Chapter Three: Nights in Shining Armor    

December 2015, ArmorDillo Apartments, Mission Junction, Los Angeles

As night began crawling upon us, I grew eager to depart from the site. Standing in the middle of the vacant lot, I looked south onto transforming dusk skyline of Downtown Los Angeles. For a moment, I was entranced by its beauty, but a police siren soon drew my attention back behind me to the adjacent LA County Men's Central Jail that loomed over the site for my proposed affordable housing complex. Safety, comfort, and a sense of community should be accessible to all, regardless of one's annual income. ArmorDillo Apartments responds to its surroundings by shielding the inhabitants from the concerning immediate surroundings, and directing positive energy inward to a central community park. Setting sights south towards the city of angels, residents may gain strength and hopeful aspirations for the future of their family.  

Along the extracted circulation paths, I designed a moiré façade to allow for open-air flow and natural light while directing views away from the jail. I chose to elevate the residential program above ground level to create a secluded atmosphere for the residents while keeping costs low by avoiding underground parking. I created a hierarchy for my programmatic approach by situating the two-bedroom units along the outermost edge of the mass to allow for each to have a cut away patio space and double height public spaces within the unit. The studio and one-bedroom units are situated below the two-bedroom units with balconies adjacent to the public space to allow for natural light in each unit. I chose to title my design ArmorDillo as a play-on-words combining the feelings of safety and pleasure, which is ultimately what drove my design process.

I chose to title my design ArmorDillo as a play-on-words combining the feelings of safety and pleasure, which is ultimately what drove my design process. Pleasure is a theme that resonates through all of my designs. I consciously design in an experiential manner, making decisions from a human-level approach, and taking great care in how the result may affect human behavior.