Physical Model for Morphosis

As a part of a design team, Ivar Örn Guðmundsson was engaged in preparing a physical model of the whole concept.

“Diamond Ranch High School engages architecture in the act of education; it speaks to students experientially through a physically kinetic architectural language that makes no references to traditional typology, but rather looks elsewhere to encourage student inquiry and provoke curiosity. The opportunity existed, by virtue of the steeply sloped site, to explore the hybrid territory of an augmented landscape wherein building and site would be perceptually interchangeable. The jagged and inherently unstable forms of the Los Angeles foothills inform the language of the buildings as the scheme takes its organizational cues from the natural topography.

Two rows of fragmented, interlocking forms are set tightly on either side of a long central “canyon,” or street, which cuts through the face of the hillside as might a geologic fault line. The street provides the primary opportunity for students to interact haphazardly or by plan with one another, with teachers and with administrators as they move about the campus. Seeking to create a counterpoint to Diamond Ranch’s suburban context, the sense of urban experience is intensified via the compression of the street. A monumental stairway which functions doubly as an outdoor amphitheatre is embedded in the hillside, leading from the school’s main academic areas to the roof terrace and football field above.”

Source: Morphosis website