Fall 2020 | Prof. Selwyn Ting | ARCH605a | USC School of Architecture | M.ARCH+2
Los Angeles, California
The goal is not just to develop student housing but to create a student dwelling, which is more of a dialogue of physical structure and human activity. A relationship between the tangible and intangible aspects of housing. Different cultures have different forms of home that is a product of long-lasting diffuse of knowledge shared by all for all. Thus the model becomes a result of the collaboration of many people across periods of time. The International House celebrates individuality, differences, collaboration, and expression. The project aims to provide a framework to re-focus back onto the individuals who make up the international house instead of hiding them behind a singular face.
The Site is located on an important corner of USC Village that is not only a major intersection but across from a main campus entrance. The site now is an empty lot with a bisecting sidewalk making its only use a transient one. With the intervention of the proposal the site becomes highly visible at the intersection coming from all directions and will thus become a symbol of the entrance to campus, but also a obvious place for people to meet or gather.
The two streets that border the site are heavily used in both vehicular traffic and pedestrian/bikers. The proposal starts to engage the existing movement corridors by pushing and pulling on the site edges to give more space where more people are likely to be as well as starting to create buffers from the busy streets to create a more pleasant plaza environment without disconnecting it completely from the visual of the street or campus.
The Phrase “Kit of Parts” is used to describe the assembly as a way of expressing the opportunities for the residents to give more identity to their own units. Usually in student housing the only way of self expression is by what posters you put on the walls. In this proposal there is a lightened scaffold that extends out of the main structure to provide a depth for balconies to exist between causing them to read more primary in the assembly . The balconies then become a space for students to use and manipulate how they desire. The addition of a operable screen provides an additional layer for students to control privacy, and sunlight, but also contributes to the overall reading of the building and the dynamic change in the perception of the building over the time of the day.
The incompleteness of the building is to help users connect to their environment through its porous boundaries, less rigid and more engaging. The incomplete invites appropriation and misuse, and open to multiple interpretations. This also provides more transparency in the public areas to encourage curiosity and connect visually across the site and campus.
