Synthesis Design + Architecture’s Melrose Jewel Box has received a building permit from the City of West Hollywood, moving the project toward construction.
Architectural Digest China features the Los Angeles residence of actor and filmmaker Daniel Wu, with architectural design by Synthesis Design + Architecture.
Synthesis Design + Architecture’s Pride Portal received a 2023 Excellence in Masonry Silver Award.
The project transforms a public passage through color, pattern, and precisely detailed glass mosaic surfaces, creating a vivid threshold that celebrates movement, identity, and community.
Synthesis Design + Architecture’s YPMD Pediatric Neurology Clinic received the 2023 ACADIA Best Project Award, Runner-Up.
The project reimagines the clinical environment through color, texture, geometry, and digitally fabricated acoustic elements, creating a welcoming and engaging space for children, families, and caregivers. Explore the project on Healthcare Snapshots.
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.
On February 20, 2023, Alvin Huang will be speaking at the Palm Springs Modernism Week to discuss the work, legacy, and impact of Asian-American Midcentury Modernist architect Gin Wong as a part of “Stories Untold — Asian American Architects and Midcentury Modernism: Influential Design and Social Exclusion”
“Modernism is deeply influenced by Japanese design and architecture, and architects of Asian descent helped shape the mid-century Southland. They did this in spite of deep-rooted discrimination and, for Japanese-Americans, incarceration in World War II internment camps.
Stories Untold shines a light on architects rarely given the attention deserved: Helen Fong, designer of well-known Googie coffee shops bringing Modernism to everyday venues; Gin Wong, a lead architect on landmarks such as the LAX Theme Building, Beverly Hills’ Union 76 gas station, and San Francisco’s Transamerica pyramid; and Charles Wong, Eugene Choy, Hideo Matsunaga, and others.”
Alvin Huang is a keynote speaker at the upcoming Computational Design NEXT 8.0 conference on March 5, 2022 hosted by Parametric Architecture and Design Morphine. Click here for more details.
Computational Design: NEXT is a collaborative initiative by some of the global frontiers of computational design to open up an Online Learning platform as a comprehensive online conference comprising of discussions, dialogues, tutorials, and mentorship to a worldwide audience through thought-provoking and meaningful talks curated by ParametricArchitecture (PA), one of the leading media platforms focussing on computational design and its various subsets.
