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Writer's pictureLaura Bennett

They Won! USC Team Wins AIAǀLA Design Award for CARAPACE Project

The Carapace Pavilion, which will soon be on its way to serve as a shelter in Joshua Tree National Park, has been given a design award from the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. More than 100 architecture students from USC were involved in this precast project.


Before more than 500 attendees in the city's new SoFi Stadium the USC team was honored for work that so far is three years in the making. Also in attendance were members of the teams at Clark Pacific, PCI West, JVI, Inc. and students who have been dedicated to the success of this project.


According to USC’s Noble, who led the project along with colleague Karen Kensek, “The project has a double-curved geometry and diagrid structure. It is two-inches thick at the critical location. It was entirely prefabricated so we could transport and install it in one day without a construction jobsite. We are placing it in a United States National Park. The students used just one clever mold to cast five panels of three different types. It is located in the highest seismic zone and has a proportionally very high roof overhang. It uses performance-based parametric modeling to reduce the overhang weight. The project was paperless (almost) and students were engaged at every step. We used computer models to drive CNC milling machines on campus to make the mold. And it is pink (color calibrated to the sunsets at Joshua Tree National Park)!


In photo, from left to right: Doug Noble, USC School of Architecture, Brad Williams, Clark Pacific, Michael Gonzalez Haik, USC School of Architecture, Ivan Wan Lim Wong, USC School of Architecture, Iván Alberto Monsreal Piñón, USC School of Architecture, Jim Voss, JVI Inc, Macky Lopez, USC School of Architecture, Matt Miller, Clark Pacific, Karen M. Kensek, USC School of Architecture, Ruth Lehmann, PCI West and Zachary Bergmann, USC School of Architecture.


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