Iconicity in Architecture

Today, architecture is affected by a variety of external forces and events (financial collapse, climate change, sociopolitical developments, etc.). Architecture is designed with its context in mind and other practical aspects, and designing for the sake of design has died out; the "death of the icon" era. What defines a icon? What makes something iconic in our age, aside from its cultural relevance?

Our studio sought to challenge the idea of iconicity with the idea muteness. How can a building be mute and iconic, the mute icon?

Black Box

At the same time we looked at the idea of the "black box." The idea of functional flexibility, atmospheric darkness, and plain mystery. 

Can a black box be a mute icon? Can a mute icon be a black box?

This is main question our studio investigated. Can the inversion between the two create a dichotomy between the exterior and interior.

UCLA Royce Hall

Our project was to re-imagine and redesign the iconic Royce Hall at UCLA. This famous theatre is synonymous with UCLA's identity as it is one of the four original buildings since the foundation of UCLA.

Phase 1

First, we designed the interior of our mute icon. In our case, we decided to put our mute icon within the black box, flipping the roles of the two.

We created a theatre space that was complete separated from the rest of the programs that were below. We then created an amphitheater space on one side of the black box, which served to engage with the outside and eluded to what could possibly be on the inside of the black box.

The Mute Icon of the Black Box

We took our original design and flipped it so that the access to the interior was from underneath thus creating a complete mute black box.

Feature 1

Distinguishing autonomous spaces that create iconicity though segregation or engagement with the public.

Feature 2

Reorganizing UCLA's Royce Hall to create series of spaces that lead to the enclosed theatre.

Feature 3

Using a single access point that opens up into a large central space underneath the under-belly of the theatre that floats above.

The Entrance at the bottom of the building leads into an open lobby space that is underneath the belly of the Foyer. The sides of the lobby load to the classrooms, rehearsal halls, and other programs, while the stair circulation leads up and on to the terrace space that surrounds the theatre enclosure. There are two entrances on the terrace that allow users to access the foyer, which leads into the theatre space above.

These layers programs creates this nesting of the theatre space and isolates it from the outside. The public cannot read the interior quality of the building from the outside as it is just a "black box" that creates this shroud of mystery.