Star Apartments was created for the 16th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. The installation responds to the FREESPACE theme set by curators Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, a word which describes a generosity of spirit and a sense of humanity at the core of architecture’s agenda.

MMA selected a singled project, Star Apartments, to feature in the exhibition space in the Biennale’s Central Pavilion. Star Apartments is a permanent supportive housing project located in downtown Los Angeles that provides homes for 102 formerly homeless people. The building design, created for the Skid Row Housing Trust, facilitates a recovery process and improved quality of life for residents that inspires a sense of pride, independence, and dignity. The exhibition included elements that represent the project from three distinct scales:

The Scale of the City / A floor-to-ceiling isometric mural drawing and aerial video footage of Los Angeles displayed the building within the context of the expansive metropolis that is characterized by an open, free, and layered non-hierarchical continuum of space. A panoramic video elevation showed the activity and character of the street life along the building.

The Scale of the Community / The architectural organization of the building was clearly presented in the large ¾” = 1’-0” model which was centered in the exhibition space. Companion wall-mounted architectural drawings show the building organization in greater detail. The second-floor community level, an open and accessible horizontal plane of free activity that includes a community kitchen, gardens, walking track, and sports court, was rendered in greater detail in both the model and drawings.

The Scale of the Individual / The free space of each apartment, or the freedom to define personal space, results in a rich diversity of interiors defined by the residents themselves. The diversity of the building’s residents was highlighted in the 1” = 1’-0” diorama models of individual apartments, large-scale photographs of objects that residents identified as their most important belongings, and finally in their own words through a series of video interviews and apartment tours.

MMA’s exhibition collaborators include the Skid Row Housing Trust (Client), Myles Kramer (Filmmaker), Louis Heilbronn (Photographer), and SunWest Fabrication LLC (Steel Fabricator).  The installation was on view in the Central Pavilion in the Giardini della Biennale in Venice, Italy from May 26 – November 25, 2018.

Photos by Michael Maltzan Architecture & Diorama Interior Photos by Italo Rondinella (Courtesy: La Biennale di Venezia)