UNPLUGGED: Ecoshack’s design lab will feature experimental work from the SCI-Arc design studio “Unplugged: Off-the-Grid Experiments in Architecture” during HDTS/CA Biennial in Joshua Tree, CA on Saturday Nov 8, 10am to 5pm. Maps to the site will be available at HDTS headquarters.

The design experiments explore the possibilities of low impact design, nomadic technologies, off the grid systems, digital fabrication, and alternative dwelling and lifestyle patterns; as we attempt to unplug from unsustainable patterns of living and plug back in to our planet’s processes and potentialities. See ‘systems sculptures’ that integrate (or react to) sun, wind, water or soil, and small structures designed to support off-the-grid living.

Ecoshack founder Stephanie Smith is teaching the studio as part of her ongoing investigations into alternative green lifestyles. Ecoshack began in 2003 as an experimental design lab in Joshua Tree, CA. Today it’s also an LA-based design studio inspired by the ad hoc, indigenous and archetypal typologies typically found at the fringes of society.

Oyler Wu Collaborative has done an interesting installation at the SCI-Arc gallery titled “Live Wire.”

Here is a collection of images from the opening. It drew a nice crowd while there seemed to be a 10 foot radius around the installation at all times.

Los Angeles, CA (September 30, 2008)– The Southern California Institute of Architecture is pleased to present Live Wire, a site-specific installation in the SCI-Arc Gallery by Los Angeles-based architects and SCI-Arc Studio Design Faculty Members, Dwayne Oyler and Jenny Wu, in collaboration with the engineering firm Buro Happold.

Live Wire stems from the desire to occupy the SCI-Arc Gallery in a way that exploits the spatial potential of the existing venue and strives to define an expanded relationship between tectonic expression and functional performance. The installation proposes a vertical circulation system, a stair, linking the floor level of the gallery to the catwalk above and is constructed of approximately 2,400 linear feet of aluminum tubing and rods. The stair, often relegated to pure functional use, is a testing ground for weaving together a multitude of architectural ideas, ranging from the manipulation of light, geometry, and structure to vertical circulation. Live Wire is aimed at suggesting an expanded definition of architectural elements, one that surpasses boundaries of simple functions and suggests intangible results.

As Jakob and Macfarlane describe it – “Conceived as a piece of a much larger architectural environment, the “Breathing Wall” is imagined as a surface which opens and closes, regulating the passage of such necessities as air circulation, view, physical passage, and sunlight between an interior and an exterior environment.

The wall is imagined as an architecture of mediation, a way in which a quality of action/reaction can be manifested in a non static phenomenon, moving and changing according to a set of varying external information parameters.”

More pictures inside the post!

SCI-Arc Warehouse Masquerade Oct 25th! 9PM-?? Come check it out - it's always a good time.

Tickets Available at wanttickets.com

Info: email whiteliteproductions@gmail.com