MEGAVOIDS

By UCLA Architecture and Urban Design

The 2008-09 version of the SUPRASTUDIO, Megavoids, has endeavored to bring two of the main issues facing cities today to the forefront of architectural study at UCLA: future urbanism and sustainability. Long considered to be beyond the realm of designers and architects, large-scale urban projects are now a very real medium of consideration as substantial developments have been both marketed and built, particularly in Asia and the Middle East. With a dizzying array of architectural styles and urban planning techniques, these projects are optimistic in scale and effect, but they also offer up cautionary tales of over design whose very ambition to impress has often been the catastrophic element in the equation. It is the temptation to think big that has initiated our study here, played out as six projects for five extremely large unoccupied sites around the greater Los Angeles area. Somewhere between the incremental growth over 30 years and the possibility of more ?instant city? landscapes that could occur during that timeframe, we are projecting our projects to be conceived by 2030-2040. In order to carry out such expansive and to a certain extent, unique inquiries, UCLA partnered with the Toyota Motor Sales (TMS) U.S.A. and their Advanced Product Strategies group working out of the national headquarters in Torrance, California. Megavoids has been catalyzed by ongoing research being produced by this group. Led by Chris Hostetter, one of the most forward thinking people in sustainable automobile design, the Toyota concept department has conducted an ongoing investigation into the problems and possibilities of alternative forms of transportation for a world facing persistent energy limitations. Likewise, Professor Denari and his students have asked parallel questions about city form and how transportation and urban space can work in more synchronous ways.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0977194558
• ISBN13: 9780977194551
• Release Date: January 2015
• Publisher: UCLA Architecture and Urban Design
• Length: 270 Pages
• Weight: 2.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 7.0" x 9.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up