Rehabilitation Center(2007)

Site:
Van De Kamp Bakery, Los Angeles, CA

Objective:
Create a rehabilitation center in an existing historical structure

Concept:
Take the idea of a prosthetic and incorporate into final design; parasitic architecture

Our main focus was to deal with rehabilitating a community that was in desperate need of some
serious invigoration. How do you give back to a community with an old bakery? Prosthetics as a
form of architecture? The ideas were rushing in but output was at an all time low. It became clear
that i had to come up with a program that would maximize this idea of helping people; helping a
community. My building would act as a parasite but have the opposite effect that a parasite typically
does. It would feed off the existing but create a positive effect on its surroundings.

Programming:

 Full Circulation:

Structure vs Enclosure:

Elevation:

 First Floor Plan:

Along with the aforementioned characteristics of my structure, i also had one grand gesture. The glass wall would travel all the way from the 2nd floor down to ground level. I was trying to convey the impression that my building sprouted from the ground. The whole idea of something growing from practically nothing played well with my effort to try and make the entire site a place full of progression.

 The beauty in progress is that you can always do better, you can always aim higher. With a place like a rehab center you must take full advantage of every chance you have to exploit these ideals. People have the need to feel, like getting better is in their grasp. They have to be willing to achieve self embetterment but they need a vehicle of inspiration. I beleive that my design was tailored to be just that. A vehicle so that others may be motivated to reach the fullest capacity of rehabilitation.