DISRUPTOR + DISRUPTED

Autumn 2015
Academic
ARCHUD 122: Studio II
Faculty: Katy Barkan & Heather Roberge
UCLA School of Architecture & Design

How does architecture respond to formal disruptions? This project deals with the notion of how a building can “react” to certain formal forces. This dorm building first began as a rigid, bar form with only the bare minimum program: bathrooms, elevators/stairs, and the dorm rooms. Wanting to emphasize the importance of communal spaces and encourage social interaction, a series of lounges acted as the “disruptor” of this rigid form. Each floor has its own lounge, alternating from left to right along a central staircase that connects the ground floor to the top floor in a single sweep. This lounge space also connects down to a blackbox theater, further emphasizing the importance of public gathering spaces.
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PORTMANTEAU THEATER

This studio revolved around the issue of the relationship between the single and the multiple. Different elements were categorized as the disruptors or the disrupted. The disruptor was the series of lounges through which a central staircase stretched from the ground floor to the top fifth floor. The disrupted was the original bar form which included the dorm rooms, elevators and stairs, communal bathroom/showers,

A theater was introduced later in the project, acting as the last, greatest disruption. These separate parts were brought together to inform a new whole--a college dorm building.

The distorted shape of the corridor on each floor clearly shows the disruptions caused by the lounges.

Programming diagram. The programs on each form delineated by color. The right shows the disruptors: theater and lounge spaces.