Community Building of Formosa 1140 by LOHA Architects in California
August 11th, 2009 - Posted in Architecture Design
Formosa 1140 is community housing building was designed by Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects (LOHA) located in West Hollywood, California, USA. This project presents a challenging but influential opportunity in regards to the creation and inclusion of an urban park in a private development. The park is accessible to the public at large, not solely residents with granted permission.
Formosa 1140 contains within its own genetic code the imprint of a larger urban design that will offer some kind of public space back to the city and in so doing, distribute a patchwork of parks across Los Angeles’s formidable grid. Formosa takes what would be the internalized open space of the courtyard and moves it to the exterior of the building to create a park which occupies approximately one third (4,600 sf) of the project site.
As a result of shifting the common open space to the exterior and pushing the building to one side, units are organized linearly allowing for ‘park frontage’ and cross-ventilation for every unit. External circulation is used as a buffer between public and private realms and articulated through layers of perforated metal and small openings.
The careful placement of outer skin panels and inner skin fenestration creates a choreographed effect, both revealing and concealing, while achieving a unique expression of form and materials. The exterior skin also keeps west facing units cooler by acting as a screen and shading device.
