Architectural Digest China features the Los Angeles residence of actor and filmmaker Daniel Wu, with architectural design by Synthesis Design + Architecture.
“Trailblazing Asian-American Architect Gin Wong: Exploring Authorship, Socio-Political Context, and Architectural Discourse in Mid-Century Modernism and Googie Architecture”
This peer-reviewed conference paper presents work by Alvin Huang and appears in ACSA International Conference 2024: Disruptors on the Edge.
Author: Alvin Huang Publication:ACSA International Conference 2024: Disruptors on the Edge Editors: M. Zell, G. Barnes, and B. Satterfield Year: 2024 Type: Peer-reviewed conference paper
The March 2023 issue of California Dreaming: Architectural Design is focused on the current state of architectural design & discourse in California. Author Max Kuo postulates that there are three ways to be Californian. In “Californian, the Third Way” Kuo determines that Alvin Huang, principal of Synthesis Design + Architecture, is a third-way Californian, he charts his emergence as an architect via his postgraduate studies at the Architectural Association in London and working at the esteemed offices of Zaha Hadid and Amanda Levete, before moving to California to start his own practice and finding China particularly hospitable to his architecture.
Abstract
Max Kuo’s profile describes Alvin Huang as a “third-way Californian”: a Los Angeles native whose architectural identity was shaped by USC, the Architectural Association, Zaha Hadid Architects, Amanda Levete Architects, and extensive work in Asia before returning home to establish SDA. The essay follows Huang’s pursuit of digital craft from the [C]Space Pavilion through projects such as the Durotaxis Chair, La Burbuja Lamp, and The Groove at CentralWorld, framing his practice as a synthesis of computational research, material experimentation, cultural inquiry, and pragmatic building.
“Casa Gilardi: A Surreal Journey through Architectural Contrasts & Human Values”
This book chapter / essay presents work by Alvin Huang and appears in GILARDI House — Barragán’s Last Witness.
Author: Alvin Huang Publication:GILARDI House — Barragán’s Last Witness Editor: José Luis Álvarez Tinajero Publisher: ACTAR Year: 2023 Type: Book chapter / essay
Abstract
This essay reads Luis Barragán’s Casa Gilardi through the poetry and cultural criticism of Octavio Paz. It describes the house as a surreal, introverted world shaped by carefully staged oppositions—light and darkness, compression and expansion, saturated color and white surfaces, enclosure and release. Through a limited palette of elemental forms and materials, Barragán creates an architecture of introspection that challenges Western modernist ideals and expresses architecture as a crystallization of Mexican identity and human values.
