Site Selection/Program Selection

The DMV is not intrinsically exciting. Banal and boring might be some of the first ideas that even come to mind at the mention of those letters. Or, of course, the agonising wait. The goal of the proposal is not to make the DMV exciting, although one would hope that would be an automatic byproduct of successful architecture. The goal is to explore memory as an architectural process, lifting it from its accepted place in recollection of an architectural experience.

The DMV provides a framework to explore these implications of memory because of the large component of waiting. Waiting, stopping, going, moving, sitting. All aspects of time, which allow it to be framed as a collection of reference points. The same way memory exists.

The DMV conventional elements will not be shifted and alters beyond recognition. Exploration will come through reconfiguring the typical waiting environment with views and user/building relationship.

the site exists along the freeway. the freeway: that cruel bitch. movement, motion, viewing, stopping, endless stopping. reverse relationships. car relationships. there are many ways to move east to west : bus, car, train, walking. linearity reflected. juxtaposition. unique sets of dual (reversed) experiences. memory persists along strings of ordinary. points of interest become nodes of wayfinding. navigating memories is navigating the city. the dmv makes the freeway relevant. the excessive wait is perhaps the largest, and most unspoken, connection. los angeles traffic: that cruel bitch. waiting made (easier?) by the smart phone. mere distractions. where is the persistence of thought, memory, association onto something larger. we can create with our unique human ability: memory. the dmv: that cruel bitch. why is necessity so often overlooked. society created necessity, to be honest, but a necessity. do memories create our unhappiness. what should we remember, how do we forget? do we want to forget? do you want to forget? memory: that cruel bitch. that sick bastard. the freeway commute, we will meet again no matter how i try to avoid you. oh, los angeles, what do we worship other than the freeway. the memory.

In fall quarter studio of fourth year I took a studio with professor Bob Alexander. We explored how different program pieces can occupy the same space and what relationships they could develop. What made this situation unique was the inclusion of a Winery program, which we would learn could not be... View full entry

“Reshaping and incorporating the past and the foreign . . . compensating what’s lost, rebuilding shattered forms out of one’s self” - Frederich Nietzsche, The Use and Abuse of History. (1)“[A] memory of this unanimist collectivity, a montage of recollected features, rather than the scene... View full entry

Second year in my english writing class my professor gave us a prompt on why we liked our choice of study. I remember writing “I like architecture because I like poetry”. I thought it was pretty odd thing for me to say because I had never really thought of it like that before. When others... View full entry

"Useless buildings and pointless landscapes, you know: monuments and plazas. through a series of experiments we will develop architectural prosthetics to apply function to existing civic or sacred structures. These augmentation will create a complete, if however incongruous, symbiosis of function... View full entry

It is easy to get lost amongst the cheaply made products that line the endless shopping aisles of giant chain stores. These over scaled super stores filter out character and quality in exchange for mass production. The white tiled floors and the overstocked shelves are identical to every other... View full entry