Gary Paige
Professor of Practice
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- Phone:(310) 488-4516
B.Arch, Sci-Arc
Gary Paige is a principal of GPS [Gary Paige Studio], a Los Angeles-based multi- disciplinary design firm with a diverse portfolio ranging in scale and media from art installations and architecture to furniture and graphic design. Since its inception in 1985, the work of the studio has sought to explore the relationship between the immaterial and material domains of the discipline—from spatial diagrams and atmospheres to experiments with materials and fabrication technology. The work of the studio emerges from the idea that architecture is a process of pure and applied research as well as a mode of critical spatial inquiry and practice. Consequently, projects often involve interdisciplinary research and collaborations in order to arrive at unique solutions to contemporary problems. Selected works include an award-winning architectural installation for the Venice Biennale; the Kappe Library at SCI-Arc; the design and renovation of the Freight Depot for SCI-Arc in the downtown Los Angeles Artist’s District; the Manifold House, a finalist in the Shinkenchiku Residential Design Competition; and, Variegated Mat-scape, a finalist in the Los Angeles Forum Dingbat 2.0 Competition. His architecture, drawings and photographs have been exhibited and published internationally. He has taught in the graduate and undergraduate programs at SCI-Arc where he was the former Director of the Undergraduate Program and Head of Visual Studies, the founder of the Making and Meaning Program, and a co-founder of the Asian Studies Program. Most recently he was the Howard Friedman Professor of Practice at the University of California Berkeley and a Visiting Professor at Kyoto Seika University.
- 316Place and CulturePlace and CultureThe goal of this seminar is to understand the cultural context of Spain, by examining its architecture, history, political and economic developments. Beginning in Madrid and travelling north, we will visit cities and landscapes and examine the variety of influences that determine their form. In Barcelona we will analyze the city’s major urban and architectural sites, topography, and systems of urban organization. We will examine Barcelona’s architectural practices that challenge and engage European traditional and modernist orthodoxies and its culture committed to design. In Southern Spain, we will examine cities shaped by a coexistence of different influences (Jewish, Christian, Muslim) and others dominated by one. While certain aspects of the built environment are intentional, others are not. How did a theory of urban and architectural design emerge in Spain, and where did it come from? What constitutes a “cultural geography” of place?
- 424LField Studies in ArchitectureField Studies in ArchitectureAssignments rely principally on field trips and field research, while additional readings, class discussions and research will be utilized to develop a body of information and method of critique. Field research will focus on the first-hand observation, analysis, and documentation of existing buildings and their contexts so that lessons-learned can inform the design methodology applied in studio. Students will be challenged to articulate their analyses with respect to the specific urban, temporal, and cultural contexts. There will be ten assignments for each course: nine specific assignments and one assignment that you may choose the subject of yourself.
- 426LField Studies in TectonicsField Studies in TectonicsBuildings embody a series of performative criteria that form the fundamental motives for an architectural task. These functions are critical considerations in building design and are accomplished within the context of technological and economic possibilities. The focus of the course will be on technology in architecture, with an emphasis on structure, materiality, construction, material and assembly, and sustainability. Using annotated photo documentation, notations, and diagrams these criteria will be analyzed to explore how technology affects the form, the assembly of the architectural response, and, ultimately, how technology is integrated into the methodology of accomplishing the greater architectural goals of the building.
- 580Field StudiesField Studies
One of the most important aspects of field research is the opportunity to gain insight into the relationships between design language, building proposition and construction process of specific periods/architects/buildings/landscapes. It is an occasion to discover not only the tenets upon which an designer bases his work, but also how these tenets resolve complex relationships between a project, its site and the cultural/theoretical context in which it was constructed. Through thoughtful case study analysis students will explore how these external forces influence/direct the form and shape of the designed response.
This Field Studies course will concentrate on projects and practices [from the analysis of buildings to the focused engagement with the methods of practice], landscapes and ecologies [both natural and manmade], and urban spaces [including parks, plazas, and urban (re)development projects]. The field study of these spaces and methods also provides an opportunity to understand the complex relationship of the designer with place. These place-based investigations will engage field studies to employ analytical methods, representational techniques, and speculative inquiry into the fundamental spatial and infra-structural elements of place. This investigation allows one to develop awareness as well as appreciate the complex relationship between a place, its inhabitants and the spaces that facilitate a multitude of events and activities.