Dezeen School Shows: a furniture factory that promotes the principles of reuse, recycling and sustainability is included in Dezeen's latest school show by students at UCLA.

Also included is a film that immerses audiences in a post-apocalyptic world and a mixed-use block that promotes a healthy and sustainable lifestyle.

UCLA

Institution: UCLA
School: UCLA Architecture and Urban Design
Courses: Master of Architecture, Master of Science in Architecture and Urban Design, and Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies, MA and PhD
Tutors: Hitoshi Abe, Cristóbal Amunátegui, Kutan Ayata, Katy Barkan, Miroslava Brooks, Matt Conway, Morgane Copp, Dana Cuff, Kevin Daly, Neil Denari, Liam Denhamer, Samaa Elimam, Yara Feghali, Benjamin Freyinger, Georgina Huljich, Mariana Ibañez, Jeffrey Inaba, Simon Kim, Julia Koerner, Max Kuo, Ayala Levin, Alan Locke, Todd Lynch, Greg Lynn, Laure Michelon, Narineh Mirzaeian, Michael Osman, Valeria Ospital, Güvenç Özel, Martin Paull, Jason Payne, Garrett Ricciardi, Heather Roberge, Natasha Sandmeier, Mohamed Sharif, Roger Sherman, Nathan Su, Raha Talebi and Tucker van Leuwen-Hall

School statement:

"UCLA Architecture and Urban Design's exceptional faculty teaches students to engage in the world around them, to see ideas as productive forms of response and to leverage design and writing as expressions of newly curated perspectives.

"Through rigorous inquiry, we interrogate contemporary urban issues and propose possible futures with equal measures of expertise, optimism and vision.

"These ideas are grounded in a critical engagement with the history and theory of architecture and the future contingencies of contemporary culture, and an engagement with the geographic, cultural and urban contexts of Los Angeles and Southern California.

"As part of the UCLA School of Arts and Architecture, our department is in close contact with other organisations of creative cultural production including the UCLA Departments of Art, Design Media Arts, and World Arts and Cultures/Dance, as well as UCLA's public arts institutions – UCLA's Centre for the Art of Performance and the Hammer and Fowler Museums."

Industrial Housing Collection by Wei-Huan Chueh

"The Industrial Housing Collection is located in the earliest tract housing district in Los Angeles and aims to provide a simple living space.

"Efficient distribution of resources and minimisation of waste is no longer an option but a direct approach to living.

"This mixed-use project aims to maximise functionality and offer customisation services while retaining industrialised repetitive construction. This new approach reconsiders how we think about housing, communities, customisation and delivery logistics."

Student: Wei-Huan Chueh
Course: MSAUD IDEO Studio: LA in Progress
Tutors: Matt Conway and Tucker van Leuwen-Hal

Factory Reset by Akanksha Deolekar

"The Furniture Factory stands as a testament to reimagined industrial spaces. This adaptable factory accommodates the entire vertical integration of the product life cycle, emphasising the principles of reuse, recycling and sustainability over new retail ventures.

"Compact manufacturing and retail areas coexist alongside repair and maintenance facilities, as well as recycling centres. Moreover, the customisation workshop encourages individuality to thrive in a highly modularised world.

"The building itself serves as a visual diagram, showcasing the transformation of products from standardised to personalised and serves as a transformative intervention embodying the ideals of a circular economy."

Student: Akanksha Deolekar
Course: MSAUD IDEO Studio: LA in Progress
Tutors: Matt Conway and Tucker van Leuwen-Hall

Baby Boomers in 2035: Aging in Silicon Valley by Gabriiela Jarboe and Huihang Xu

"Contributing to nearly one-third of greenhouse gas emissions, baby boomers are leading the charge to find solutions to the environmental crisis they are primarily responsible for.

"Our project aims to build a new kind of blue zone community that is structured around the environment, promoting a society that aligns with boomers' values.

"By utilising natural landscapes, we can create outdoor living spaces that optimise health and wellbeing, encouraging a lifestyle that promotes longevity. Additionally, eco-friendly reservoirs will connect people of all ages to the climate evolution."

Students: Gabriiela Jarboe and Huihang Xu
Course: MSAUD Urban Strategy Studio: 2035
Tutors: Jeffrey Inaba and Valeria Ospital

Flame: A Factory for Living, Art Making and Exploration by Mahroo Eftekhari and Don Leung

"Flame is a mixed-use, art campus extension that houses students and faculties. Driven by the diverse needs of the dwellers, the spaces are connected via ramps and pathways to enhance the connection between different groups.

"The project is extracted from a close study of the Charles Correa Kanchanjunga Apartment sections and the existing plan of the site, 620 S Main St, Los Angeles.

"The design typology of spaces in the project responds to the needs of spaces for art-making, fabrication and for short-term and year-long living for various dwellers and explorers."

Students: Mahroo Eftekhari and Don Leung
Course: Undergraduate Studio: Off-Campus Living
Tutor: Claus Benjamin Freyinger

A Tale of Two Volumes by Camille Castillo, Qinyi Wu and Zixin Wu

"The idea of the project is to split one mass into two parts. One is a tall and skinny tower, which comprises private programmes, such as laboratories and offices, and the other is a more monolithic and heavy volume which contains public programmes, such as the auditorium and exhibition spaces.

"The design creates a dichotomy between the two volumes exists in its geometric form and spatial programme while considering the existing silos.

"The in-between areas are where the silos are located, which are doubled in size as a public space between the two worlds.

"The tall tower expresses an iconicity within Culver City while the larger volume next to it acts as a counterbalance that grounds the entire site and project as a whole."

Students: Camille Castillo, Qinyi Wu and Zixin Wu
Course: Comprehensive Design Studio, Next – Cycle
Tutor: Georgina Huljich

Open-Air Market Hall and Community Centre by Evan Breutsch and Christopher Rancourt

"Breutsch and Rancourt designed an open-air market hall and community centre, utilising a variety of stacking techniques to explore how spatial, atmospheric and structural logic can be gleaned from stacking strategies.

"Each strategy is carefully deployed in response to a design requirement of the building.

"Rather than defer to programmatic or structural conventions, the students sifted through their material spectrum to produce arrangements of material that are sometimes elusive in their structural performance."

Students: Evan Breutsch and Christopher Rancourt
Course: On Timber: Sticks, Stacks and Composites
Tutor: Heather Roberge

Little Megastructure by Yiman Yiman

"Little Megastructure aims to configure an inclusive community of aggregated spatial prototypes that celebrates social connection and belonging while supporting individuality.

"The project features modularised elements – prototypical forms that can be combined and composed in a variety of ways to create a wide range of spaces.

"The elements are connected by gathering spaces, including clusters of parks, plazas, courtyards and atriums in between modules throughout the megastructure, which foster a sense of community and belonging.

"Spaces in this project are organised systematically for different purposes and activities to organically bring together all the components of a city and create a sense of urbanism."

Student: Yiman Yiman
Course: Research Studio: Mixed-Use Housing for Ontario, California
Tutor: Greg Lynn

Last Light by Shrinethraa Senthil Kumar and Yinghao Zhang

"Last Light examines the climate crisis through the eye of the natural environment. The project depicts a world of cities, floating on repurposed oil rigs, in which depleted energy resources and thick pollution have forced people to rely on luminous plants and animals for light.

"Kumar and Zhang created a film that includes virtual-reality experience, a guidebook and a physical model of a lantern, immersing viewers in the experience of a world where sea levels have risen and resources are depleted."

Students: Shrinethraa Senthil Kumar and Yinghao Zhang
Course: MSAUD Entertainment Studio: The Gateway
Tutors: Natasha Sandmeier and Liam Denhamer

Art Pomp by Sofia Chang, Gina Min and Ayush Varadhan

"Art Pomp is a short-term artist residency that provides artists with spaces and state-of-the-art equipment and a basketball court.

"Art Pomp draws from SESC Pompeia, an adaptive reuse cultural centre transformed from a previous factory site. A feature of SESC Pompeia that drew our attention is its connection of towers through aerial bridges.

"Overlaying the towers' floor plans upon the given site, we began designing a project in which three towers become interconnected through aerial bridges and a uniting boardwalk.

"This creates a gradient from front to back allowing the public to pause at a public event and explore the other places in the residency."

Students: Sofia Chang, Gina Min and Ayush Varadhan
Course: Undergraduate Studio: Off-Campus Living
Tutor: Claus Benjamin Freyinger

Partnership content

This school show is a partnership between Dezeen and UCLA. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.