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ARCH 605B: Graduate Architecture Design - Integrated Technologies Studio Gallery: Open Source Cross Laminated Timber

Staggered Connections

Staggered Connections is a coworking space and innovation lab located adjacent to the Los Angeles River. The project incorporates CLT as a primary structural system and creates a tapestry of spatial and visual connections between users and the project program by linking the North Spring Street Bridge with both the street and the LA River below.

The design is a threshold between these conditions and enhances the user experience through continuous collaborative workspaces that are spatially tied together by a central atrium. The urban farming lab is incorporated as both a sensorial amenity and an environmental component that reduced the solar heat gain on the buildings most sun-prone façades. Additionally, the farming lab is also an educational experience where users would learn different innovative farming techniques.

The project programmatically manipulates the floor and façade tectonics through a series of ‘shift and stagger’ moves, thereby creating a visual agitation of the building form, incorporating various programs that are diagonally transparent to one another. The project incorporates solar fins, stack ventilation, natural daylight, and a green wall to enhance environmental performance of the building and user experience.

Staggered Connections delivers an architecture that is both a sustainable connection to the L.A. River, and through its link to Spring Street Bridge, a piece of pedestrian infrastructure as well.