STAY PUFT

Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc)

Thesis / Summer 2019

Instructed by Florencia Pita

Stay Puft explores the composition of moldable parts to form a precarious pile through architectural stickiness. Rather than imagining parts in opposition, the pieces are visualized as a new kind of assemblage, one that finds balance in imperfection, one that challenges notions of equilibrium. Stay Puft becomes a singular compound that has the motive of keeping things in the sky.

The thesis started by using raw materials to produce unique casts and textures, in which the seeming perfection is shut down by roughness and inconsistencies. Pressure and gravity mold sculptures into fragile arrangements that appear to be unfinished and pertain a sense of being provisional.

Stay Puft works as an Arts and Performance Center in Downtown Los Angeles, it’s formed by black box theaters and venues, open performance pockets, screening rooms and office space, all stuck together by the marshmallow like parts. The interior placing of the program inside the squishy objects reflects the molding features made by the outside blocks. Different from the outside, the inside subtly pokes through other pieces, sometimes for circulation and other times in favor of user experience. The building stands heavily into a goop like slippy landscape that extends into the sidewalk and works as public space that provides outdoor stages and recreational areas.