When approaching the final solution for the design of this bar/TV area addition, a few guidelines had to be followed. First, there was a clear concern with trying to keep the demolition of any existing elements to a minimum since there was very little space for transportation of these residual materials to the exterior of the building. Also, the client had a series of construction materials such as wood beams and roofing, which could (and should) be used. Despite these two limiting conditions, a creative and efficient design scheme was proposed. An existing wall was partially demolished to be used as the base for the bar counter, which was completed using different recycled materials such as SOB and MDF boards, as well as sections of a metal beam. The number and size of the wood beams owned by the client determined the spacing and location of new elements such as metal beams, windows, and even the design of the floor. A sense of continuity was achieved by aligning these horizontal and vertical members. Another key element in the design was the extensive view of the mountains, which were ‘framed’ by a series of high windows behind the bar. In this way the counter below the windows was used to place a collection of bottles resembling the peaks of the mountain range beyond. The use of high windows also helped to block the view to the neighboring roof tops, giving the client a better sense of privacy.

Lighting played an important role in defining two distinct areas within this space. Fluorescent fixtures were used in the bar area, complemented by ‘cool’ materials such as metal and glass. A balancing contrast was obtained by using incandescent point light fixtures in the TV area, giving it a ‘warmer’ feeling, enhanced by a leather couch and wood furniture.

‘El Camaleón’ restaurant is located within a shopping centre in a very busy commercial area of Lima. Most of the surrounding food serving establishments operate around the clock, but none of them reflect this condition. We wanted to accentuate the fact that this building would always be open, and so decided to keep the enclosure to a minimum. The only two walls wrap around the kitchen area on the ground floor and do not meet the ceiling, creating a visual separation from the glass box above. The long, curved eating counter was oriented following the direction of pedestrian traffic coming in and out of the shopping centre, in such a way that people passing by would be attracted by the large central oven behind it. Parallel and opposite to the bar is the staircase which helps define a pedestrian pathway across the restaurant. The second floor, defined by four glass curtain walls, houses small tables that can be moved around and rearranged according to particular needs. A combination of translucent floor-to-ceiling photographs and exterior metallic trellises provide shade from the afternoon sun and enhance the sense of openness of the building.

Collaborators: Patty Llosa, Sophie Lebienvenu

We investigated the functional, typological and experiential possibilities in rehabilitating a ‘dead’ regional mall in Richmond, BC, a major city-suburb adjacent to Vancouver. By investigating the architectural implications of the term ‘plex’, or ‘plexus’ (a complex body, collection, or set of things; a web, network or any very intertwined or interwoven mass) we arrived at solutions for the rehabilitation of this large, neglected site through the inventive incorporation of various programs and urban amenities.

This particular proposal seeks to generate social interaction by establishing the act of shopping as the catalyst for such interactions, rather than the destination. The program is determined by classifying activities rather than by common zoning or land use approaches. The way the program is distributed internally is derived from a transitional strategy between a loud/busy condition and a calm one, both in plan and in section. Activities are then assigned given their natural inclination towards either condition. A three-dimensional matrix is generated to allocate different programs within the plexiform structure.

This project intended to serve as testing ground for the emergence of new forms and material affects in architecture. Specifically, we looked at the emergence of complex surface objects spanning from monocoque forms (or single shells) to non-modular aggregations and their possible applications. Beyond the anatomical understanding of these categories, these two contemporary forms of composition imply a complex process of fabrication, production and assembly.

Collaborator: Bong Seo

This workshop was based on Lev Manovich’s Soft Cinema project recently shown at ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany as part of Jeffrey Shaw’s Future Cinema exhibition. In Soft Cinema, digital movies are selected from a database and displayed as a fluctuating grid of environmental information. As cinema becomes another career for data, the architectural surface becomes a cinematic medium, but how?

Drawing on readings from ‘Info-Aesthetics’, Manovich’s next publication from MIT Press, we focused on the database as a productive cultural medium, and developed proposals for the architectural installation/ fabrication of digital cinema into/onto urban space. The proposals were presented at SCI-Arc on June 4th, 2004.

Collaborator: Sonia Prasad

This project consisted on developing desing proposals for Natalie Jeremijenko’s OOZ project. Like a traditional zoo, Ooz is a series of sites where animals and humans interact. Unlike the traditional zoo, this is a place where the animals remain by choice: a zoo without cages. What’s more, the human-animal interactions at an OOZ site are significantly different from that of a Zoo, comprised of two components: 1) an architecture of reciprocity, i.e. any action the person can direct at the animal, they can direct at the person; and 2) an information architecture of collective observation and interpretation.

An existing abandoned pier on the Hudson River in New York became the site not only because of the possibility to reactivate the area, but also because a natural ecosystem already existed, allowing a perfect condition for the proposed animal/human interactions. The new structure would include the following interfaces:

• Submerged (semi submerged) fish restaurants: places for feeding the fish, not eating them. Specifically: one-way valves through which people can push a food offering (lure).
• Water pressure exhibits: flexible and moveable wall parts that are filled by the water pressure and dynamic flow of the river. Of various volumes, people can push against these to test their strength against the river.
• fish petting: not only long rubber gloves, but water tunnels cutting through the human space that can provide short cuts for the fish.
• Above water displays: flow direction display; bird architecture (safe nesting areas)
• Submerged tendrils
• Transparent information walls: showing different water levels; water quality; water temperature
• Surface interactions: eyelevel site to interact with robotic water striders and other surface creatures

The proposals were presented by Natalie Jeremijenko at Materials & Applications in Silverlake on July 29th 2004 as part of the IDCA Satellite Symposium Los Angeles.

“IDCA:54 ‘ambient: interface’ brings into focus the design complexities of connection, contact and interaction. ambient: interface explores how computation changes design’s imagination of these complexities and their translation into the making of the material world. We propose for consideration an image of the world as an interface, and of all design as interface design.” (Text by M&A)

Subsequent to the development of animation techniques in architecture that corresponded to a generation of interest in process and consistency, followed a second wave of architects looking at formal techniques and material performance. Given the current proliferation of digitally designed and topologically intricate surfaces, there is an increasing need to articulate a more sophisticated and specific idea of technical procedure affiliated to modelling software.

The intention of this project is to combine two critical conditions in downtown los angeles into one design proposal. The first being an overall lack of available land in the area (the Cornfields site near Chinatown is probably the last piece of open space in Downtown, at 47 acres, and is already on its way of becoming a state park). Secondly, the Los Angeles River has historically been neglected from any development, in part because of its dual nature (it is almost dry during most part of the year, but once in a while it floods and causes great amounts of damage), and partly due do its 51 miles of concrete cross-section designed to take drainage water as fast as possible to the ocean during the rainy season.

In an effort to acknowledge the fact that floods will always be a threat in L.A. and that the streamlined concrete section of the river is an efficient way to prevent them, together with the desire to improve the quality of life of the communities around the river and a potential to alleviate the current demand for developable land in downtown L.A., this project proposes to design various bridge-like structures over portions of the L.A. River, accommodating these necessities and integrating them with other efforts along the river and its surroundings.

Knot theory is a branch of topology that deals with knots and links. In topology, a sphere is the same as a cube, and a doughnut is the same as a coffee cup. It does not deal with the rigid properties of objects, such as length and angles, but instead the properties that no amount of bending, twisting, stretching, or shrinking can change.

A knot is a closed, one dimensional, and non-intersecting curve in three-dimensional space. From a more mathematical and theoretic standpoint, a knot is a homeomorphism that maps a circle into three-dimensional space and cannot be reduced to the unknot by an ambient isotopy.

Throughout the history of knot theory, its founders kept the theory alive by finding uses for the study. From the atomic theory proposed by lord kelvin to the discovery of a dna molecule in the form of a trefoil knot, a purpose and inspiration for knot theory always existed. The applications of knot theory today stretches through chemistry and molecular biology and into the world of quantum mechanics and the universal theory of everything.