Team 3  China Town Housing

In the "Light house / Heavy House"  Project in Design Studio 6, groups of three or four students were chosen  to produce a design for high density housing, retail, and a community center.  The site for this project was in the proximity northeast of downtown Los Angeles, on Broadway and Casanova .   Two sites were given for this project and the groups were to do a site analysis/history study to efficiently design an urban project.  The first site was divided in two separate sites, A and A', while site B was whole.  Both sites are adjacent to one another, which posed the problem of relating the two sites to one another.
During the earlier stages of design we created two structures, a heavy structure enclosed by a lighter system.  The light system consisted of a series of trussed arches that provided both enclosure and lighting to the spaces below.   The heavy system consists of bearing walls that regulated the parking, housing, and circulation.
After a long series of reviews, the group decided to divorce the idea of the light enclosure, despite its importance as being the form generator.  The trusses became redundant to the linear cadence of the building's organization.  As a result of this removal, the spaces between the buildings became emphasized, and formed interesting gathering spaces.
The retail and community center posed problems in the preliminary design process.  The group had difficulty relating the dominant form of the housing with that of the retail and community center.  The solution came as a result of studying the linear cadence of the housing and staying true to its direction.