FRACTURE
SOUTH GATE HIGH SCHOOL REDESIGN
South Gate, Los Angeles, California
Description
As a part of the Los Angeles United High School District, South Gate High School has seemingly been forgotten in any talks of schools to be renovated in the area. This redesign of the South Gate High School campus is meant to relieve the congestion of students attending the school currently, while also providing a safe space for students to grow and learn to express themselves. Using initial formal studies to develop an organization strategy for the more rigid shapes of the classroom requirements of the LAUHSD, the buildings use public spaces as “points of fracture” to allow for smaller, enclosed, yet still visible spaces to allow for students to have safe spaces to spend their break periods. Also using a similar methodology in site organization, the campus uses certain points to create public spaces, and as points to alter the site topography that create a sense of separation from the city and the school. Through using a texture based on an abstracted site plan, the fractured site and buildings reconnect to each other and serve as a point of connection to the regular grid of South Gate.