore, especially today the sunny and hang-loose image of California is overshadowed by intensive wildfires and various other dangers in relation to climate change. Therefore our discussion will also include current discussions in relation to ecological urbanism and climate change activism.

TIMETABLE TIMETABLE 15.10.19 22.10.19

29.10.19

Introduction: „Experimental ground: Los Angeles“ PART I BROWSING AREA

Ecology I Banham‘s ecologies: Surfurbia, Foothills, Plains + Desert Modern and Contemporary Architecture in LA & Area

05.11.19

DEADLINE PART I

12.11.19

PART II PICKING ELEMENTS

19.11.19

Ecology II Student Input: Presentation of area findings Guest Input: Gianmaria Socci SPACE SALOON, LOS ANGELES Artifact I Designed ecologies: Cellular Structures, Artificial gardens Freeways, Concrete Infrastructure (see Varnelis, 2008) Artifact II Student Input: Presentation of element findings

26.11.19

DEADLINE PART II

Guest Input: Mary Lynch–Lloyd SUBSTANCE INHALT, BERLIN

03.12.19

PART III CHOOSING METHOD

Manipulation I Methods: Drawing/Model/Collage/Film Artistic practices & Film Excerpts

10.12.19 17.12.19

Manipulation II Student Input: Presentation of method REVIEW

Guest Input: Prof. Dr. Mona Mahall PROFESSOR, HCU HAMBURG – winter break –

07.01.20

Desk review I

14.01.20

Special topic: Communication (tbd)

21.01.20

Desk review II

28.01.20

DEADLINE PART III

Final presentations exhibition + guests

Booklet / ZIne

Your Zone/Area

PART 1 ECOLOGY

The topic for the first exercise is called „Ecology“. This theme takes as a starting point the influentual book „Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies“ by the british architectural historian Reyner Banham, in which he observes the architectural landscape as shaped by the existing ecological and topological conditions of LA. Ecology on the other hand is also understood in a broad sense here. Today people talk about ecology when it comes to certain systems under the umbrella of a specific topic, for example political ecology, urban ecology or human ecology. We will follow the footsteps of Banham and consider the urban and architectural ecology within the changing landscape of Los Angeles and followed by the question if this applied ecology is sustainable or not? In this regard, the first exercise focuses on the aspect of getting to know the area („Browsing area“) or specifically a certain part/block/neighborhood/building/etc. All influences and tools are allowed, which are helping you to understand your area of interest. You can browse magazines (architecture, pop, music, art, news), internet blogs, social media, google earth, books, film screenshots, ads („yellow pages“), or any other media you can think of. Important is that you find certain depictions of your area of interest. The browsing should support your understanding of the area/block/building/etc. Please compile then your findings together in an A5 booklet. This will be then also the delivery for the deadline of the first exercise.

Image

Text

Square format

Poster

PART 2 ARTIFACT

The topic for the second exercise is called „Artifact“. This theme has various influences, but one starting point is Kazys Varnelis book „The Infrastructural City: Networked ecologies in Los Angeles“, in which the editor observes not specifically the architectural landscape but the architecture of its infrastructural landscape in relation to certain repetitive elements and objects. The meaning of artifact refers also to a certain potential value of the found element, object and architecture. In this sense, your findings refer to the idea of value or what might be considered as valuable. An artifact can be a fragment of something, but it can also be just a repetetive element, which is often neglected. Important is that you find it valuable in a certain way. In this context, the second exercise focuses on a more detailed look at your findings from the first exercise. Maybe there are elements or objects which are worth to observe in detail. Maybe there are interesting architectural situations to be found and highlighted. This exercise functions as a zoom-in into the field/area/topic you started to investigate in exercise I. Please design or highlight the topic of „artifact“ on an A2– poster in square format like in the manual above. On the bottom there will be then some space for textual reference, poem or your own description of the „artifact“.

A2 (Short side)

PART 3 MANIPULATION

The topic for the third exercise is „manipulation“. Today, the term „manipulation“ has a lot of meanings. What we are usually thinking of when it comes to manipulation is „Fake News“ or „being brainwashed“ in relation to media, social studies or psychology. But historically, the term derives from the meaning of doing something by hand in a skillful manner or to know a skilfull handling of objects. Furthermore, this term is also applied to the manipulative communication via images (ads) to a certain audience or how images are treated in order to manipulate a message and/or its meaning. Here, the reference is clear to the influential movie industry in LA. Therefore, the third exercise focuses on the use or abuse of manipulative methods in relation to image and objects in order to deceive, subversive or decontextualize their meaning. This means, the findings of exercise II will be the starting point for applying the method of „manipulation“. For example, details can be deliberately over-articulated; various influences of architectural forms can be mixed; photographic impressions of digitally manipulated material textures can be used; colors can be inverted; confusion between the flat or thick, high and low; the 2D and 3D, the digital and archaic can be applied, all in order to check, disrupt, redirect or slow-down images and form in order to apply moments of manipulation and experimentation. Important is, that if fits to your previous findings and that it is a conceptual progress in your overall appraoch. The delivery will be an expanded model where 2D elements meet 3D elements. The model can then be a reflection on an ordinary californian bungalow (dingbat) or a potential site–specific installation with the elements from the previous exercise(s); it just should relate conceptionally to your previous steps in exercise I + II. The wall and ground gives you room for 2D-image collaging in order to create a whole atmosphere (your own ecology)..

Model presentation Experimental Boulevard

FINAL PRESENTATION

STUDENT WORKS

LISA ANHUT Lot Living First, I started by researching the sunny, californian – surfer - lifestyle where people choose to live in a van, spending a lot of money preparing it as a home. Amid the browsing I discovered a different perspective. An increasing number of people is forced to live in their vehicle due to economic problems and the Californian housing crisis. Former middle-class families who can no longer afford a decent home, hence creating a new part of society, borderlining homelessness and being on the streets. After my initial research I decided against thinking about a solution. If there would be an easy one it would have happened already. Instead I wanted to raise awareness for the topic. The artefact was an installation showing the value of a parking lot. The generated spaces positioned themselves between common housing and vehicle dwelling. For the last step instead of a big installation I decided on doing something simple and subtle. By talking to people who recently spent time in LA I had learned that the problem was well known to the public, but the constant confrontation led to a lack of empathy. What I designed finally is something emotional. I focused on the fate of one family. An article I read about them was my staring point. From that on I developed two texts, regarding their feelings and thoughts aiming to arouse emotions and empathy within the recipient. The model is made of one material and built in layers as an analogy to the layers of society and the layers of a person’s life. Interaction is needed to understand and value it.

EXERCISE 1: ECOLOGY FORMAT: A4 BOOKLET

EXERCISE 2: ARTIFACT FORMAT: A2 POSTER

How much life fits in a parking space? The value of a Lot . 2,50m x 5,00m is the regular size of a parking space. 12,5m² that are normally occupied by a vehicle that is not in use. For around 16.000 people in the city of Los Angeles this little space holds way more. For a growing part of working class families dwelling in their vehicle is becoming reality. For them this small space becomes the center of their life. They spend their day in it. They eat, sleep and socialise within.

As a thought experiment this work aims to explore the value of the small capacity of a parking space. How much of an everyday life can be stored in it? The spaces created though this installation attent to operate at the borders between conventional housing and dwelling in a vehicle. For example, the installation tends to the basic human needs like a house would do. It provides sanitary installations, nutrition and a place to sleep. On the other

hand the succession of rooms, that are seperated by only so much as a vertical access zone, are reminiscent of the fluid space within a vehicle. The level of privacy also borderlines between the two. Within the installation, privacy is created by the different spatial domains and the protection of constant observation that they create. In a house it would normally be reached by clearly isolated rooms with doors that can be closed be-

hind you. The installation is trying to serve a higher amount of privacy that would be given within a vehicle without operating with the classic methods of a house. It strives to build privacy and at the same time maintaining the natural array of spaces. A classic expanse of privacy, with a closing door is only given in the bathroom and to separate the installation from the outside world. Lisa Anhut ... 6022476

LISA ANHUT

EXERCISE 3: MANIPULATION FORMAT: A3 EXPANDED MODEL

LUJAIN BALOOL For the first exercise „Ecology“, I picked up the Los Angeles Country Museum of Art LACMA because it is the largest museum in the western United States. I focused on aspects of getting to know more about what is the meaning of a museum and how can a museum link between the cultural identity of the city and its architecture. In this regard, I supported my interest with two examples: „ the public art installation urban light“ design by the artist Chris Burden and the Resnick Pavilion design by the Italian architect Renzo Piano. A closer look to the topic of museum I continued in part II „artifact“ with the Museum of Contemporary Art, MOCA focusing on the outdoor mural design temporary paint that covered the facade of the museum. Ending up by going back to my initial idea trying to recreate a new point of view from the inspiration of the urban light, by arranging objects in similar grids, picking up the desert as a location in type of a manipulation by showing the reflection of the beauty of natural landscape in the surface of the objects in a pink colour that in my opinion in a way can represent Los Angeles.

EXERCISE 1: ECOLOGY FORMAT: A4 BOOKLET

EXERCISE 2: ARTIFACT FORMAT: A2 POSTER

LUJAIN BALOOL

ANTONIA BANDUCH As part of my project during the course ‚experimental ground: Los Angeles‘, I dealt with the structure of the freeways. First of all I was mainly interested in the unused areas under the street level. In my zine I focused on the intersection of freeways 110-105. After a closer look at the architecture and the different levels I decided to focus on the spaces between the streets in my „artifact“. To make them accessible for all people. My interpretation/proposal for „manipulation“ made me produce a film which deals with the story of a fictitious man who was born and raised in Los Angeles at the time the freeways were built and whose biggest dream all his life was to drive down the monstrous structures with his skateboard. With the help of my manipulation, of the conversion of a side track of the street and a ladder, he manages to achieve this dream together with his grandchildren. The ladder as a motive of accessible freedome for everyone.

EXERCISE 1: ECOLOGY FORMAT: A4 BOOKLET

EXERCISE 2: ARTIFACT FORMAT: A2 POSTER

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ANTONIA BANDUCH

LARS BECKER Exercise 1: Ecology First I did a research about Skid Row near the Center of Los Angeles. Currently Skid Row has several devastating problems such as homelessness and crime. So I looked for ways to improve the situation. This is how I found the project the Star apartments, which is kind of a lighthouse project. The complex was developed by theâ&#x20AC; Skid Row Housing Trust, and designed by Los Angeles based firm Michael Maltzan Architecture. The Star Apartments are not a luxury housing scheme, as the name might suggest. They are dwellings for people of low income and who formerly belonged to the long-term homeless. Exercise 2: Artifact In this part, I focused more on the construction of the building. 102 dwelling units manufactured in Idaho and transported to the site by truck have been stacked in dynamic fashion up to six storeys in height. This construction is borne by a concrete deck supported by powerful piles that conduct the loads into the ground below. The piles penetrate a single-storey existing structure that the architects built over instead of demolishing. Exercise 3: Manipulation In the area surrounding the building there were many warehouses and parking decks that were not necessary in relation to urban planning. I saw the chance of urban densification by adapting the idea of the stacked units. The project is intended to represent a possible variant of improving the urban situation and social housing in Skid Row.

EXERCISE 1: ECOLOGY FORMAT: A4 BOOKLET

EXERCISE 2: ARTIFACT FORMAT: A2 POSTER

LARS BECKER

LINA–MARIE BIENMÜLLER & CHARLOTTE LEA GOTTHARDT ECOLOGY In 1992 aiming to protect the area of the touristically and regionally valued Mulholland Drive from uncontrolled architectural development one formed guidelines for the Scenic Drive Protection. The paragraphs are rather guiding advices than urgent law. ARTIFACT Are there any architectural projects being shaped, settled and designed by following the guidelines? And how are they connected to the idea of protecting a kind of „romantic“ area around the Mulholland Drive? Finding little amount of examples makes us pointing out one specific. Placing it in an exaggerated background that focuses on „the things that need to be protected“ just like the nature, the skyline and the car drivers view over L.A. shall underline the aim of the guidelines in an almost unreal way. Making the architectural artifact being the part of its surrounding some people wish it to be can also be used to make others question the equal situation. That is what brings us to step 3. MANIPULATION By turning the guidelines - paragraphs that seem to be fix and stable - into something romantic and some part of a dream (see the white Hollywood Hills made of tulle and pappmaché) one starts to hesitate and think about the ideas in the area. Does the specific „design“ of something become some kind of unimportend or reduced when it is shaped „by law“? For finding out about the real current circumstances of how living and infrastructure looks like one gets linked to the base of the model through the section lines on the ground layer. The phrase„§fantasy falsified and not seen reflected, #reality needs to be protected.“ can be read just like this or cross pathed either way. This method supports the critical discussion about the almost contradictory topic „design by law“ applying to the Mulholland Drive.

EXERCISE 1: ECOLOGY FORMAT: A4 BOOKLET

EXERCISE 2: ARTIFACT FORMAT: A2 POSTER

peek-a-boo Let the eyes wander. Mountains. Canyons. Nature. City. Lights. LA. MULHOLLAND DRIVE.

Mulholland drive. The great scenic road along the crest of the Santa Monica Mountains. The roadway with low-density housing, low volume, low speed in the hillside parkway. Characterized by the feeling of loneliness. You and your car. No pedestrian paths. Nobody disturbs. In the past, constructing without regard to existing environmental structures and interfering with natural landscape have changed the area. In order to preserve the historical background of the Mulholland drive, it is necessary to observe the development, especially the development of public and private buildings in the canyons and mountains around the Santa Monica Mountains. For fear of threatening the majestic view and character of Mulholland Drive and the surrounding nature by unrestricted development `The Mulholland

scenic parkway specific plan´ was implemented in 1992.The specific plan a conscious environmental and aesthetical development in the Scenic Parkway and seeks to ensure that all projects, both public and private, are compatible with the Scenic Parkway environment. These guidelines are not valid laws and do not make any binding requirements. They only provide direction on how the Mulholland Scenic Parkway can be preserved while allowing the development of living and building in Mulholland Drive´s neighborhood. The main design rules aim at a reduced visibility as seen from Mulholland Drive as well as a natural appearance compatible with the hillside characteristics of the Santa Monica Mountains. It is about adjusting the colors and shapes to nature itself. Preserving the parkway also involves protecting the existing ecological balance, wildlife corridors, native plants and minimizing the grading of the hill and the alteration of the terrain.It is a hide and seek game of various opponents, but nature, the Parkway and also the residents can benefit from the implementation of the rules. Lina-Marie Bienmüller I Lea Charlotte Gotthardt

LINA–MARIE BIENMÜLLER & CHARLOTTE LEA GOTTHARDT

YAELLE CHAMPREUX Ecology in architecture has to, at first, use local materials, no import. The Case Study Houses was the idea of create houses easy to build and fast after the second world war. For this, they had to build with simple materials as metal, glass, concrete, which is cheap and fast. In a way, this can be « ecological» because they didn’t import anything and sometimes even reuse some materials of war industry. Finally it ended up with really expensive houses for rich people, but the first idea started from a good intention. “Artifact is something characteristic of or resulting from a particular human institution, period, trend, or individual.” Still interesting with houses, I focused more on the suburb and the mass production of houses. Finally architecture and urbanism is the absolute result of what Human can do. Transform a land for his own comfort and life. Los Angeles is nothing else but a grid, a grid made of infrastructure that are the roads and create spaces where houses are. The manipulation is something we create in order to control or influence the thought, choices, actions of a person, via the influence. Commercials are, for me, the perfect example of manipulation. In early architecture, commercials were used to sell houses to people and they even create model houses of modern way of live to invite people to buy them.

EXERCISE 2: ARTIFACT FORMAT: A2 POSTER

SUBURB IN

LOS ANGELES

Yaëlle Champreux

EXERCISE 1: ECOLOGY FORMAT: A4 BOOKLET

Suburb \ suhb-urb \ noun A district lying immediately outside a city or town, especially a smaller residential community. Artifact \ är-ti-fakt \ noun Something characteristic of or resulting from a particular human institution, period, trend, or individual.

All begins with one plot. This plot is duplicated several times with houses on it and is being an endless sprawl which create the suburb. The ﬁrst plot as an artifact leads to the whole suburb as an artifact. And what is more an artifact than urbanism and the creation of a neighbourhood ?

All begins with one plot. The plot of one house deﬁnes the design of the whole layout of the sprawl. But the house in the plot looks quite similar of the house in the plot next to it. What if we take pieces of these houses and make a new one ? It just looks like a new house, in an another plot.

YAELLE CHAMPREUX

ARIANNA CHISTE Venice is the aspect that I studied as „ecology“ because I wanted to analyze the connections with the Italian Venice, Venezia. Canals, gondolas, the style of pedestrian life without cars, architectures with classical elements easily take you back in Venezia. Through the first decade of 2000, Venice continues to go through changes. A large influx of tech companies has driven up real estate prices in the area and there is a constant dialogue about what is happening to Venice’s cultural roots. Nowadays Venice is a cultural link for Los Angeles and it’s known to be a hub of artistic inspiration and creativity as in Venezia, that leaving aside the immense artistic culture of which it boasts and the different problems that have, is home for the Biennale, one of the most important international contemporary art and architecture exhibition. With the „artifact“, I wanted to move the attention to the figure of the artist and his hut. A place that from a private sphere become a public space where the artist can share his art and involve the community returning in the last century Venice mood, available to everyone, where the artist could be free to enjoy the place and sharing art. A place where the frame is constituted by the outside world, so in a conceptual level, there is no difference between outside or inside. A simple structure that reminds the lifeguard hut, typical structure of Venice Beach, the studiolo in the Norton House of Gehry and the Altana Veneziana, a very typical terrace, all territorial connections. Developing my project through the diorama, I thought to a 3D representation of this thought, so a proposal for „manipulation“. We are in Venice Beach and, at the same time, also in Venezia. The water is the connection between the two places, and so an important reference to the canals which are the first thing that units the two places. The protagonist of my project is a small Pavilion, a reinterpretation of the lifeguard hut and the altana Veneziana, in a minimal house with the reference for the design of Andrea Zittel and Gehry. Conceptually I decided to paint the inside of the hut in white and the outside colourful to move the art in a public sphere.

EXERCISE 1: ECOLOGY FORMAT: A4 BOOKLET

EXERCISE 2: ARTIFACT FORMAT: A2 POSTER

From the hub to the public. The room of an artist may be seen like a hut, a place of escape and retreat -“Machines à Penser” at Fondazione Prada, Venezia-, but in this century a lot of artists find harder to get out and go down from the “altana veneziana” than to stay. Imagine a sort of Venice Beach Biennial -Biennale di Venezia- witch takes local artists, of al classes, out of the their private box and put them on a crowded beach in the public life, and in that sense return back in the Venice mood, that characterized Venice in the last century, full of artistic views, available to everyone, where the artist could be free to enjoy the place and sharing art. In a frame characterized by the thoughts of the first eclectic Gehry design, with everyday materials, low costs, and sculptural forms as the Norton House-. In this artifact there is no difference between outside or inside, public or private sphere, it is the outside world that constitutes the frame of my hut. Arianna Chistè

ARIANNA CHISTE

DANIEL CORTES ESCALANTE The ecology I chose for the first part of the project was the Film industry in Los Angeles. It might be one of the city’s most significant aspects (if not the biggest of them all), which has defined its development for a long term since the industry’s beginning. My Booklet contains a collection of characteristics that sum up this ecology in a broader sense. I kept it as visual as I could for the presentation. On the one hand, there are comparisons between places shown in the movies vs. their actual use/a “reality check”. They might represent a view of the city in a dystopian/utopian way, or a futuristic/past one. Also, comparisons are shown between how these filmed places are displayed on different genres. On the other hand, I collected some points on how the movie industry influenced architecture, as it is one aspect that cannot be ignored for us. My first approach to the artifact differs from what I took in the end, although the background idea was the same. Initially, I took the signs that the filming crews use to mark a shooting point. The idea behind it was to show how any place can represent anything you want, and in a way, how any building can become a landmark through that. Later, I decided to change my artifact for the atrium and balconies of the Bradbury Building, as I realized it could be a better object to make my point clear. This landmark has become as relevant as it is in the popular culture because of the many roles it played in the movies, showing the flexibility I was talking about. Besides the meaningful architecture that the Bradbury Building has at its disposal, it truly shows a specific case of a filming location with a thousand faces. I intended to build it through my manipulation, placing some of the movie scenes that show a wider range of genres on the interior, and edit them in a way that they can point out what effect they had on that space.

EXERCISE 1: ECOLOGY FORMAT: A4 BOOKLET

EXERCISE 2: ARTIFACT FORMAT: A2 POSTER

Daniel Cortés Escalante

Excercise II

“Artifact”

“Los Angeles is where the relation between reality and representation gets muddled.” “In a city where only a few buildings are more than a hundred years old, where most traces of the city’s history have been effaced, a place can become a historic landmark because it was once a movie location. As it is for people, so it is for places: getting into the movies becomes a substitute for achievement. Actors have head shots, buildings get architectural photographs.” -Thom Andersen, Los Angeles Plays Itself

DANIEL CORTES ESCALANTE

GESCHE DELFS My research topic was streamline. It is an architecture and design development, which appeared in the 1930s during the great depression in America. In my research booklet I looked into three different topics: streamline design, streamline automobile and streamline architecture. In all these different topics you could find similar design motifs like curving forms, smooth rounded edges, flat roofs, horizontal bands of windows, modern industrial materials like steel and glas and sometimes nautical elements such as railings or portholes. All these aspects could mostly be found in commercial buildings. As my artifact I have chosen roadside architecture like drive-in restaurants, which were often built in the streamline design. Despite the depression still the number of car holders grew and also the architecture related to it. The free-standing three-dimensional objects like the drive-in restaurants could easily be seen by passing motorists. They all had similar streamline motifs like the curved and wide overhanging flat roof structure or the pylon standing in the middle of the roof. By giving them similar architectural motifs you could easily identify them as drive-in restaurants. During the time these restaurants exchanged the streamline to googie architecture. One changing aspect was, that they manipulated the roof sheltering the cars. The overhanging roof was angled or extended as fingers out from the primary structure. But not just the roof also the advertisement changed. The central spire or pylon of the streamline was replaced with elaborate billboard-like signs. In my proposal for manipulation I tried to show the change of these drive-in restaurants, with their typical architectural elements, by separating them in different time layers starting from the beginning of streamline and ending with googie architecture.

EXERCISE 1: ECOLOGY FORMAT: A4 BOOKLET

EXERCISE 2: ARTIFACT FORMAT: A2 POSTER

Carpenter’s Drive-in Restaurant on the southeast corner of Sunset Boulevard, 1939

McDonnell‘s Drive-in on the northwest corner of Sunset and La Brea, 1930s

Gas Station Texaco at 1650 North Silver Lake Boulevard, 1941

Source_ Commercial Development and the Automobile, 1910-1970, City of Los Angeles, Department of City Planning

Due to the rise of the car a new type of roadside architecture appeared in the 1930s. Despite depression during that time the number of car owner in Los Angeles grew. The impact the car had on the architecture can be best seen in those buildings created to provide for the needs of it. This included building types such as gas stations, Drive-Ins and motels. Streamline Architecture was the best way to represent the abstract image of the car and symbolize its speed and motion. The association with movement was due to Streamline use in the industrial design of modes of transportation. Streamline provided architectural unity to car-oriented building types. The identification with Streamline Architecture can be best exemplified by the circular Drive-In restaurants of the day. The design of these buildings were standardized with typical Streamline details. By doing so they created an easily recognizable and identifying sculpture, which was seen by passing motorists and stood there as an advertisement for itself. An especially notable element in these Drive-In buildings are the expansive roofs, which are widely overhanging above its structure below. Its is an relevant object in the design of these buildings. Especially because of the free standing structure of the building itself in the surrounding, the roof

becomes an even more important and significant role in the design. With its rounded edges and circular forms it transformed the typical elements of Streamline Architecture. The wide structures also provided shelter for the customers, who got served in their parked cars. As the decade progessed the roof became thinner and more extended, which gave those building a more elegant look. One of the best examples of the unique building type as well as the Streamline style was the Carpenter’s Drive-In restaurant. It was built in 1939 located on the southeast corner of Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street in Hollywood. Harry B. Carpenter founded the Carpenter‘s chain with his brother Charles and operated many similar looking locations in Los Angeles. It shows the typical horizontal lines and rounded forms, which visualized the idea of efficiency, dynamism, and speed. Here you can also find the roof structure as a key characteristic to the Streamline design of the building with its delicate cantilevered canopy extending like a disc out over the cars and a slender pylon reaching upward. The roof sits on the round core, in which the shop is located and is surrounded by cars like spokes on a wheel.

Gesche Delfs

GESCHE DELFS

DOMINIK DIEHL Ecology: Googie Design For my Booklet I chose the design and principles, the history of the googie Design and Architecture. I showed in this Part how the design got developed and in which Era and why. Which principles it affiliated, what the Iconic Designs and Building were, and which of these still are present. Artifact: Theme Building In my Research of the Artefact from the googie Design were at first were the buildings which still represents a certain area and why. In Los Angeles one of these building was the Theme building among other small coffee shops and restaurants. But the Theme building was the biggest and most iconic building from that era in my opinion, at least for LA. Manipulation: Theme Building LAX For the next Part and the interpretation, I chose the surroundings of the Theme building, the LA international Airport. Most interesting was for me the original plan for the location and the interpretation of the Architect and how the Building should work in its surroundings. The Plan had all the terminal buildings and parking structures connected to a huge glass dome, which would serve as a central hub for traffic circulation. The Theme Building was there to build a marking spot intended to connect the surrounding Terminals. I tried to show with my model how the Terminals interact with the Theme building and how the traffic flow from the visitors are not certainly connected to the intended marking spot.

EXERCISE 1: ECOLOGY FORMAT: A4 BOOKLET

EXERCISE 2: ARTIFACT FORMAT: A2 POSTER Los Angeles International Airport, “Theme Building“

The distinctive white building building resembles a flying saucer that has landed on its four legs. Build 1960, last restauration 2010. The appearance of the building‘s signature crossed arches as homogeneous structures is a design illusion, created by topping four steel-reinforced concrete legs extending approximately 15 feet above the ground with hollow stucco-covered steel trusses. To counteract earthquake movements, the Theme Building was retrofitted in 2010 with a tuned mass damper without changing its outward appearance. Constructed near the beginning of the Space Age, the building is an example of how aeronautics and pop culture, design and architecture came together in Los Angeles

Guillemins TGV Railway Station - Santiago Calatrava

Sofi Stadium rendering LA - HKS, Inc.

Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia, Santiago Calatrava

Kolkata Gate - Dulal Mukherjee

DOMINIK DIEHL

KIM FINSTER Wall Art: Los Angeles as a Backdrop In the very beginning I started to do research on Melrose Avenue because it was most iconic to me about Los Angeles. The ecology of the city, the street art, especially Melrose Ave was probably most iconic to me because it’s photographed so often and pictures are spread all over the internet. Also the city of L.A. is well known through its appearance in movies and TV. For the artefact I chose the wall itself. It impressed me how much impact a simple wall could have on people passing by. And how much attitude, fame and hype graffiti could let arise. For the further research I focussed on the interactions between the artworks and the human. The wall in times of digital significance isn’t just a backdrop to many tourists but a surface for artistic freedom and freedom of speech. So for the last exercise – the manipulation part – I created my own wall to manipulate people to think about the rather ridiculous act of taking selfies through my research. If you took a selfie in front of the fake Pink Wall, you realise that at the same time it shows how easy you can manipulate the people seeing that selfie on social media. The pink backdrop draws a direct connection to L.A. and has people think you were actually in Los Angeles.

EXERCISE 1: ECOLOGY FORMAT: A4 BOOKLET

EXERCISE 2: ARTIFACT FORMAT: A2 POSTER

KIM FINSTER

ANNA KRAHL SELINA SOPHIA NICKELSEN As we looked for a topic we had a closer look at the different districts in Downtown LA. It is very interesting that such a wealthy business lifestyle exists right next to poverty and homelessness. So for our first exercise “ecology” we focused at skid row and the history of the whole area. Many different aspects leads to today’s situation. In the next step “artifact” we thought about a solution for the prevailing problem of homelessness and massive number of tents on the streets. Therefore we developed the idea of temporary shelters for homeless people on the rooftops of empty houses. But the problem is not solved with such a measure and much bigger than we thought at first. It all started with the fact, that the government separated Downtown into different districts to contain the homelessness in only one part of the city. There is not a real border between the different districts in downtown which separates this kind of ghetto from the other surrounding districts - but there is an invisible one. There are so many reasons why the district Skid Row is such different from all the others. In our model is a two dimensional one colored street system of Los Angeles. This grid shows that there actually is no border or visible separation between the districts. In the middle is a wall with movable blocks. This wall shows some facts which make the difference between Skid Row and the wealthy life in other areas - so a kind of visible wall nevertheless exists. So if all the moving elements are turned to the side then there isn’t longer a border which separates the areas. Only the predominant facts create a „visible wall“. Therefore it is important to understand that you actually must not judge a view if it’s good or bad - both sides have their own advantage in a different way.

EXERCISE 1: ECOLOGY FORMAT: A4 BOOKLET

EXERCISE 2: ARTIFACT FORMAT: A2 POSTER

ANNA KRAHL SELINA SOPHIA NICKELSEN

ANONELLA MARIANI SAMUEL MENANT The booklet shows our first intuition : landscape, nature and the city. By analyzing art pieces, books, musics, paintings, installations, we wanted to search the points of view of the artists towards Los Angeles. Our main topic was the relation between Los Angeles and its natural site, the desert. There is a disconnection between the construction of the city and the natural place where the city was built. Los Angeles is built in the desert, it’s like an island, an illusion. To show that, we chose to represent the city sprawl like infinite, because it’s encircled by a wall made of mirrors, but the enclosure also divides the city from the surrounding nature. We can see that this city is on the desert, but just looking at the city we don’t realize that there is a fine line that divides it from the desert. The mirrors that reflect the city, hiding the reality, the situation of the desert and the climatic problems.The desert became a dumping ground for the inhabitants and for the tourists. It symbolize the climate crisis, and the enclosure is representing the fact that people are totally mindless about that. This mirror also represents an ironic solution to block the urban sprawl, putting limits to the city and protecting it from the threats nature poses. It’s a dystopian project.

EXERCISE 1: ECOLOGY FORMAT: A4 BOOKLET

EXERCISE 2: ARTIFACT FORMAT: A2 POSTER

CLEAR CONSCIENCE

The human in the desert. We learnt that big parts of the desert become in the U.S. big open dump. It’s a problematic which comes in particular with the awareness of global warming. The link that Los Angeles has with the desert and more generaly with the nature arround show that there is a problem. But more recently big dumps in some desert in U.S. open the debate of the print of the human on the deserts. Many artists were interessed by this problematic of the «american way of life» in California in particulare. We can see the outdoor art museum of Noah Purifoy in the Coachella Valley, which is a museum totaly built in garbages. This strong contrast between the human culture and the desert is very present in his work. In the map we can see the rectangualr erosion of the desert by the city. Humans need a lot effort to keep an adapted climate for the vegetation.

ANONELLA MARIANI SAMUEL MENANT

CEZAR MOLDOVAN The Mythicisation of Architectural Space in Film To begin with, I turned my interest toward the influence of film in architecture and in the image of Los Angeles. As it is such a massively photographed and filmed city, I have considered the narrative layer on top of many buildings and areas as a new ecology. My case studies were two very different movies. One being “Blade Runner” and the other one “Once upon a time in Hollywood”. The first one portraying Los Angeles as a dystopian city of the future, the image manipulation being focused on small scale model making and digital manipulations while the latter relied on life-size old buildings facades and the action was played on the actual streets. For the artefact, I began with a bigger scale, that of the city and imagined a future scenario, which would merge both manipulation techniques used in the movies by covering streets and buildings in screens, thus being able to experience movies in real life. From that point I have set my focus on the Bradbury building, reimagining it as losing it’s real life identity by being wrapped in a cloth. My interpretation of “manipulation” continued with the ideas from the second step. I wanted to materialise the denial of real architecture in the Bradbury building and the narrative layer overtaking it. This I have achieved through building the facade of the building as a cloth resembling the facade, but being empty on the inside. Therefore, one could say that there is the building behind it, but it could at the same time not be. It could be blue or it could be yellow. It could be made out of brick or concrete. The ambiguity of the item behind the cloth is what manipulation is about. The architecture has been turned into a prop.

EXERCISE 1: ECOLOGY FORMAT: A4 BOOKLET

EXERCISE 2: ARTIFACT FORMAT: A2 POSTER

The City: Hive, Web, or severed insect mound. All citizens heirs of the same royal parent. The caged beast, the holy center, a garden in the midst of the city. Rats, sailors

& death.

So many wild pigeons. Animals ripe w/new diseases. "There is only one disease and I am its catalyst", cried doomed pride of the carrier. Fighting, dancing, gambling, bars, cinemas thrive in the avid summer. ~~~

Savage destiny on a natural road

Experimental Ground: Los Angeles - Cezar Moldovan

Naked girl, seen from behind, on a natural road explore the labyrinth

-Movie:

young woman left on the desert

A city gone mad w/fever . . . Dark savage streets. A hut, lighted by candle. She is magician

Female prophet Sorceress So

Dressed in the past All arrayed. The stars The moon

She reads the future in your hand.

The walls are garish red The stairs High discordant screaming She has the tokens. "You too" "Don't go" He flees. Music renews. . . . . They are filming something street, in front of in the st our house. ~~~ Walking to the riot Spreads to the houses the lawns suddenly alive now w/people running

Cancer city Urban fall Summer sadness The highways of the old town Ghosts in cars Electric shadows ~~~

ghosts of the dead car sun. Stop the car. Rain. Night. Feel. ~~~ Serpentine road To the Chinese caves Home of the winds The gods of mourning ~~~ The city sleeps & the unhappy children roam Who can make them come inside? James Douglas Morrison: The new creatures

CEZAR MOLDOVAN

GHAZAL NEMATGORGANI „They mistakenly say LA when what they are experiencing is Hollywood.“ This sentence, said by a residence in LA, in addition to the paradoxes in the structure and organization of the social, political, and economic layers dealt with in the ecology section, perhaps summarizes what gave me a somewhat different mindset about Los Angeles. Beyond this seemingly charming and crazy city, always sunny and warm, there is something hidden. you only notice it when falling into it. To Study it without any consumption. So in this section, I discuss the influence of Hollywood media on shaping the city and how it has played a role in manipulating the truth. In the second part I chose the palm tree as an artifact. Because palm trees are a true symbol of the mentioned fakeness in part 1. Because they have come to Los Angeles to be a symbol of warmth and holidays, and thus attract people to the city. When I found out that they are dying and no longer a palm tree is to be planted, I began to wonder how the city would look like without this manipulated symbols. I decided to look for a solution. To keep their presence in the city long lasting. I wanted to create a memorial instead of them in the first place, but then I thought we were always imposed, especially through the media, in the face of tragedy like death, To fill the holes we feel inside us and to replace something. So I tried to re-manipulate this manipulated concept once more in my own way and not do anything about palm trees. Keep the holes of their absence and only show the shadow of those trees in the city‘s memory.

EXERCISE 1: ECOLOGY FORMAT: A4 BOOKLET

EXERCISE 2: ARTIFACT FORMAT: A2 POSTER

GHAZAL NEMATGORGANI

IONELA NGONGA ADELE RODARI In 1920, over a million inhabitants were living in Los Angeles and 660,000 from them arrived during the decade. They were seeking for a better climate and the ideas of modernity and freedom you could find in Los Angeles. Neons, iconic symbol of LA were a good way to show that kind of feelings: progress, freedom, dreams and modernity. During the World War II neon signs were put off because of the fear of a Japanese attack and most part were never switched back on. Our goal for this diorama is both to show the ornamental side of the neon, which is almost like a jewel on the building, but also a problem at the heart of our society: the environmental impact. Indeed the position of the neon is questionable nowadays. Sometimes used to revitalize a neighborhood, the neon tends to be replaced by LEDs as an answer to the problems of sustainable development. Little by little, the old neon lights are deteriorating, and most of them are not restarted. We are therefore witnessing the creation of waste corresponding to these old neon lights. We can also observe in the neon museum of Las Vegas lots of old neon lights arranged as if it was in a rubbish tip. Our diorama’s aims is to be narrative in order to represent the evolution of neon. From its installation as an ornament, a jewel, representing the rising consumer society since the post-war period, until its death and its dispersion having an ecological impact represented by the presence of their abandoned structure in the Los Angeles desert as our background. We chose to represent Broadway Street as it is known for his large number of theaters and neon facades. This is also the explanation of the theatrical composition of our diorama.

EXERCISE 1: ECOLOGY FORMAT: A4 BOOKLET

EXERCISE 2: ARTIFACT FORMAT: A2 POSTER

quotes from the LA Times article « Historic theaters gain new life as retail stores »

During the day, neon lights are more discrete. The isolated, grafted, bland element reminds us of how light acts like a kryptonite against neon. When night falls, the light gives way to its natural appearance in favor of its artificial character. Neons are therefore symbolic, firstly a reference to a certain temporality: the night. They are also symbols of progress, technology and freedom that attracted so many people in the 1920. After the end of the war neons increase at the same time as the consumption society. Indeed, these luminous signals of all shapes and colors with the aim of attracting the customer is a wonderful example of a growing consumer society. Nowadays, neons symbolize a second breath. We use them to dynamize some neighborhood or to give back their identity to buildings. For exemple, the Quinn’s Rialto Theater opened in 1917 with a huge electric sign at the top of the theatre structure that gives it all his identity. After many years of success the Rialto closed as a theatre in 1987. After that, the facade and the neon sign began to slowly degrade until the neon of this mythic theater seems like a ruin. In 2013, it becomes an Urban Outfitters shop and the facade and the neon are totally renovated. So with this example and others we can clearly say that today neon are a mean to give its glory back to some place or to try to make a place more alive, more dynamic. That’s the new symbolic of neon signs. adèle rodari ionela ngonga

IONELA NGONGA ADELE RODARI

CHRISTINA PRIEN The topic I have been researching on in the first exercise is the ecology of cars in LA. I studied the beginning of transportation, especially in relation to LA’s spread out urban planning and found out that the railway network dominated LA in previous times and that later allowed the easy shift to the automobile era with the building of freeways in the 50s and 60s. Results of the mass of people driving everywhere, huge carparks in front of any shop, gas station, supermarket etc. That brought me to examine parking lots as an artifact of LA in the second exercise. Spaces that are only used for an often single mode of transportation while at the same time releasing lots and lots of co2 — and that is in a county where climate change is extremely present with wildfires and land slides occurring every year. So I tried to develop a value in them and that is the possible development I am showing in the model as the third exercise. I manipulated this space into something that can be seen as a contribution to try to solve a few of LA’s problem, while at the same time being very critical about fossil ways of consumption and transportation and trying to look into the future with growing populations and supplying their food needs.

EXERCISE 1: ECOLOGY FORMAT: A4 BOOKLET

EXERCISE 2: ARTIFACT FORMAT: A2 POSTER

69 KM2

1.2 X MANHATTAN

THE POTENTIAL OF PARKING LOTS 14 percent of LA Countyʻs incorporated land is devoted to parking. (…) There is more space devoted to parked cars than driven cars. There is one obvious, conspicuous artifact in LA related to cars and that is the parking lot. There has been a continuous growth of parking lots in number and in size, just as an equivalent of the growth of the cars themselves in number and size. Being highly celebrated and flattered in the 1970s and 80s, the parking lot is past its peak these days. Though there are more people driving cars than ever before, it seems unreal that the space used up for parking in LA city is 1.2 the size of Manhattan. So what do I see as a value in the parking lot? Its simply the amount of them and the resulting mass of space added up. What if there could be more rewarding uses than paved, concrete surfaces that are only used for a few hours a day, highly monofunctional and additionally heating up the city even more? LAʼs got huge problems, environmental, ecological, social and health issues, just to name a few. There are wildfires and landslides in California, the city doesnʻt have a proper water-system with 80% of the rainfall being dumped into the ocean, the regionʻs energy supply depends heavily on fossil fuels. Low-income communities and communities of color commonly reside in areas that have less access to parks and recreation.

There is so much potential in the parking lots. Why not use them to start solving a few of LAʼs problems? PROJECT BY CHRISTINA PRIEN

CHRISTINA PRIEN

ZOILA RAMIREZ I chose the freeway as my main topic. The freeway not as infrastructure, the freeway as architecture or better as a sculptural piece. Thinking about L.A., I immediatly think of the spirit of freedom, which is represented in lot of songs and music video clips. During the first research I noticed this traffic way is a strong part of Los Angeles. In almost every movie there is a scene on a freeway and they are often significant scenes. Consequently I discovered the ecology of freeway as a stage set. „We‘ve been on the run, driving in the sun, looking out for number one. California here we come...“ - California by Phantom Planet In the in the further course of the investigative procedure I took a closer look on the freeway, underneath. I found out, freeways in L.A. are often used as screens where people express their stories in the form of graffiti art. As I have latin roots, I am specially interested in those of latin people. There are lot of points, where several lanes meet and underneath there is a impressiv free space surrounded by this massiv columns, which remind me suddenly on a sacral building. This is my way to see this whole composition as an artifact. „L.A. freeway is the cathedral if its time and place“ - David Brodsly Considering this I decided to bring the freeway back to life by offering space for people. To combine latin people with the freeway topic is my result of my research, to use this space to honour their culture. So this is an exaggereated invitation to get know them better and celebrate. I manipulate this free rare space for celebration, which already exists, but not everyone knows. This celebration is not something new...its actually just a step further than the graffiti in a utopian way.

EXERCISE 1: ECOLOGY FORMAT: A4 BOOKLET

EXERCISE 2: ARTIFACT FORMAT: A2 POSTER

ZOILA RAMIREZ

EMMA RASMUSSEN I started my research by making the booklet about the book „Learning from Las Vegas“. I was interested in what attracted tourist to go see a city that has a past only lasting a century. I wanted to understand the interests of commercials. I asked myself „Have commercial buildings become the attraction, when there are no monuments?“ Using a sentence from the book, I chose to compare a public square, or a piazza, with a parking lot of Los Angeles. Turning the focus to the parking lots. I was inspired by the quote suggesting that today‘s architects should use the lessons from what was learned earlier in time. Working with parking lots I thought of two possibilities: Rethinking the parking lot either as a new space for a utopian city without cars after potential significant change in the climate crisis or changing it into a space that still is a parking lot but can be used for other things as well, so that it (eventually) will also be useful if we one day don‘t use cars anymore. In this way necessity is a big part of the design. It will have a possibility to change into the given need. Perhaps there is a bigger need for parking space during the day than in the night or opposite. I wanted to create my diorama as a public space by using the limits of a usual parking lot, and by keeping, the often used, drawn white stripes to indicate the space for each car. That will give them a sense of monumentality and tell the story of the former use. And by giving them a volume, some places are to show that it could be used for different purposes. Furthermore, by giving it a volume I wanted to distort the landscape visibly, into an eruption or explosion of the ground. My idea was to indicate what effects cars as a symbol or ñ on a larger scale ñ the industrial society has had on it‘s surrounding or the environment. Not only in a naturel but also in a social and cultural sense. EXERCISE 2: ARTIFACT FORMAT: A2 POSTER

COMMERCIAL PARKING LOTS AS ATTRACTION

EXERCISE 1: ECOLOGY FORMAT: A4 BOOKLET

FROM THE PIAZZA TO PARKING LOT TO THE PIAZZA “They rediscovered the piazza. Two decades later architects are perhaps ready for similar lessons about large open space, big scale, and high speed. Las Vegas is to the Strip what Rome is to the Piazza.” - Learning from Las Vegas I WAS INSPIRED BY THE QUOTE SUGGESTING THAT ARCITECTS TODAY SHOULD USE THE LESSONS FROM WHAT WAS LEARNED EARLYER. IN A CITY WITH A PAST REACHING BACK ONLY A CENTURY, THE HISTORICAL LANDMARKS ARE FEW. LOS ANGELES IS HEAVELY INHABITED AND FREQUENTLY VISITED. IT IS A CITY THAT MAKES YOU DEPENDANT ON A CAR, AND THEREFORE ALSO NEEDS A PLACE TO PARK IT. THE MOVEMENT AROUND THE CITY IS A DIFFICULT TASK. LOS ANGELES IS FILLED WITH BIG OPEN SPACES USED ONLY FOR VEHICLES. ON TOP OF THIS IT IS HARDLY EVER FOR FREE. THERE EXIST AROUND A HUNDRED PUBLIC PARKING LOTS, WHILE THE VAST MAJORITY IS IN PRIVAT OWNERSHIP. WORKING WITH THE PARKING LOTS I THOUGHT OF TWO POSSIBILITIES: RETHINKING THE PARKING LOT EITHER AS A NEW SPACE FOR A CITY WITHOUT PARKING ISSUES OR TO INCLUDE THE CARS INTO A MULTICHANGING PUBLIC SPACE. AN URBAN SELFCHANGING SPACE WHEN NECESSARY. THE LATTER WAS WHAT I CHOSE. USING THE LIMITS OF A USUAL PARKING LOT I WOULD LIKE TO CREATE A PUBLIC SPACE. BY KEEPING, THE OFTEN USED DRAWN STRIPS TO INDICATE THE SPACE FOR EACH CAR IT´S GIVEN A SENSE OF MONUMENTALITY AND BECOMES A STORY OF THE FORMER USE. NESSASITY BEING A BIG PART OF THE DESIGN, WITH A POSSIBILITY TO CHANGE INTO THE GIVEN NEED. PERHAPS THE AREA NEEDS MORE PARKING SPACES DURING THE DAY THAN IN THE NIGHT OR OPPOSITE. THE VISUAL IS A PARKING LOT CREATED BY USING WHAT I BELIEVE A GOOD PUBLIC SQUARE CONTAINS. HUMAN SCALE, MONUMENTS OF IT´S TIME, NESSASITY AND A SENSE OF TEMPORALITY FOR DIFFERENT EVENTS AND TIMES. EMMA TANDER RASMUSSEN

EMMA RASMUSSENA

THERESA JANNA REXNER ECOLOGY The booklet presents the most striking of the collected impressions about the creation of Venice of America, with special attention to the idea and the goal and background around Abbot Kinneyâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s dream. It also shows the break between the dream and the present situation and leaves you disappointed in the end. ARTIFACT The poster depicts the special connections that make Venice a special place. For this reason it was not printed but acetone onto the paper as a collage. The result is a new image, but it only works in conjunction with its individual parts. A repeating element in Venice is the arch. You can find it everywhere. It stands as a symbol for connections. It shows what Venice is all about: it is a cultural, free and popular part of the city with a unique lifestyle. MANIPULATION The model should function as a construction kit. The viewer is put in the role of Abbot Kinney and can build his own dream of Venice. For this purpose, he has various building blocks at his disposal, all of which are derived from the element of the arch. As in Venice Beach, a grid serves as a base. On the underground you can see a plan of Venice Beach. In the background several prominent arches are shown. Both create a connection to the previous exercise. They also serve as inspiration and derivation. All components can be stored in the back wall, so you can take your Venice with you everywhere.

EXERCISE 1: ECOLOGY FORMAT: A4 BOOKLET

EXERCISE 2: ARTIFACT FORMAT: A2 POSTER

THERESA JANNA REXNER

ROMAN ROHRER The road “Mulholland Drive” and it‘s area have basically comfortable ecologies. You can enter it easily by car from the Hollywood Hills near Downtown LA or from the San Fernando Valley, Calabasas in the north of the Santa Monica Mountains. You will find enchanted villas of celebrities, hidden in green gardens, landscaped parks and car rest stops with scenic overlooks. Technically it is a spacious land development into the rural mountains of LA. It is not a typical pedestrian area, though some people enjoy the hiking trails near to town. What they experience is the original dry vegetation of LA – bushes, cacti and sand. Some sections of the drive are even closed to cars and lead through nature conservancy zones with this uncultivated kinds of landscape. The first artifact I approached were the scenic overlooks. The drive, built in the 1920s, has always been popular for its views and is seen as a panorama road. Over time the county and private donors set up viewing platforms: for example called “Stone Canyon Overlook, Universal City Overlook, Barbara Fine Overlook, ...”. Heading there by tourist buses or individually, with the seek for magnificent views above the city, landmarks and landscape, it makes the overlooks an integral part of the drive. But 100 years ago can those deliver more perspectives than simple visual pleasure? To answer that question I proposed a use with the second infrastructural topic, one of more importance. Being conscious of the needs of intact nature a sustainable society it was an interesting fact, that the road got the name of William Mulholland - the water engineer, who made the development of a dry county into a prosperous metropolis possible. In time of scarcity of resources it is time to think further and build groundworks for sustainable ideas. For this I drew artificial/”constructed” water reservoirs and information centres at the overlooks. Besides the LA River and of course the Pacific Ocean water is not a really visible and tangible artifact in Los Angeles. Time to change this! The shapes of the constructed water reservoirs or containers and the play with the dimensions 2-D and 3-D gave me the artistic input to describe the situation in a diorama. The only site-specific, natural and outlasting object are the mountains. So I took a photo of a hill (scan from “David F. Travers - Arts & Architecture, Reprint 2014”) and put it 2-D in the background. The human-made and constructed manipulation is abstractly illustrated in 3-D. The water containers appear massively and of central importance. The roads with its palm trees, a symbol of fertile soil, give scale and are intentionally unstable. The utopian scenery delivers an abstract play between permanence and constructed reality; wilderness and fruitfulness, which is accompanied with a peaceful water- and nature ambient sound.

EXERCISE 1: ECOLOGY FORMAT: A4 BOOKLET

EXERCISE 2: ARTIFACT FORMAT: A2 POSTER

/ WATER SUPPLY EXPERIENCE / MULHOLLAND DRIVE, LOS ANGELES // AFTER EXAMINIG THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MULHOLLAND DRIVE (ITS DIMENSION, ITS SURFACES AND ECOLOGICAL SURROUNDINGS - GREEN HIDDEN LUXURIOUS PROPERTIES, WHICH COME ALONG WITH CELEBRITIES, MYTHS AND TOURISTS, ON THE OTHER HAND DIRT ROADS GOING THROUGH WILD AND DUSTY VEGETATION), THE IDEA HERE IS TO INCLUDE THE HISTORICAL REFERENCE OF THE MULHOLLAND DRIVE AND THINKING ABOUT A POSSIBLE FUTURISTIC CONCEPT HOW TO EXPERIENCE THE POPULAR ACTION OF PASSING THROUGH THE ROAD BY A VEHICLE. THE AREA WAS OPENED IN 1924 AS A LAND CLOSURE PROJECT FOR NEW REAL ESTATES AND SHOULD OFFER A BETTER QUALITY OF AIR AND MAGNIFICENT VIEWS TO THE SETTLERS. IT HAS GOT ITS NAME FROM THE ENGINEER WILLIAM MULHOLLAND, WHO MADE THE WATER SUPPLY AND THUS THE RISE OF THE CITY POSSIBLE: HE WAS AWARE OF THE LIMITING FACT WATER FOR THE DRY CITY AND HAD THE VISION TO CONNECT A NEW DRINKING WATER SOURCE TO LET LOS ANGELES GET FAR BIGGER THAN IT WAS GROWN SO FAR. THEREFORE HE WAS ORDERED BY THE MAYER AND REALISED A GRAVITY FED AQUEDUCT BRINGING WATER FROM OWENS VALLEY IN THE SIERRA NEVADA MOUNTAINS, ABOUT 200 MILES / 320 KM AWAY TO THE THIRSTY CITY. TODAY PEOPLE SEE THE WATER SUPPLY AS SELF CONSISTENT AND ARE NOT REALLY AWARE OF BEING AT THE LIMIT AGAIN. BOTH TOURISTS, AS WELL AS LOCALS ENJOY DRIVING THE ROAD WITH THEIR FUEL BURNING CARS AND HAVE BREAKS AT THE OUTLOOKS, ESTABLISHED STOPPING POINTS WITH SPECIAL VIEWS OF DOWNTOWN LA, THE HOLLYWOOD SIGN, THE MOVIE STUDIOS, THE VALLEYS IN THE NORTH OR JUST THE NATURE. / IN MY UTOPIAN CONCEPT THE OUTLOOK STOPPING POINTS ALSO FEATURE SMALLER NATURAL WATER RESERVOIRS WITH INFORMATION CENTRES. SO, IN ADDITION TO THE VIEWS, YOU CAN EXPERIENCE THE VALUE OF THE HISTORICAL AND CURRENT WATER REFERENCE. THE CENTRES OFFER SPACE FOR FUTURISTIC CONCEPTS OF WATER SUPPLY WITH THE AIM TO CREATE A NETWORK OF SUSTAINABLE THOUGHTS. // / THE NEXT STEP TO LOOK AT IN THIS CONTEXT MIGHT BE A SUSTAINABLE WAY TO DRIVE //

ROMAN ROHRER GSEducationalVersion

VISUAL GUIDE: THE GRAPHICS CONSIST OF MANUALLY DRAWED SHADINGS, POLYLINES AND GENERATED 3D TEXTS FROM GRAPHISOFT ARCHICAD. ADOBE WASN'T USED FOT THIS ONE. THE PICTURE IN THE BACKROUND IS A SCAN FROM 'DAVID F. TRAVERS - ARS & ARCHITECTURE, REPRINT 2014'.

ROMAN ROHRER

ANNIKA STIENECKE ECOLOGY Ecology means to me the world, which surrounded me and which influences each other. Like a world city nature. Everything in this city world nature belongs together and influences each other. You cannot seperate one from another. Everything is a part of the ecology. ARTIFACT Artifacts are man made ideas or solutions for needs or desires. An artifact can be something very inconspicuous, something insignificant at the first glance. It doesn´t have to be artistic, it can be for example technical as well. It is just important, that the artifact is usefull for something. Even if you think the artifact is useless and it is just an deception, so you are forced to think about it, then it´s definitly an artifact. MANIPULATION Manipulation is the possibility to change things as you like or need them. You just take an object and give it another meaning by changing it. You can change just the colour, you can disassemble it and put it together in another way, you can cut it and fix it together, whatever you like or need. One thing, which is important is just the meaning, your opinion and the statement that you stand for.

EXERCISE 1: ECOLOGY FORMAT: A4 BOOKLET

EXERCISE 2: ARTIFACT FORMAT: A2 POSTER

PART II ARTIFACT _ L.A. RIVER POOLS OR A SOCIAL UTOPIA The Los Angeles River is a mayor river in Los Angeles County. It flows nearly 82 km. Once the river was free-flowing. Since the 1938s the river and its tributaries are largely channelized and lined with concrete. The river became a real infrastructure, a technical artifact, so that the social, political and cultural spaces associated with them become less important. Till 1913 it was the primary source of fresh water for the city. Today the river runs between 150 million gallons per day. In an article of the Los Angeles times in August 2013 was writen, that the water in the river today is largely „industrial and residencial discharge“. „There are 43.123 swimming pools between Hollywood Hills and San Pedro, between Santa Monica and Alhambra. The turquoises pools are beautiful. The typical swimming pool in Los Angeles is oval-shaped and messures 16 feet, 4 inches (5 m)(width) by 33 feet, 6 inches (10,2m)(lenght). The average surface area of a pool is around 430 square feet (40 m^2) and the average volume is 2.400 cubic feet (68qm), or atound 18.000 gallons (68.137 l). This suggests that the amount of water stored in Los Angeles swimming pools at any one time is around 760 million gallons or 2.300 acre feet of water (2,9 billion l).“ Most of the pools belows to private houses. Both, the river bed and the pools are made of concrete. The LA River, a technical artifact, embedded in barbed wire, formed like an isosceles trapezoid. The private swimmimng pools are shaped in every conceivable form. What would happen if you put the shapes together and fill them with life? What would happen if everyone could use the pools at any time?

ANNIKA STIENECKE

ING–KERRIN ZIEGLER As my main topic I chose a house designed by John Lautner, the Sheats Goldstein residence. I liked this building under the inside-outside point of view, all rooms are open to the outside areas with floor to ceiling windows. The house is surrounded by a high amount of tropical plants, it almost feels like you’re living in the jungle because the line between indoor and outdoor environment blurs. Another great part of the house is the roof. The roof is divided in different triangular shapes which forms a really nice sculpture. For the manipulation, my idea was to build something which is the opposite of the current situation, to bring the outdoor environment to the inside. As a result I took the roof and turned it upside down, that it forms together with the windows a volume with an opening on the top - a flower pot. It’s planted with succulents because they are growing in LA and one ‘European’ plant, which isn’t nativ American and which till these days you can’t find anywhere in Los Angeles. Under the aspect of our current situation regarding climate change, I thought about a plant which isn’t used to these hot temperatures in LA, so that it has to get used to it - kind of a plant immigration to Los Angeles, to see if the plant can adapt the conditions, and if it does, how it reacts to it.

EXERCISE 1: ECOLOGY FORMAT: A4 BOOKLET

EXERCISE 2: ARTIFACT FORMAT: A2 POSTER

INGâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;KERRIN ZIEGLER

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