For the Milonga project, looking to smaller scales of design for inspiration, we used line work as a means to articulate surfaces and define an overall “effect”.

In the urban plan, line work is used to convey a sensation of “billowing”, as if the urban plan was being pulled towards the marina and each tower struggled against the site forces. Line work is careful not to be too aggressive, but to appear sensual with moments of contortion. At a finer level of detail, a system of perforation was applied at various scales, which worked in concert with the larger topological moves.

On the site, these perforations formed structure, commercial program and defined site planting materials. In the towers, the perforations provided aperture, but were designed to increase in size as they moved away from the outer tower skin and so accentuate the functional articulation of the towers. Programmatically, the project places an emphasis on aesthetics working in concert with pure functionality.

Awards:   Project selected for the 2X8:SKIN EXHIBITION
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Year:  spring 2008
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Course:  M.Arch II, UCLA – Research Studio:
SpasmsConvulsionsEruptions -new sensations of movement
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Location:  Hernesaarenranta Peninsula, Helsinki (FI)
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Description: urban plan for Hernesaari area;
architectural vision for a yacht club
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Instructor:  Prof. Kivi Sotamaa
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Students:  Laura Pedata; Aaron Forbes; Josh Howell
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Activities:  design; drawings; 3d model+rendering; physical model;
research on dynamic digital design techniques
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Related links: AIA – Los Angeles
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“The house is a shell that must allow every organism a free and clearly differentiated individual life.”

For Mollino this was a deep-rooted conviction, “an innate approach to being and acting.”

The vernacular shed (shell) is a classic architectural symbol; “it is the perfect house that grows in harmony with the body that inhabits it […] The subject of human reverie, the shell has personified the unity of concepts such as invention and need, fantasy an repetition, exception and law, chance and geometry. In the dialectics of the viable and the hidden, it has symbolized the dualism of human nature, the body and soul.”

Awards:   Project exhibited at the UCLA “Fall Currents” Exhibition
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Year:  winter 2008
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Course:  M.Arch II, UCLA – Advanced Topic  Studio:
Hirsutism – On the ReThatched Roof for Contemporary Architecture
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Location:  not specified
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Description: primitive hut with sleeping and living area
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Instructor:  Prof. Jason Payne
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Students:  Laura Pedata; Dionicio Valdez; Danny Rentsch
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Activities:  design; drawings; 3d model+rendering; physical model;
research on thatching and weaving techniques
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Related links: -
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Thesis
Three elements drawn for observing an existing LA site inspired the project:
1. the presence of an additional dwelling unit on top of the existing fabric (parasite),
2. the anomalies in the articulation of circulation and common space,
3. the presence of overgrown vegetation in the common open spaces.
The project attempts to re-enact Los Angeles housing as new possibilities within existing footprints.

Design Strategy
The units are interlocked with one another and an extra volume containing the staircase is added on top of each unit. The void space serves as a collector of folding circulation patterns and it becomes a cohesive factor. The hierarchy of open spaces is articulated through private decks, decks shared between two units (hybrid degree of privacy) and semi-public areas shaded by trellis structures covered with vegetation.
The volumetric articulation defines three elements:
1. Living_Houses,
2. Stair_Houses,
3. Garden_Houses

Awards:   -
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Year:  fall 2007
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Course:  M.Arch II, UCLA – Advanced Topic Studio:
Tokyo Now – Towards a Void Metabolism
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Location: Los Angeles (CA) and  Tokyo (JP)
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Description: Firs phase (LA): analysis of residential case studies.
Second Phase (Tokyo): research on Core Metabolism of the 1960’s and
contemporary Void Metabolism.
Third Phase (LA): project for new housing typologies within existing
footprints in LA.
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Instructor:  Prof. Mark Lee and Prof. Yoshiharu Tsukamoto
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Students:  Laura Pedata
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Activities:  design; drawings; 3d model+rendering; research on
Core Metabolism and contemporary Void Metabolism
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Related links: -
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Hierarchy of spaces diagram

 Unit interlocking diagram

 Urban renewal timeline

 Garden house in spring

 Garden house in autumn

Cross section and ground floor plan

 View from a terrace towards the common courtyard

In recent years this neighborhood has undergone dramatic vertical growth in response to the rise of Los Angeles as a major world city. Anymore, Los Angeles grows upward rather than outward, a trend predicted to continue into the forseeable future. As a result, the site of the Schindler House has gone from a plane to a box, now surrounded on all four sides by multi-story residential buildings. This fundamental change in site dynamics has dramatically reshaped the perception of scale and proportion of the house, shifting it from an elegant arrangement of low-lying planes on an open field to an apparently mis-scaled, even squashed miniature dwarfed in a crowded huddle of swollen masses. To modify the house itself in response to the surrounding weight-gain would destroy the very virtues that make it valuable. The only recourse, then, involves reconsidering its landscape, especially as it approaches the four site boundaries.

Design Strategy
[screen of flows] flow motions are essential for the project in terms of offering a new perception of the vertical boundaries, the landscape and Schindler’s House.
The cold water vapor is used as a liquid screen to change the current condition of verticality in collaboration with the bamboo sticks. The foggers attached to the bamboos are gaining enough height to provide the fluid screen and a natural randomness in distribution. Heavy bunches of fog fusing the edges of verticality and horizontality as flowing along the bamboo sticks and the pipes on the ground.  And fog paths on the ground surface are distorted to define the edges and the height differentiation of the original landscape scheme by Schindler.
The fog flow is also providing various scenes for the events (fashion shows, concerts…) arranged by MAK Museum.

Awards:   -
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Year:  August 2007
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Course:  M.ArchII Summer Studio, UCLA – Advanced Topic Studio -
Green Medium: From Plane to Pillow
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Location: MAK Museum – Los Angeles (CA)
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Description: design of the landscape that surrounds the
MAK Center and the site boundaries.
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Instructor:  Prof. Jason Payne; TA: Max Kuo
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Students:  Laura Pedata; Nick Mantis; Alper Derinbogaz
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Activities:  design; drawings; site inspection
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Related links: -
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The project analyses the innovative opportunities offered by the implementation of what is usually known as intelligent architecture, applied in areas characterized by extreme climatic conditions, following an environmental point of view.

The project focuses on the consequences of alterations caused by technology, economy and culture when dealing with the physical and spatial creation and transformation of receptive facilities. This topic offered the opportunity to investigate the conditions that influence the organization of hotel facilities in terms of variation of typological, morphological and functional planning conditions.

The first part of the work consisted in a thorough research concerning shading devices, their classification and their application in buildings; the outcomes of the research led to the analysis of innovative systems and materials used as shading devices and their application to the hotel complex.

Awards:   -
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Year:  June 2005
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Course:  University of Rome “Sapienza”  School of Architecture -
Graduation Thesis – The Dynamic Dimension of Space:
Receptive Facilities in Extreme Climatic Conditions
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Location: Dubai (UAE)
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Description: 5 star hotel; shopping mall; fitness center;
conference center
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Instructor:  Prof. Salvatore Dierna, Prof. Alessandra Battisti
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Students:  Laura Pedata
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Activities:  design; drawings; 3d model+rendering; bioclimatic
investigations; site inspection; research on shading devices
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Related links: -
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