51mi + 25km = 13ft — Archiving the place that remains, thesis project by Sophie Akoury. Thesis Advisor: Marcelyn Gow. Image courtesy of Sophie Akoury.

During SCI-Arc's 2022 M.Arch graduation, three students were awarded the Gehry Prize for the Best Graduate Thesis. In December, we highlighted prize winners Ian Wong and Sue Choi for their project, Earthly Passage. Continuing with our Thesis Review series, we connected with the third Gehry Prize winner, M.Arch graduate Sophie Akoury, to discuss her project, 51mi + 25km = 13ft.

Akoury shares her motivation behind exploring the city's infamous LA River and how its physical and historical existence parallels Lebanon's Beirut River. "Few places can be as contradicting as the Los Angeles River. Without it, LA would not exist (which sounds quite surprising since its existence is often neglected, and calling it a 'river' is sometimes questionable)," she explained. "When I moved to Downtown Los Angeles from Lebanon, I noticed the Los Angeles River's uncanny resemblance to the Beirut River. That intrigued me since the two cities are so different yet share almost the same urban entity as a paved river."

We discuss how this thesis has influenced her design perspectives, how her education has prepared her for professional practice, and how she would describe her graduation project to someone without an architectural background.

Please provide a brief summary of your thesis/final project. What motivated you to pursue this topic?

A place that is both sewer infrastructure and ecosystem, a murderer and a life-giver, a highway short-cut and a rowing venue, a swimming pool for the marginalized, and a movie set for blockbusters. Few places can be as contradicting as the Los Angeles River. Without it, LA would not exist (which sounds quite surprising since its existence is often neglected, and calling it a ‘river’ is sometimes questionable). Just like the city depends on the freeway now, it depended on the river then. 

I was fascinated by the absurdity of it all and became consumed with the River’s history, from ostrich farms to vineyards, floods, and concrete. So I would say the motivation was really an obsession, and I think obsessions can be really healthy creatively since they fester a genuine interest in the research topic. I then asked myself, how could all of the information, stories, and descriptions manifest themselves simultaneously within my design project?

51mi + 25km = 13ft is an installation that retells the histories of the Los Angeles River by relying on both archival documentation as evidence and archival creation (or recreation) as provocation. 

...the thesis underscores the procedure of constructing site-specific facts as both found and fabricated, repositioning the role of the site and its representation within architectural pedagogy.

51mi + 25km = 13ft is an installation that retells the histories of the Los Angeles River by relying on both archival documentation as evidence and archival creation (or recreation) as provocation. Navigating the factual and the made-up, the thesis underscores the procedure of constructing site-specific facts as both found and fabricated, repositioning the role of the site and its representation within architectural pedagogy. 

It operates between different levels of resolution, from the hyperreal representations of the 3D scans to the abstracted use of concrete. It invites us to simultaneously witness a place as a mashup of different narratives, materialities, agencies, and time frames. 

Multiple projections aim to blend the physical and digital aspects of the project, with the scale of the projected animations affecting how we view the model's scale. Although the content itself is presented non-chronologically, the journey through the river is linear: We traverse it through different points of view as it constantly transforms. 

My approach wasn’t initially explicitly architectural, and allowing my thesis to be accessible beyond architectural academia was crucial to me from the beginning.  I wanted people to engage with the work as an installation rather than an architectural model.

How would you describe your thesis to someone who doesn’t have an architecture background?

My approach wasn’t initially explicitly architectural, and allowing my thesis to be accessible beyond architectural academia was crucial to me from the beginning. I wanted people to engage with the work as an installation rather than an architectural model. I would not describe it any differently but rather emphasize certain perspectives depending on the conversation. My thesis advisor Marcelyn Gow and I would often discuss the different ways I could present my project since I was trying to tackle the subject of the Los Angeles River through a variety of lenses and methodologies/mediums (which could sometimes become overwhelming, but I enjoy working on multiple things at the same time). 

The main theme, in addition to that of the architectural site, was the archive, which I portrayed through storytelling. The visual recreation and interpretation of the narratives associated with the river, from the 1800s to today, was used as a tool to visualize and reassess what was, what could have been, and what could be. 

Borrowing the words Wouter Vantiphout uses to describe his own practice: "History was used as a practical tool in shaping the future as it was treated as something that could be rearranged, narrativized, redesigned, as once you retell the story you have something you can manipulate, it becomes actionable." 

Another way I’d address my work is from a more present-day and local stance, as the LA River Master Plan 2022 was being discussed and approved at the time of my thesis. The revitalization plans led to conversations about Los Angeles’ relationship with its environment, gentrification, and colonial infrastructures. The Army Corps of Engineers' flood control projects in the mid-1900s moved twenty million cubic yards of earth. They poured two million cubic yards of concrete, and community-based organizations pushed against plans of adding more, proposing de-channelizing the river and unbuilding instead. 

Ideas of controlling, preserving, and expanding the river are constantly at war, and I think this sparks really relevant and important debates. Although my project doesn’t directly pick one side over the other, these discussions were at its core. I wanted to avoid romanticizing any specific angle but rather embrace the LA River’s shifting roles as a rich aquatic ecosystem and a dangerous flood zone throughout its lifetime. 

I recognize that embodying the totality of a place is impossible, even less by doing so "objectively." The act of archiving is both deeply collective and personal, which I tried to illustrate by portraying my own correlations and associations connected to the site. 

When I moved to Downtown Los Angeles from Lebanon, I noticed the Los Angeles River’s uncanny resemblance to the Beirut River. That intrigued me since the two cities are so different yet share almost the same urban entity as a paved river. 

My animation, journeying through the mutating site, slowly shifts from one city to the other, ending at a scene of Beirut. The title of my thesis, 51mi + 25km = 13ft, refers to the length of the LA River (51mi), the Beirut River (25km), and my installation (13ft). To my family members, I would first relate my thesis to home, emphasizing the subjectivity and personal aspect of all archival material and the construction of "facts." 

The title of my thesis, 51mi + 25km = 13ft, refers to the length of the LA River (51mi), the Beirut River (25km), and of my installation (13ft).

Does your thesis fit within the architecture discipline, or does it challenge it?

The act of curating outside-world data that adheres to our design process is intrinsically part of the architectural discipline. We tend to choose which aspect of a site we find the most relevant to our proposal and make it our main focus in an attempt to legitimize that proposal, which is inevitable since architecture operates within a complexly entangled world. This back-and-forth between a design and its environment is necessary. 

However, my project tries to challenge this exchange by reversing this mode of architectural production. The design project becomes the context: Instead of portraying the site as an inert urban object awaiting intervention, I suggest a revised approach to engaging it by considering the multitude of layers that it inhabits and by representing them through a new architectural and archival device. 

How has your thesis influenced your architectural perspectives?

In the beginning, I was really adamant about creating a building as my thesis, only to end up with an anti-proposal type of project. I was initially stuck on the idea of architecture purely as built form, with the intention of designing alternative learning spaces anchored in the Los Angeles River. I was reading a lot of discourse on ‘unschooling’ at the time and wanted to incorporate these ideas into the architectural program of an educational facility. Naturally, I began with my site analysis and became so obsessed with the research that the river subsequently became the forefront of the work. I realized I could still relate my thesis to pedagogy without making it so literal. I could reframe and renegotiate my ideas through a different set of languages and methods. 

I treated the final outcome of my project as a potential pedagogical tool in itself, where the singular installation embodied concepts of contextual and historical research, physical site model, and the digital recreation of context through scans and digital assets. My thesis allowed me to pull apart and loosen the definitions of these ideas, to interpret and express them in my own way through a multitude of mediums. 

In the beginning, I was really adamant about creating a building as my thesis, only to end up with an anti-proposal type of project [...] I began with my site analysis and became so obsessed with the research that the river subsequently became the forefront of the work. I realized I could still relate my thesis to pedagogy without making it so literal.

As a recent graduate, how do you feel about the architecture industry right now?

Architectural practice is slow in the way it adapts to progress in the world around it and when compared to other industries (whether it be in work hours, salaries, and even the length of the projects). However, I believe recent graduates are uniquely positioned to redefine how architectural aesthetics, social, political, and environmental ideas, etc., are disseminated through the cultural realm. A lot of us end up taking on projects of many kinds and specializing in various fields. We have the ability to expand on what the industry encompasses, which I find liberating and exciting. 

What are your next steps? Academically/professionally?

I try not to set in stone any ideas for future plans — I could have never imagined myself living in Los Angeles before. For now, I plan to stay here for a while as I just joined an architectural design firm and am working towards becoming a licensed architect in California. I'm keeping an open mind about what my next steps might be. Aside from professional practice, I am very curious about the future of architectural academia, especially in the ways it engages with other practices. I would love to participate further in ongoing discussions within the discipline in the future. 

How has your architectural education prepared you for professional practice and employment?

I find academia and professional practice to be really different, with a large dichotomy between both. Academia is obviously more abstract. At school, we are primarily taught to see design through a problem-solving lens, which is necessary to ‘imagining a better world’ (as cliche as it sounds). However, I was also interested in the framework of ethics, politics, and finance in which building operates. If architecture can be a solution, then it consequently means it could also be weaponized towards more violent and controlling ends, which is a topic I was reading a lot about, more recently through Douglas Spencer’s critiques of contemporary architecture and neoliberalism. I was (and still am) broadening my awareness of the roles the built environment can play on different scales and the socio-economic factors it interacts with.

SCI-Arc’s approach isn't always strictly oriented towards buildings and pushes towards developing an interdisciplinary skill set. Pursuing my master's degree there allowed me to partake in many creative endeavors, from learning software used in the gaming industry to building furniture, leading me to ultimately come up with a thesis...

At the end of the day, I think it’s important to acknowledge that architectural practice is a service that responds to needs. That said, I think I have explored a large number of ideas during my education to be able to tackle projects beyond the strict boundaries in which architecture as built form operates. 

SCI-Arc’s approach isn't always strictly oriented towards buildings and pushes towards developing an interdisciplinary skill set. Pursuing my master's degree there allowed me to partake in many creative endeavors, from learning software used in the gaming industry to building furniture, leading me to ultimately come up with a thesis that was a culmination of the many skills I acquired and which I will carry through to my future endeavors. 

Archinect's Take 5 with Sophie

What music do you listen to when working?

Radioalhara.net 

Mac or PC?

PC. I was also one of the only people at SCI-Arc using a laptop instead of a desktop...refuse to be tied down to a desk! 

What’s your go-to work outfit? Does it include black?

Baggy pants, a big hoodie, and my New Balances...all black. 

Favorite thesis/studio memory?

The day before the final thesis weekend was the most special... setting everything up, seeing my project come together for the first time, and seeing everyone else’s projects in the same space. 

What’s an overrated architecture term?

Poche. 

Archinect's Spotlight on Thesis Projects: Archinect's commitment to highlighting student work doesn't stop at simply sharing projects. Our editorial team focuses on connecting with students and asking questions to learn their process, architectural perspectives, and their take on the industry as young designers. To support the class of 2022, we've launched our summer series iteration of Archinect's Thesis Review to highlight the work of thesis students during this unique time of hybrid and remote learning. Be sure to follow our 2022 thesis tag to stay up to date as we release new project highlights.