ICEBERG

+[Living Off the Grid] Los Angeles _ 2020

SCI_Arc EDGE+The NOW Institute, Design of Cities Studio 3  

Program Coordinator: Thom Mayne

Instructor: Eui-Sung Yi

Program Faculty: Karen Lohrmann

Design Consultant: Daniel Pruske

Partner: Anush Harutyunyan

There are multiple existing proposals with premises to address the current and future urban issues of Los Angeles. The city not only needs proposals and policies but also experimental prototypes to speculate its uncertain future. The ICEBERG project is an attempt to design the first urban scale off-grid prototype on the east side of the Los Angeles River, for a population of 30,000. This project premises on the possibility of using the air rights of the piggyback yard site while the mega-narrative is what if the Southern Pacific continues its operations and we build a community on top of it by recalibrating an existing rail facility and build a second downtown on the eastside of Los Angeles River. This macro urban prototype could be mass-produced regardless of its territorial limitations in varied locations, scales with either independent or interdependent functions to provide optimized access to urban equity and quality. Piggyback Yard site, the largest privately owned land in Los Angeles, sits on the east side of the LA River. It is an isolated land within the triangle of 3 Interstate freeways and in disconnected proximity of residential, cultural, and civic zonings. The size of the site fits a 20 min walkable module. 25% of the site is covered by rail tracks and the remaining is almost covered by reserved containers of the Southern Pacific Company. This project premises on the possibility of using the air rights of the land and the mega-narrative is what if the Southern Pacific continues its operations and we build a community on top of it.