Lorem Ipsum: Narratives of Architecture is the first studio to be subjected to the experimental format of a jury presented in Pedagogies, the Public & Juries. The second round of Lorem Ipsum borrows its process from Bernard Tschumi’s Manhattan Transcripts. What follows is the development of Lorem Ipsum’s Transcripts of Los Angeles. 

Having drawn, the studio was tasked with moving beyond the lines of their tracings. Each student ventured out to their prescribed section of the map to film, to get to know the reality these lines represented. The daydreams evoked from their tracings were confirmed, shattered, reformed by their escapades through the city.  

Questions regarding each stage of the studio were posed to the students prior to posting. What follows is the students’ experience of this studio as expressed through their answers, diagrams and captured framed realities.

 What is the purpose of thinking in this manner? 

• Ordaz

  
  

  •  These assignments took some time to grasp and understand the intentions of what was to be produced. Speaking from my own personal experience with the work that was done, I believe the purpose of this is to find other methods of approaching architecture and the way we look at it. There was not much that we did that constituted “traditional” means of producing architecture. When I say traditional, I mean formal ways of going about a project from my own personal experience with the profession and in academic settings. Diagrams are a means of understanding features and components of projects, regardless of scale, but the idea of diagraming experiences and memories is something I have not attempted before. The work forced us out of our comfort zone and this is something I found very valuable. It is obvious that each project, no matter what kind of work that has to be done, is always challenging, but our own ideas of how to interpret what architecture is, is rarely an obstacle that has to be conquered. I found different purposes in each of the assignments. With each objective accomplished, I learned something new about the way I think and what I chose to think about relating to architecture. Challenging my own thoughts and how I judge architecture was the overall idea that I found purpose in through these assignments. 
• Peng
  • The purpose of this project entails that I would be able to capture the liveliness of this part of the LA. As a result, the project itself can be used as a pedagogy for future spatial analysis of the area in LA. Looking into possible use as a case study or precedents for Los Angeles. 
• Rose
  • To imagine what happens in space. To explore the possibilities between realities and fantasies.
• Liu
  • If the activities are based on reality, will it be any different in a completely different world? If buildings in real world become all strange forms, if sight becomes a physical object, if human itself becomes the same level of object, will the experience have any change in the space? – or can the activities repeat in a world of difference? What if we can create a world that has the same human activities but in a totally different shape? To explore a system to redefine the city would be the purpose of it.
• Pierandozzi
• I see the purpose as a method of finding and mapping activity in a city. Understanding what the ebb and flow of energy is in a given portion of space is not just about the amount of traffic that it sees. The specific activities that occur on an individual level are extremely important to the character of the space in which it occurs. Observing and translating the activity at a wide range of scales allows us to understand our physiological response to it and view it from different perspectives. 

How does precedent, history and theory play a role in this project?

• Rose
  • The Manhattan Transcript was developed in late ‘70s, which underlines the events that happen in space. It deviates from conventional architectural projects, representing the interpretation of reality. Similarly, this project pays attention to our own interpretation of the space as well as the city.
• Liu
  • Precedent is a lead in point and theoretical basis and offers us methods to rebuild Los Angeles.
• Wu
  • Our precedent "The Manhattan Transcripts" gave us a good example of how to interpret from photos to diagram and then to space.
• Pierandozzi
  • Precedent plays a role in this project because we are creating something new from the existing. We are arguing that our creation is in fact already existing in the form of the goings on in the city. 
• Ordaz
  • This is related to architecture because we are always interested in understanding our surroundings, either in a macro or micro scale. We learn the urban fabric through the black and white map of LA. Then we learned the specifics of that part of LA in the lenses of something that is translated into a visual-spatial language that is seemly understandable. We are learning and viewing cities in a unique shape and form. 

From these recordings, the students gathered the events of their section. Each student then selected stills, moments in the narrative, from which to create spatial diagrams. Each spatial diagram is a transcript of the city, an experienced and processed part of the story.

Why the figures, shapes, and composition? 

• Ordaz

  
  

  • The frame of our work consisted of objects that were mainly composed of figures and shapes. These shapes were meant to represent many things we found interesting in our experience through Los Angeles. It was up to us how to interpret what we were trying to capture. People could have been represented by cylinders, cars by rectangle, and other objects as whatever shapes we wanted to represent them. What was important in representing these objects was the essence of the figures we were trying to express. A cylinder on its own might not mean much, but a series of these cylinders placed carefully within our work can be interpreted with more intention. These figures and shapes were tools for us to use as a way to diagram movement, intensity, and other related terms that came to our thought. It was helpful to see works from Bernard Tschumi and Perry Kulper to give us a sense of direction with the work that needed to done. The composition of our work was carefully curated to understand the intention of the work. One example, our second assignment consisted of an image still from the film, a spatial diagram of that image, and a perspective of our interpretation from the image. The spatial diagram was done in an axonometric view, and the perspective done at a one-point perspective to help us visualize ourselves within that diagram. These are traditional means of representing something abstract and intangible. 
• Rose
  • Just as the city is formed by different scales, figures and shapes are formed by the intersection of thick and thin, additive and subtractive, gigantic and tiny, movement and stillness. The composition describes the clear division of residential and commercial, urban and suburban area happening in cities.
• Peng
  • The figures and shapes capture the buildings and massing from the images I took. These shapes acts like a summary to the visual information I captured through videos and images. It means to tell a story in a spatial language, while it may rhyme, demonstrate rhythm etc.