Leeds School of Architecture (2020)
Student work examples, BA
Learning from Los Angeles was a brief I wrote at Leeds School of Architecture during COVID, asking students to develop a large-scale social condenser at street level, using Los Angeles as a reference for thinking about density, public life, movement and the relationship between different forms of collective activity at a time when those conditions were being radically disrupted. The projects were conceived as long, layered architectural propositions, combining programmes such as cinemas, mosques, dance halls, exhibition spaces and public squares, with different forms of occupation stacked and interwoven within a continuous urban framework.
The brief used film as a way of studying the city, with students working from cinematic references alongside street studies conducted from a distance, looking at framing, movement, sequence, atmosphere and patterns of occupation. Abstract drawing techniques were developed from these observations, allowing students to translate cinematic and urban material into architectural propositions without relying on conventional plans or elevations. The projects asked how architecture could structure collective life under changing social conditions, how different publics and activities could coexist within the same space, and how a large building might operate as an extension of the street, combining infrastructure, gathering space and cultural programmes.