Our project is a research institute nestled near the LA River, dedicated to the study of plants and fauna native to the Californian chaparral. Here, the natural world and the built environment converge—an architecture that reflects the delicate balance between life and water in an ever-changing landscape. The design connects the interior research spaces with the surrounding ecosystem, with chambers tailored to explore the qualities of dryness and wetness, air and water filtration, and resilience in the face of urban heat and scarcity.
The institute opens its doors to the public, inviting movement beneath the sweeping arches that span between road and river. Gardens of native plants unfold, offering a living display of the land’s natural beauty. Inside, an auditorium and exhibition spaces provide a platform for sharing discoveries with the community, while visitors witness the ongoing biological research firsthand.
At the heart of the building lies a central atrium, a light-filled void that weaves together the lab spaces and the public realm, inviting light and circulation to flow freely throughout. Above, two roof terraces become sites of outdoor research—laboratories for testing plant resilience in urban environments where soil and water are scarce, and sanctuaries for those who occupy the space.
The building’s form echoes the landscape it inhabits, curvilinear and organic, yet finely tuned into a harmonious whole. The interplay of irregular exterior curves and carefully articulated interior volumes draws inspiration from the drawings of Dan Slavinsky, where sweeping forms are met with moments of delicate precision, grounding the structure in both nature and architecture.
Inspired from the culture and landscape of Los Angeles, the abstract crustation becomes a medium for the developments of forms, formal expressions, and flow of motion throughout the project. This, then, becomes a driving forces for transforming the existing building of the Lincoln Height Jail to a research Institute that focuses on the resilient ecosystem.
