By Diego Linares
An ELAC Design 102 class of approximately 25 students took place last Friday afternoon to present their solution to the problem with the, “Emergency Shelter,” project professor Alexis Navarro assigned.
The project stresses the familiarity students must have with the materials they are appointed and the awareness and reaction to conditions.
The students were told to make a portable single-person structure meant to survive such conditions made of only cardboard, tape and velcro.
“I give them projects that are very real,” Navarro said about the students association with their materials. “We put a lot of emphasis on hands on – doing things by hand – drawing things by hand. That’s a very important part.”
Adam Paul Martinez, ELAC alumnus and current Southern California Institute of Architecture student, was on hand to give his insight to students and be part of a three-jury panel made up of graduates and professors.
“One (project) that stood out was Desmond (Fregoso),” said Martinez. “His project was actually kind of cool, because it actually moved. It was like a (paper fortune teller).”
“His looked like that, and actually worked like that. It was very, super-strong, but it was strong in a way that it didn’t fit to the project, which is a very fine line.
“You need to be able to have that balance of having a strong project and a strong aesthetic (quality). He only had a strong aesthetic (quality), not a strong project,” Martinez said.
The projects ranged from simple polygon shapes to complex grid shelters designed and built by the students.
Student
’s “Gemini” project garnered some respect from professor Navarro for overall work.
Nguyen said that in the four days it took him to build his project he had concerns of his structure standing, although he did add a moon-roof, table, window and hook for a lamp.
“People were thinking in a way they shouldn’t have been thinking. In an environmental disaster situation, you find things on the floor and you use them in your house,” Martinez said.
“(The students) are designing things, when in actuality environmental design is very fast and very efficient,” Martinez said