LEED GA + ASSOCIATE AIA
circulation and program diagrams
COMMUNITY GARDEN
FALL 2017
USC, James Diawald
This design is a proposition for the Ron Finley Project, a community garden, located in South Central, Los Angeles.
Expanding upon previous smaller scale explorations of the block field typology, I developed a field pattern of repeated figures with various figure-ground relationships that originated from a rectilinear 8' x 8' grid. The geometry was inspired by Postmodernism and Memphis Art. Different interpretations of the applied living functions to the figures create a variety in response to program and site.
The 15 enclosed bedrooms of the units are the only private block massing that is dispersed throughout the plan to create a flexible and free plan on each floor.
The 1st Floor is the most typical and cellular unit typology that the other floor's units diverge from. As the figures of the pattern merge and interact differently on each floor there is a variation in what is considered a private vs. communal program due to the creation of different types of spatial interactions and thickenings of the demising wall as the units take on various forms; for example, the unit is initially considered only a closet, bed, and bathroom, but on the 5th Floor the unit has two beds, two closets, a study, and a bathroom. This not only creates a horizontal hierarchy, but also a vertical change in density as the massing encompasses more of the floor plan.