INFINITE CUBES
SOAA Innovation Center 2020 Winter
415 Comprehensive Design Studio
LOCATION: UCLA Campus, Los Angeles
TYPE: Studio, Academic, Individual
SUPERVISOR: Garrett Ricciardi garrett.ricciardi@aud.ucla.edu
Cube is a special geometry which can be divided infinitely without losing its qualities. All the edges are of the same length and this makes cube easier to manipulate than other shapes. Also, cube has such a strong sense of space that even the faces of it are taken off, you can feel the shape of it through the edges, or even points.
Massing
RCP
Second Floor Plan
Third Floor Plan
Considering the special qualities of innovation center, spaces in this building should be alterable and ready to add more modules. Therefore, each program’s space in this design can be taken apart into cubes with the same size, they are prefabricated structures that can be add or remove easily according to users’ needs.
To improve the spaces’ quality, I choose mirror and glass as my facade material. Mirrors will reflect the environment around and can be a tool to “extend” the space, creating a new courtyard inside the mirrors. The rooms’ materials are mainly decided by the privacy requirement of programs, however, to emphasis the shape of cubes, every square read from the facade will only have one kind of material.
Fourth Floor Plan
Primary Structure
Secondary Structure
Floor Plates
Structure
Structure Detail
Since the space between the 3 buildings on site is really limited, I do not want people feel suffocated by the new structure. To improve the spaces’ quality, I choose mirror and glass as my facade material. Mirrors will reflect the environment around and can be a tool to “extend” the space, creating a new courtyard inside the mirrors. The rooms’ materials are mainly decided by the privacy requirement of programs, however, to emphasis the shape of cubes, every square read from the facade will only have one kind of material.
Elevation
Section Perspective