Archinect - Features

UCLA AUD Master of Architecture II Students Interrogate the Climate Risk of LA Real Estate

2020-06-23T09:00:00-04:00

Wenhan Dong, Linyi Zhang, and Xiyan Wang are students in UCLA Architecture and Urban Design's Master of Architecture II (M.Arch.II program). Archinect caught up with Dong, Zhang, and Wang to discuss their final project within the school's IDEAS - Urban Strategy program. Led by Associate Adjunct Professor Jeffrey Inaba, Gillian Shaffer, and David Jimenez Iniesta students unpack the city of Los Angeles and the effects climate change will have on land-use and development in the year 2050.

The research-based projects at UCLA's IDEA's campus, according to the educators, push students to not only conceptualize possible outcomes through data and prototyping but also foster solutions for possible futures in land use.

Archinect's Spotlight on 2020 Thesis Projects: 2020 has been an extraordinarily challenging year for architecture graduates. Students were displaced as schools shut down, academic communities had to adapt to a new virtual format, end-of-year celebrations were canceled or change...

UCLA Thesis Students Investigate LA's Iconic Bunker Hill

2020-06-11T12:51:00-04:00

Gaurav Puri, Jingyi Wang, Ruchi Singhania, and Yuxuan He are students in UCLA Architecture and Urban Design’s Master of Architecture II (M.Arch.II program). Archinect was able to connect with Puri, Wang, and Singhania to explore their final project within their IDEAS - Urban Strategy program. Recognized as an institution focused on its research-based approach and student-faculty collaborations, UCLA's IDEA's programming enables students to explore topics that focus on issues and solutions whose application can be actualized.

Together, the team, under the instruction of Associate Adjunct Professor Jeffrey Inaba, Gillian Shaffer and David Jimenez Iniesta, explore Los Angeles's iconic Bunker Hill and its historical transitions with regards to land-use. By breaking down the area's topographic and land transformations, the group works together to explore new design methods to create a more substantial "foundation for post-disaster urban life." In addition to their exploration of land-use...

Developing a Better City With UCLA's IDEAS Urban Strategy Studio

2020-02-27T14:30:00-05:00

How do we go about shaping a better city? How can land use and urbanism be explored to create solutions for pressing urban problems? Can multidisciplinary approaches to urban planning help create new ways of defining and shaping urban growth?

In Los Angeles, ubiquitous and challenging land development conditions have positioned the University of California, Los Angeles Department of Architecture and Urban Design to unpack these topics and explore them like perhaps no other school of design can. An institution that focuses on collaborative research between its students and faculty, UCLA AUD strives to create learning environments fueled by experimentation and discovery. As a means to highlight the initiatives being focused on at the school, Archinect spoke with Associate Adjunct Professor, Jeffrey Inaba, and lecturers David Jimenez Iniesta and Gillian Shaffer of UCLA AUD's IDEAS Urban Strategy Studio. The studio is one of four research topics: Entertainment (studio previously covered...