RYAN LOVETT
Columbia University, New York, NY

Substantiating Surface

Entry  S-101

Click here for the first competition board – Urban Scale
Click here for the second competition board – Architectural Scale

It is a place defined by its typological reinventiveness. As the inevitable forces requiring densification necessitated a kind of developer-driven, financially-dictated inventiveness which have yielded such guilty pleasure like the single family detached. From The detached single family house, the dingbat, there seems to be an evolutionary trend towards new typological invention.

There has always been the awarding of the cheap, the fast,the economically viable– Our city’s history has been shaped by this sense of opportunism. We are a city known for its shiny albeit thin veils– superficial at its worst, a private mecca and testament to individuality, space, and freedom at its best, Los Angeles faces a critical moment in its history as its most valuable asset- land, has been almost entirely consumed. A tremendous opportunity lies within the reconsideration of our desire to paradoxically be seen without actually being seen. both see without being seen.

Surface surround us- from the shape of our shiny cars, the labels of clothes, the billboards and signs that dominate our streets- our commutes- A city unified by its libertarianism
and fragmented government structure–

An obsession with the ground- horizontality– sweeping city views — fantasies somewhere between Julius Shulmans depiction of the Case Study Houses and the Greene and Greene Brothers Gamble house–

Use Existing Building and Organizational Methods for construction and managing structures in a fundamentally new way. The private sector and real estate developers have traditionally held the most powerful role in the development of Los Angeles. The privatization of public space and a ridiculously low amount of access to green spaces has.