Joseph Sandy

Field Trip – Watts Towers

Joseph — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 02:11:25 +0000

Watts Towers in Watts district Los Angeles - Built by Simon Rodia over 30 years starting in 1921.

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USC Coliseum & Exposition Park Final

Joseph — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 22:59:16 +0000

Final drawings and models for Exposition park and USC Coliseum studio project.

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Exposition Park & USC Coliseum Redesign

Joseph — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 19:47:38 +0000

Our studio project this semester is to design a new master plan for Exposition Park (which is just south of USC), and redesign the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for USC football. The studio is run by Dan Meis (Senior Principal at Populus) and Greg Otto (Director Buro Happold).

My proposal is an attempted to keep the historic museums and rose garden, but reorganize the park into a cohesive place that attracts both students and members of the residential community. A new aerospace museum which is needed to house the space shuttle will be added to the collage of existing museums. Along with the redesigned Coliseum a new soccer stadium for Chivas USA, and aquatics center are planned.

The major hurdle to designing the stadium is its historic nature. To upgrade the coliseum to the level of other top national football programs the seating bowl will need to be replaced, and suites and club seating will need to be added. This is in direct conflict with the historic building because the bowl is the experiential part of the building. Since we were tasked with removing the bowl, some of the historic building would have to be removed, so what else do we remove or not remove. I have chosen remove most of exterior but keep the peristyle entrance. Then by designing my project around the entrance I have made it more prominent and important to the site than it currently is. This way I can respect the sites past and remind visitors of the historic events while still creating a modern stadium.

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First Grasshopper and CNC experiment

Joseph — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 04:02:06 +0000

This is my first stab at using grasshopper(a Rhino plugin) and a CNC router.

First I created a rolling surface by lofting between two curves. Then used grasshopper to analyze the surface for its curvature, this is represented by holes on the surface.

The holes are filled with plugs, the relationship of these plugs height above or below the surface is determined by the diameter of the circle.

The cut didn’t turn out perfect, the 1/4″ router bit couldn’t get between some of the plugs. So for the next round I have set the holes at least 1/4″ apart.

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Press – Petaluma Studio & $300 Hybrid House

Joseph — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 19:52:14 +0000

Exciting week, first project featured in a book and first newspaper article/interview.

The Petaluma Studio was featured in the book Ultra Low Tech Architecture

The book is available from MONSA

I also did an interview for El Mundo about the $300 Hybrid House project. You can read the article here -link-

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$300 House – Earthbag walls

Joseph — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 03:57:07 +0000

This design variation utilizes an earthbag thermal mass wall instead of the compressed earth block wall. This option is good for building when an earth block press is not available. Since these walls are much thicker I was able to bow them outward six inches. This adds to the stability of the walls and also has a comforting spacial effect. The roof has been updated from my last post so that it has small upper exterior shutters on the left, and the interior gable has louvers to provide ventilation when needed.

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Design Inspirations – June/August

Joseph — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 20:16:18 +0000

Monthly architecture inspiration from around the web

Fifth Studio by T3arc

- link -

Educational Building In Mozambique by Masterstudents of Bergen School of Architecture

- link -

Yusuhara Wooden Bridge Museum by Kengo Kuma + Associates

- link -

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$300 House – Roof Redesign Option

Joseph — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 05:50:06 +0000

I have come up with a new idea for the roof. Instead of having the taller wall that faces the street completely operable(there were concerns about security) I have added a brace that transforms the interior roof into a gable. The lower half of this section is non operable, the shutters are now the short side of the inner gable roof. The advantages of this are that the house is now more secure while still allowing ventilation. The spacial affect this has is to balance the room.

The problems with this new design are the added complexity which increases cost and weatherproofing the new shutters will be harder. Because of this I extend the roof a foot so that for rain to get to the new shutters it would have to falling over 50 degrees off perpendicular to the ground.

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$300 House Articles and Critiques

Joseph — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 19:33:09 +0000

General:

Introductory articles for the challenge at 300house.com

Can a $300 house save 2 Billion People Living in Poverty?

Google Sketchup Blog post on $300 House

Govindarajan launches $300 House Challenge

Build a $300 House

What if You Could Build a House for $300?

Interview with Christian Sarkar in the Guardian

The $300 House: safe green housing for the world’s poor

Bring affordable housing to the world’s poor

A $300 House? – At 300house.com They Think So.

Vijay Govindarajan, The $300 House, and Frugal Innovation

The £197 ‘nano house’ designed to solve India’s slum housing

Six Designs For Houses That Cost Just $300 To Build

Contest seeks ideas for $300 houses to shelter world’s poor

$300 House Challenge :: video ::

Opinions:

A $300 idea that is priceless

The $300 Indian House

The $300 house : A real solution or a utopic exercise

The $300 House – The Value-Chain Challenge

Critiques:

Hands Off Our Houses

Critique of the $300 house

$300 House Might be a Disaster Solution, Not a Social Solution

$300 House? Experienced Hands Needed

$300 slum house? Worthy but worthless

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$300 House Challenge – Jury Winner

Joseph — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 02:40:46 +0000

My submission to the $300 House Challenge was one of the three winners selected by the Jury. I also placed 10th in the online popular voting. Thanks to everyone who voted for my project.

– Link to announcement -

I will be sure to keep posting updates on my progress, including my participation in the upcoming prototyping workshop.

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