los angeles CALIFORNIA

suckerPUNCH: describe your project:

gabriel a. HUERTA : the proposal for the los angeles plaza market as an elevated market platform bridges between the chinatown and the el pueblo districts as a multicultural hub and venue for transient programming. to fulfill the requirement for flexibility in program and provide substantial surface parking, the project is an exploration of large span roof structures. the shell typology is reexamined as being a hybridized structural system that can be both surface-active (shells of varying depth and grid densities) and vector-active (armatures and three-dimensional moment frames). form generation and geometric patterning is aimed at a structural mesh that is opportunistic and can adapt based upon performative needs.

what is created is a gradient surface optimized for variant behaviors of shear, bending, aperture, and enclosure. areas where the market platform and roof canopy allow for shell behavior the depth approaches its minimum relying on surface pleating for stiffness, while at moments of great bending the shell delaminates to achieve necessary depth. such flexibility in the shell structure typology allows for a departure from traditional shell forms (barrel vaults, domes, catenaries, etc.) and allow for the feasibility of more exotic forms further optimized though feedback from structural analysis tools.

sP: what or who influenced this project?

gH:biological geometries, aircraft design, exotic cars

sP: what were you reading/listening to/watching while developing this project?

gH:atlas of novel tectonics by jesse reiser, structural ecologies by tom wiscombe, battlestar galactica, stargate sg-1

sP: whose work is currently on your radar?

gH:tom wiscombe, roland snooks, marcelo spina, 1stavemachine