paolaovandoperaza

architectural design,
selected works, 2019 - 2025.

001. archive it -- 002.city shed -- 003. a people’s palace -- 004. in plain site -- 005. convivir -- 006. living single--living together -- 007. a distillery in roslindale, MA -- 008. case study -- frank gehry house -- 009. a coming community with alexa resendiz -- 010. fear, within with evan de lara

001. archive it

second opportunities (in architecture)
instructor(s): iñaki abalos + renata sentkiewicz
site: cambridge, american academy of arts and sciences, harvard gsd special collections, josep luis sert house

section

second floor plan

ground floor plan

basement floor plan

002. city shed

core ii: situate
instructor: yasmin vobis
site: north end, boston, ma

Through the reappropriation of an existing park and semi-public tiered dog park, this project proposal removes the existing and adds imported soil to construct a sloped hill on the site. using this constructed landscape as the base of the project, the large roof runs planar to the ground as a way to suspend the interstitial space between ground and “roof”, to create a shaded exterior. The roof is constructed with steel members that are held together with seven-foot beams (in height) and tethered to the ground through steel poles and braces. the subtractive cut on the roof is the projection of the singular basketball court on the outside and is meant to create a playful flat ground for snowy winter days.

In its essence, the proposal is simply a park with a 140 foot by 168 foot roof.

axonometric

structural axonometric

North End Park Map

+8’ floor plan

white on white render

white on white render

white on white render

003. a people’s palace

core ii: situate
instructor: yasmin vobis
program: education center and community hub
site: charlestown, boston, ma

ground floor plan

basement floor plan

final model: museum board, basswood, mesh, baby’s breathe

study model 01 : basswood, foam, string

study model 02: foam, museum board, acetate

study model 03: basswood, string

004. in plain site w/ lauren mendoza and yujie hu

instructor: marina ibañez
program: commercial, housing
site: griffith park, ca

If familiar to the los angeles roads and the many billboards found on a single thirty minute drive (no traffic), then one must be aware of the repetitive and non-educational information found on these billboards. Through image and iconography, this project questions the type of images that are projected onto los angeles, and whether they can be approriated to serve underrepresented angelenos. the billboard draws you into a “boardwalk in the sky” and “hidden” housing units on the site of the old los angeles zoo.

billboard manifesto

griffith park site plan

005. convivir

studio ii: divergent conventions
instructor: kutan ayata

In decentering the 3d digital model in a post-digital era, this project focused on developing conceptual from solely through plan drawing to axonometric to elevation (section). There is no given familial structure, the student is expected to enforce their own autonomous polemics and politics to form and form finding. Located in a typical Los Angeles house plot, measuring a length of 80 feet by 130 feet, this singular building form is designed for the cohabitation of two separate families. It’s diagram is simple, one family exists traditionally on the margin, the other as a suspended bouba in the center of the plot. The gable a representation of the traditional house.

ground floor plan

section

008. case study -- frank gehry house

elevation 01

elevation 02

elevation 03

elevation 04

ground floor plan

second floor plan

gehry residence, interior photography @archdaily

gehry residence, interior photography @archdaily

An example of deconstructivist architecture of the 70s/80s, the Gehry residence is an icon of Southern Californian residential architecture, serving as one of Gehry’s early experimental work. Located in Santa Monica, this architects home would be reimagined, its form disrupted by unsightly materials.

Corrugated steel, chain link fences, plywood -- materials often hidden or non-present as finishes in “high art architecture” -- coexist with the original traditional dutch design. This deliberate imposition of materials and forms can be read as a rebellious act against formal purists and the onslaught of clean “modern” building designs that persist in contemporary architectural academia and practice.

Drawn in black, the orginal home is humble, not too different from the cut and paste houses sprawled throughout Southern Californian suburbia (though it’s location alone brings a certain “high art” pretentiousness that contradicts the claim of it’s “attempt” at subversion, but perhaps that is a conversation for another time). The red is Gehry’s intervention; additions made to accommodate his familial needs and personal desire to appreciate, break, and add to the original form.

The house appears in Phillip Johnson and Mark Wigley’s book regarding the exhibition“Deconstructivist Architecture” at MoMA in 1988. Johnson defines deconstructvist architecture not as a fad or type of architectural movement (tied to a time period or era of design) but rather a result of the architects own understanding of form and choosing to break it. In doing so, the architect must understand formal convention and composition to succesfully introduce new elements. And though designed and constructed north of forty five years ago, its ability to encapsulate time through materiality (with a clear distinction between what was preserved and what was added), the house is a refreshing break within Southern Californian suburbia. Particularly as we see a growth of cut and paste homes throughout the Golden State.

It begs the question: as these houses continue to develop, how can an architect, artist, designer, aid in the modification of homes when mass manufactoring of homes are the only objects on the market. And if it is possible to add/subtract from existing homes, would these homes ultimately end up looking self-similar?

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