Blue Print
Depicting daily life in social housing collective in the de-vitalization core of Los Angeles
Type: Individual Academic Work @USC School of Architecture
Location: Los Angeles, CA
The core of the city, throughout history, played a significant role in establishing urban identity and functions. However, as the urban population migrated outward from the city core, the core city of Los Angeles became a mere physical symbol of an out-of-date form of urban life. And it represents a genre now mainly sustaining life for a majority of the lower socio-economic population with very basic urban programs and services.
After a visit to the Star Apartment, the first nonprofitable social housing projects on the Skid Row, I was mind-blown by how the architects utilize simple strategy and the minimal of materials and appliances to form a community and a life with enclosure of privacy for the people who used to sleep on the street. The walls of the units create a sense of security and thus provide a feeling of living. Human’s daily life activities can be drastically changed by a simple erection of a wall and a space division.
Thus, the project discusses the opportunities for the affordability of housing and localized superimposition of micro uses that can provide for the mixed neighborhood and optimized communities that are integral to the intensitive of activities and to face needs from the lower class residents.
