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League of Shadows. SCI-Arc Graduation Pavilion

League of Shadows. SCI-Arc Graduation Pavilion
Monica Nouwens, PATTERNS, SCI-Arc

League of Shadows. SCI-Arc Graduation Pavilion

PROGRAM:

League of Shadows is an outdoor semi-permanent event structure serving the SCI-Arc Campus (Souther California Institute of Architecture) and the Arts District in downtown Los Angeles.


A NEW SIGN:

Bringing SCI-Arc to the streets. Positioning the pavilion at the corner of 4th and Merrick Street it allows the project to afford a double life: its obvious function as an outdoor public event space and a more iconic one, that of a formal beacon at the southern tip of the property, a billboard sign that reasserts SCI-Arc’s institutional presence in downtown Los Angeles. The intention of this placement is that when seen from 4th street, the new pavilion serves as a landmark, a natural marquee for SCI-Arc campus. Due to both its placement and visibility, the pavilion can become a suitable venue for SCIArc to engage outside audiences from downtown community and larger LA area.


DESIGN INTENT:

By positioning the project vertically, the pavilion produces enough shadow during the early and late hours of the afternoon [when events are held] so as to allow comfort zones sheltered from the sun. More importantly, its figural shape acts as a natural envelope for the event, providing students and families controlled views of the ceremony in what it is otherwise a fully open parking lot. Volumetric and graphic, the intent of the project is to assert a certain ambiguity in its formal reading. Starting from the definition of the audience, the needed shadow path in the ground is projected upward, producing as one of its possible instantiations, three fingering rectilinear volumes. By depicting simple volumes from the street and a carved unified grouping of enveloping surfaces from the interior, the proposal provides a dual reading: a simple outline from far away and complex radiating superficial texture at close range. The three fingering volumes are carved with three large saddle surfaces. These concave surfaces produce a vaulted interior, which further articulates the organizational sequence of the event. Furthermore, by touching the ground at four points, they envelop the audience producing favorable acoustic and visual conditions for events.


Material Used :

1. Brisol Fabric

Project credits

Designer / Architect
Architects

Project data

Project Year
2013
Category
Pavilions

League of Shadow

League of Shadow

PROGRAM: League of Shadows is an outdoor semi-permanent event structure serving the SCI-Arc Campus (Souther California Institute of Architecture) and the Arts District in downtown Los Angeles.

photo_credit Monica Nouwens, Patterns, SCI-Arc
Monica Nouwens, Patterns, SCI-Arc

A NEW SIGN: Bringing SCI-Arc to the streets. Positioning the pavilion at the corner of 4th and Merrick Street it allows the project to afford a double life: its obvious function as an outdoor public event space and a more iconic one, that of a formal beacon at the southern tip of the property, a billboard sign that reasserts SCI-Arc’s institutional presence in downtown Los Angeles. The intention of this placement is that when seen from 4th street, the new pavilion serves as a landmark, a natural marquee for SCI-Arc campus. Due to both its placement and visibility, the pavilion can become a suitable venue for SCIArc to engage outside audiences from downtown community and larger LA area.

photo_credit Monica Nouwens, Patterns, SCI-Arc
Monica Nouwens, Patterns, SCI-Arc

DESIGN INTENT: By positioning the project vertically, the pavilion produces enough shadow during the early and late hours of the afternoon [when events are held] so as to allow comfort zones sheltered from the sun. More importantly, its figural shape acts as a natural envelope for the event, providing students and families controlled views of the ceremony in what it is otherwise a fully open parking lot. Volumetric and graphic, the intent of the project is to assert a certain ambiguity in its formal reading. Starting from the definition of the audience, the needed shadow path in the ground is projected upward, producing as one of its possible instantiations, three fingering rectilinear volumes. By depicting simple volumes from the street and a carved unified grouping of enveloping surfaces from the interior, the proposal provides a dual reading: a simple outline from far away and complex radiating superficial texture at close range.

photo_credit Monica Nouwens, Patterns, SCI-Arc
Monica Nouwens, Patterns, SCI-Arc

The three fingering volumes are carved with three large saddle surfaces. These concave surfaces produce a vaulted interior, which further articulates the organizational sequence of the event. Furthermore, by touching the ground at four points, they envelop the audience producing favorable acoustic and visual conditions for events.


Team:
Marcelo Spina
Georgina Huljich
Daniele Profeta
Matthew Kendall
Robert Panossian
Jeff Guiducci
Harrison Steinbuch
Andrew Choi
Julio Perez
Chris Chen
Albert Kos
Wenxin Lin


Consultant: Eng. Matthew Melnyk (Nous Engineering)

photo_credit Monica Nouwens, Patterns, SCI-Arc
Monica Nouwens, Patterns, SCI-Arc
Brand description

Patterns is an award-winning and innovative architectural practice led by Argentinian-American partners Georgina Huljich and Marcelo Spina. The firm brings a critical and progressive approach to projects across scales, agendas, and geographies, insisting on the cultural and social relevance of architectural form, emerging technologies, and contemporary aesthetics. Based in Los Angeles, PATTERNS takes advantage of the city’s decidedly global stance and idiosyncratic identity to create equally engaging and speculative architectural projects that operate beyond their required functionality becoming civic and cultural landmarks within the public realm.

 

Founded in 2002, the firm approaches design and architecture with a deep working knowledge of nascent technologies and materials integrated into thoughtful form making. Closely working with each client and their needs as well as the characteristics of a site, each design follows a distinctive approach to massing, material articulation and spatial aesthetics, while responding to their context, considering local materials, building methods, ecological, social and cultural conditions. Often the architecture is iconic and operates beyond its functional program to become a landmark for the community, city and greater public realm. 

 

Patterns has worked across the globe with built projects in the United States, Europe, South America and Asia. The firm has worked on multiple scales and program types that include residential, commercial, mixed-use, cultural, healthcare, hospitality and urban planning projects. Notable completed projects include residential building Jujuy Redux in Rosario, Argentina, the mixed-use building Chengdu Eye of Time in Chengdu, China, the Prism Gallery in Los Angeles, California, the recently completed Victory Healthcare in North Hollywood, California (AIA/LA Design Award 2016), and completed and ongoing private residences in Argentina and California.

Products applied in Commercial , Cultural , Educational , +2
References Patterns
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