By Todd Belie
Daily Bruin Contributor
This weekend graduate student Elena Manferdini will return home
to Italy to take part in the seventh annual Venice Architecture
Biennale with nine other Architecture and Urban Design students
from UCLA.
These students, along with architecture students from Columbia
University, were invited by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum to
display their projects at the United States Pavilion and showcase
their work to the world.
Working under Professor Greg Lynn for the past two quarters, the
students were divided into seven teams and began work on a project
titled,”The Embryological House.” Each group designed
and engineered segments of the house’s interior using the
latest in design software.
From June 18 to October 29 the work created by both universities
will be reviewed and critiqued by architects, philosophers and
experts from around the world.
“This is a good opportunity because great architects will
meet in the same place, and on the same field, so we can compare
with the best,” Manferdini said.
Students worked on seven different projects using computerized
3D-design programs and revolutionary architecture and materials
concepts. Included among the interior design applications created
by the students are the “Shoe Floor,” a floor design
that adjusts for extensive usage in certain areas, and a durable
skin-system called a “Plastic Flower.”
Unlike architecture demonstrations of the past, the
presentations made by UCLA and Columbia University will not be
presented in final stages of development. Instead, the
exhibitions-in-progress will allow for open suggestions from
participants, rather than a simple review of the students’
finished work.
“I hope to learn a lot. This is truly great exposure for
students, and I hope it translates to a job later,”
Manferdini said.
Amanda Salud-Gallivan, a graduate student from Illinois, works
on one of the design team.
“I know we’ll be busy, but it still will be great
when we get off the plane and enter a whole new world,”
Salud-Gallivan said.
She noted that students usually can be found working 12 to 14
hours a day on the project and sometimes even up to 18 hours a
day.
“We’re still working on the project and pulling late
hours,” Salud-Gallivan said, “so right now it seems
that everything else about the trip hasn’t really hit
us.”
“I’ve definitely never been involved in anything
like this before,” she said. “It’s a rare event
even in graduate school.”
Other students, such as Mario Cipresso, worked on design
features of the “Shoe Floor.”
Cipresso and his team modeled their “responsive living
surface” using ideas similar to those of the methodology
behind pressure points on tennis shoes. The team added strength to
well-used areas of the interior of the house similar to the way
certain impacted parts of shoes are reinforced.
Cipresso spoke of the value of the trip and the exhibition of
the student work.
“It pretty daunting representing the U.S.,” said
Cipresso, “but we are among the best at what we’re
doing.”
The Guggenheim Museum is supporting the architecture feature as
one of several international exhibitions. Funding for the event has
come from contributors including IBM IntelliStation, Chrysler
Italia, and Delta Air Lines.