“Cultural Ascent” is a design proposal for the Taichung City Cultural Center that merges the programs of a public library, fine arts museum, and city park into an iconic contemporary architectural landmark. The architectural intent of the building is to augment its programmatic contents by creating gradient spatial conditions through sectional movement, while utilizing variable façade patterning and articulation to register varying programmatic conditions.
The building organization is driven by two ramping and interlocking masses of gradient program (library and museum) that peel up from the landscape (park) in opposing clock-wise moves each hinging on a structural core. This move simultaneously. Below grade the two programs are unified through shared parking and administration spaces, while above grade each program operates independently, yet intersects at key moments where exchange is facilitated through shared circulation, vertical cores and a sculptural roof terrace, ultimately merging into a single articulated mass. In section the two opposing ground moves work collectively to frame a connective portal between the urban condition and the park to the south with the mass of the building floating above, while in plan those moves create a multi-story atrium condition.
Given it’s key location at the head of the Taichung Cultural Park, our proposal seeks to present an urban gateway to the park while simultaneously extending the landscaping of the park through the building and providing a legible edge to the park. The sculptural base of the building peels away from the landscape in two distinct landforms (library and museum) to sculpt a framed portal connecting the city and the park. As they ascend, the two masses fuse into a sculpted mass of interlocking volumes and cantilevering floor slabs that hover over the park to shield the sculpted ground condition from the harsh Taiwanese sun. The green landscape of the park appears to pull through the building and re-emerge as an intensive green roof and sculpted roof terrace overlooking the park and the pending Taiwan Tower.

Originally devised in Tokyo in 2003 by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham of Klein Dytham Architecture, Pecha Kucha is a japanese term that loosely means “chit-chat.”  It’s a simple presentation format wherein 20 brave presenters from various design disciplines, ranging from architecture, design, fashion, and art are invited to show 20 images, each for 20 seconds.  Pecha Kucha was brought to LA by the LA Forum in 2003 which has produced over 30 successful sessions over the years.

The lineup curated by Santino Medina is…

1. Danielle Rago – Writer/Curator
2. Jeffrey Eyster – Abrahams Eyster Architecture, Inc., Principal
3. Christian Prasch – Community work in Ghana
4. Oliver Hess – Materials & Applications, Director Emeritus
5. Yohannes Baynes – Farmland Media, Creative Director
6. Mariana Zarate – mzb, Fashion Designer
7. Steve Fuchs – Design Professor at Orange Coast College
8. Julia Cerrud/Aaron Gutierrez – Amorphica Design Research Office
9. Alvin Huang – Synthesis Design + Architecture, Principal
10. Steve Purvis – Jones, Partners:Architecture, Associate
11. Josh Moratto – Maximal/Moratto A+D, Principal
12. Charissa Santos – Graphic &; Interior Designer
13. Orhan Ayyuce – Architect
14. Jeremy Levine – Jeremy Levine Design, Principal
15. Neely Shearer – Parade by neely shearer, Designer/Owner
16. Daniel Cardoso – PhD Fellow at MIT School of Architecture and Planning
17. Patrick Shields – Designer
18. Jonathan Louie – Academic Researcher at UCLA AUD
19. Greg Goldin – A+D Museum, Curator
20. Liliana Castro – ARCHeffect, Principal
21. Lucas Walker – South Park Studios, Technical Artist

About the AIA Committee on Design:

The AIA Committee on Design (COD) was founded to promote design excellence among members of the  AIA, the broader design community, and the public at large, both nationally and internationally.  The Committee on Design is led by a volunteer advisory group of eight architects and an adjunct leadership team of 11 additional individuals. In realizing our mission, we promote a range of activities intended to encourage a dialogue on the art of building. 

Year: 2013

Status: Coming Soon

You can see our entry here, and the complete longlist of entries here.

The shortlist will be announced 23 April and the winners will be announced 6 May.

“The selection panel seeks a unique, one-of-a-kind artwork for this commission that “embraces the funk” of South Broadway –referencing its eclectic makeup and historical diversity.”

We are now in the midst of designing a three-dimensional installation, that we hope “embraces the funk” of South Broadway!  More to come soon…

Other shortlisted artists include:

Cliff Garten Studio

Joe O’ Connell + Blessing Hancock Public Art

Maja Spasova

Catherine Widgery

*Photo of South Broadway by Coby Howell 

Tensioned Relaxations is a series of temporary and rapidly deployable outdoor structures that aspires to reinvent the typical street fair tent through a combination of dynamic form, variable configurations, and optical effects. Designed as a proposal for the Ideas City  2013 street festival, each structure is highlighted by a uniquely sensual and continuous form composed of a tensioned HDPE Mesh skin with bespoke artwork by the talented roster of urban artists at SA Studios / SA-UP Collective and a perimeter ring made of steel rods.   The combined effect of each structures organic form, perforated mesh, and silk-screened skin provides a striking graphic identity to New York’s StreetFest which encourages visual and spatial interaction while simultaneously enabling numerous configurations to accommodate a multiplicity of activities including: vendors, workshop areas, outdoor classrooms, demonstrations, installations, music, and other performances and exhibitions.
Conceived as an extension of the legacy of Frei Otto’s seminal lightweight tensioned membrane structures, it is the structures unique form that makes the structure both efficient and effective. The form was developed through a parallel process of both analogue and digital form-finding to explore the material behaviours of composite tensioned membrane skins (relaxed meshes) and bending active frames. In short, the steel tube ring is deformed into shape by the tailoring of skin which binds it. In response, the frame pushes out while the skin pulls in, creating a form-force equilibrium that is lightweight, cost-efficient, and easy to assemble.  The structure was developed in collaboration with Buro Happold Los Angeles.

Special thanks to editor Spencer Bailey, writer Julia Cooke, and photographer Claudia Lucia for their great work!

Issue 99 of Surface Magazine is now available at newsstands or you can subscribe here.

You can see a pdf version of the article here.

“This venue provides a fantastic opportunity for bringing together the brightest researchers and designers in the fields of architecture, building science, design, computer-aided design and simulation, and urban design. With the advent of high-performance computers and advanced design and simulation tools, we’re have the tools to predict how buildings and whole neighborhoods will perform long before they’re built. SimAUD contributes to the growing knowledge pool that will allow society to reduce the environmental and economic impact of the built environment, through simulation and modeling.”

Please vote for us by clicking on our project here:

http://awards.architizer.com/public/voting/?cid=5

You will need a facebook, google, twitter or linkedin account to vote…if you have all of them you can vote multiple times!

Thank you so much for your support!