calendar

Friday, May 18th

6 pm [LA]
lecture: 'Learning from San Diego'
A+D Museum (5900 Wilshire Boulevard; LA)
info: 310-659-2445; info@aplusd.org
detail: Part of the Carrier Johnson Lecture Program. For more details, visit www.aplusd.org

6 pm [LA]
exhibit: 'Honda Advanced Design Center'
SCI-Arc (350 Merrick Street; downtown LA)
info: 213-613-2200
detail: SCI-Arc is pleased to present an exhibition by George Yu Architects documenting the design process and completion of the new Honda Advanced Design Center in Old Town Pasadena, California. The architects transformed a 6,000 square foot retail space on the ground floor of a historic building into design studios and conference rooms. Described by Christopher Hawthorne of the LA Times as an “architectural version of a concept car,” a wall system comprised of 99 acrylic panels in nine different shapes was custom designed and fabricated using the same digital rapid prototyping tools that the car designers use in the studio. Despite the use of progressive digital tools, this molded acrylic panel wall — referred to by Yu as a “cocoon” — was a hands-on and labor-intensive project. The exhibition will include drawings and boards covering the process, photos of the finished interior, and a full scale, 8’ x 8’ x 3’ prototype mock-up of the wall panels. Through July 8th.

6 pm [LA]
exhibit: 'The Dragonfly'
SCI-Arc (350 Merrick Street; downtown LA)
info: 213-613-2200
detail: The SCI-Arc Gallery is pleased to present The Dragonfly, a site-specific installation designed by Los Angeles-based architectural firm EMERGENT and international engineering firm Buro Happold. The Dragonfly explores the relationship between structure and form and is an experiment in the fluid feedback of design sensibility, engineering innovation, and the logic of digital fabrication. The morphology of dragonfly wings is the complex result of multiple patterning systems, interweaving in response to force flows and material properties. Dragonfly wings consist of both honeycomb patterns, which are flexible and behave like membranes, and ladder-type patterns, which are stiff and behave like beams. A composite of distributed and linear structural formations, The Dragonfly is a field of continuous variation and adaptation, developed using evolutionary computing — similar to natural selection in nature — and created using a file-to-fabrication process that involves a parametric fabrication model and CNC routing devices on aluminum panels . Through July 8th.

7-10 pm [LA]
event: 'ForumFest V'
Rooftop Bar (Standard Hotel; 550 South Flower Street; downtown LA)
info: 323-852-7145 [LA Forum]; info@laforum.org
detail: ForumFest V, honoring hank koning and julie eizenberg. As the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design celebrates its 20th anniversary it is particularly fitting that we honor Hank Koning and Julie Eizenberg this year. From its inception, the LA Forum has focused energy and attention on diverse and innovative experiments in Los Angeles design thinking. Hank and Julie have developed an exceptional experimental practice in the public realm. Theirs is a brand of architecture that is at once humanist and challenging. They have nurtured a unique architectural philosophy that addresses the complex problems of large and small communities and cares about those that inhabit their projects. In 1981 they formed Koning Eizenberg Architecture, known for its imaginative, site-specific and people-oriented approach to the design of buildings and places of everyday living. The firm’s fresh, contemporary aesthetic brings design excellence to a wide range of building types, from housing to community centers, schools to hotels, recreational facilities to retail, and workplaces to museums. The firm’s long-standing commitment to sustainable design is embodied in Koning Eizenberg’s own award-winning solar-powered office building. Tickets: $90-120. More info on-line: here.