Experimental Architecture In Los Angeles

To the latest developments in one of architecture's most exciting centers of activity.

The LA Forum Reader brings together three decades of discursive writings and publications on architecture, urbanism, and Los Angeles culled from the archives of the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design. Published under thematic sections: Experiments, Detours, Hunches, and Santa Anas, with interludes dedicated to Art and Architecture, Downtown, and the long-running LA Forum Newsletter, the collected essays and interviews track an uneven and lesser-known history of experimental architecture, postmodern geographies, and alternative urbanism in L.A. as told by the city’s key designers and thinkers. Today, Los Angeles is a major architectural and urban player, but for decades the city was dismissed suburban and centerless. In republishing three decades of material on architecture and design in Los Angeles, the LA Forum Reader reclaims and reconsiders the city’s architectural and discursive histories. It establishes, or reestablishes, a textual context for critical experimentation and urban investigation. This anthological volume includes essays, interviews, and reproductions of publications that have long been out of print, including pamphlets by Craig Hodgetts and Margaret Crawford, as well as early writings by Aaron Betsky and John Chase.

"Experimental Architecture in Los Angeles presents, for the first time, the recent work of twenty-two of the most innovative, creative, and challenging young architects on the West Coast of the United States. Each architect, in one way or another, is the spiritual child of Frank Gehry and of the second generation of California architects, such as Morphosis and Eric Owen Moss, who followed in his footsteps. Gehry expresses his support for this third generation of architects in his introduction to this volume." "Each architect or firm--among them Michele Saee, AKS Runo, Josh Schweitzer, Guthrie + Buresh, Koning Eizenberg, and COA--is presented in an individual chapter with lavish illustrations accompanied by a brief outline and analysis of the work. Three critical essays, each addressing a different aspect of these architects' relationship to the West Coast, and to Los Angeles in particular, make this volume an indispensable guide to the latest developments in one of architecture's most exciting centers of activity."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

A comprehensive overview of Southern California’s most experimental architecture, showcasing the highly expressive work of famed architects such as Frank Gehry and Thom Mayne, as well as the best of the new guard. This is the first critical examination and history of what was first identified as the "L.A. School" in the 1990s, which has influenced much of American architecture in the last twenty-five years. This expansive new book examines contemporary Southern California architecture from 1987 to the present, exploring its experimental nature, sculptural tendency, and exciting evolution. This volume complements a major exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and is part of the Getty Research Institute exhibition initiative "Los Angeles Architecture, 1940–1990." Contributions by leading architectural historians coupled with a stunning collection of images present recent works in terms of sculpturalism and urbanism, and consider the impact of the history and environment of Los Angeles, as well as the creative and working processes.

Los Angeles is a breeding ground for adventurous experimental architects and a magnet for their high-profile clients. L.A. 2000+ assembles the best work completed in the city since 2000, offering a snapshot of the region and its architecture at the dawn of the twenty-first century. From the widely celebrated Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles by ?ber-architect Frank Gehry to lesser known but equally arresting works such as Studio Pali Fekete Architects? Somis Hay Barn in Ventura County and Godfredsen-Sigal's Hustler Casino in Gardena, the picture that emerges is sometimes startling and unexpected but always impressive. The beautifully designed volume collects thirty strikingly original new buildings, designed by both as yet unheralded talents such as null.lab and predock_frane and internationally renowned architects such as Gehry, Thom Mayne of Morphosis, and Eric Owen Moss. The introductory essay by urban designer John Leighton Chase puts these works in historical and architectural context, offering a unique perspective on the opportunities and difficulties inherent in building in a region known not only for its explosive population growth but also for the artistry of its inhabitants. John Leighton Chase, the urban designer for the City of West Hollywood, is a native of Los Angeles. A former architecture critic for the San Francisco Examiner, he is a coeditor of Everyday Urbanism and the author of Glitter Stucco and Dumpster Diving.

In this ground-breaking book, the first to provide an overview of the theory and practice of experimental architecture, Rachel Armstrong explores how interdisciplinary, design-led research practices are beginning to redefine the possibilities of architecture as a profession. Drawing on experts from disciplines as varied as information technology, mathematics, poetry, graphic design, scenography, bacteriology, marine applied science and robotics, Professor Armstrong delineates original, cutting-edge architectural experiments through essays, quotes, poetry, equations and stories. Written by an acknowledged pioneer of architectural experiment, this visionary book is ideal for students and researchers wishing to engage in experimental, practice-based architectural and artistic research. It introduces radical new ideas about architecture and provides ideas and inspiration which students and researchers can apply in their own work and proposals, while practitioners can draw on it to transform their creative assumptions and develop thereby a distinctive "edge" to stand out in a highly competitive profession.

"Based upon an experience at the Southern California Institute of Architecture".

Dare experiments! The book documents the teaching philosophy developed at the chair of experimental design by Frank Stepper and his team at the University of Kassel. The approach places an emphasis on fostering and developing aesthetic and formal imagination through experimentation. Thinking the "impossible" helps to formulate architectural concepts that progress beyond predictable causalities and functional constraints. For the emergence of innovative designs and novel construction typologies analogue models are augmented with computational strategies and digital fabrication methods. 20 Years of teaching Experimental Architecture, from introductory to thesis level projects Experimental videos with QR code links With contributions by Hitoshi Abe, Marie Therese Harnancourt-Fuchs, Steffanie Hennecke and others