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FRACTURE

SOUTH GATE HIGH SCHOOL REDESIGN

SOUTH GATE, LOS ANGELES, CA

Axonimetric rendering of the project site. The project consists of a full redesign of South Gate High School.

As a part of the Los Angeles United High School District, South Gate High School has seemingly been forgotten in any talks of schools to be renovated in the area. This redesign of the South Gate High School campus is meant to relieve the congestion of students attending the school currently, while also providing a safe space for students to grow and learn to express themselves. Using sculptural formal studies to develop an organization strategy for the rigid classroom requirements of the LAUHSD, the buildings use public spaces as “points of fracture” to allow for smaller, enclosed, yet still visible, spaces to provide students with safe spaces to spend their break periods. Also using a similar methodology in site organization, the campus uses similar fracture points to create public spaces and alter the site topography, creating a sense of separation from the city and the school. Through using a texture based on an abstracted site plan, the fractured site and buildings reconnect to each other and serve as a point of connection to the regular grid of South Gate. Large high school populations create a shortage in usable human-scaled spaces. This project seeks to alleviate that and create spaces the can be made significant to student in their time in school. In this way, this project hopes to achieve a level of empathetic design in a large scope of work.

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Starting with scaleless form studies in the program Maya, this project‘s framework was based around dynamic spaces and transformation over time. Applying scale and orderliness to these forms tested the capabilities of Maya; however, with a workflow between several programs, a compromise was found between both design philosophies. This project’s use of design technology lies in this hybrid workflow, as well as the digital fabrication tools needed to represent these sculptural forms.  The 3D printer served as the primary meter of feasibility for all form studies, and each study served as a way to find the limits of the medium. Additionally, the texture mapping tools in Maya served as inspiration for creating a unified facade and site plan. Maya’s design workflow would serve as a big influence on this project as a whole.

Form Finding Studies

"Fractured" Organization

From analyzing the contraction and expansion of spaces in the formal studies, a similar idea was applied to the rigid form of the high school classroom and hallway. Moments of expansion allow for intimate spaces for students to interact with each other after class.

A plan from the initial form finding studies that inspired the typical organization of classrooms found throughout the campus.
A diagram of the typical organization of the typical LAUSD classroom. Uses rotations and angled blocks to create spaces for students to gather in the hallways.
A diagram detailing the development of a texture that has been placed on the site as paving, and on the facades of the buildings as a panelling system. The texture has been developed from an abstraction of the site plan and is highlighting the points for outdoor gathering spaces.

Texture + Site

The texture uses an abstracted site plan that highlights locations for outdoor gathering spaces, and uses the lines and solids as opportunity for landscaping and alternate grading. The texture then continues the buildings’ facades to unify the campus. 

Ground floor plan of the full high school redesign. Includes an administrative building, cafeteria, auditorium, gymnasium, library, and three larger classroom buildings.
Ground Floor Plan
A collection of the second, third, and fourth floor plans of the full site. Only two buildings have three floors, and only one has a fourth floor, so the plans are less detailed than the ground floor plan above.
Second Floor Plan
Third Floor Plan
Fourth Floor Plan
Full site section through two classroom buildings. Section is cut facing west and includes some of the west elevation of the school.
Section
Axonimetric section of the building with most proposed classrooms. The building is cut through the hallway courtyard.
Axonometric Section - Main Classroom Building
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