Conference and Community Center, La Jolla , California
Design Research Project, 1988-93

     The topic of this project has fascinated Koulermos for a number of years- it is linked to the design of the Salk Institute, the collaboration between Louis Kahn and Luis Barragan. And the desire to create architecture with spirituality in this part of the world Koulermos set it as a studio project during his visiting professorship at Columbia University in 1988 and began to work in the area proposed by Kahn. The programme, however, is basically invented and quite different from that of the original design.
     The relationship of architecture to the horizon and landscape has been a great design interest for Koulermos, who feels the strong bond that links the buildings with the horizon - a bond experienced in classical Greek architecture. Italian hill towns, the Greek Islands. And Meso-American pyramids and temples.
     The basic concept is that of a citadel with a strong geometric plan, defining and being defined by diverse spaces and forms. The predominant prismatic form is that of the cube which contains the amphitheatre, offices, seminar rooms, and, on the top two floors, guest rooms. The cube is bounded by a perimeter elevated walkway (passerelia) and traversed, together with the library, by a circulation ramp which is three-dimensionally expressed, echoing in its form the undulations of the terrain.

Collaborator: John Cheng (John Tong)
Presentation Drawings: John Cheng and Alvin Wong
Model: Alvin Pastrana
Photos: Tony Nagelmann
Below: Model, site plan with proposed building left and Salk Institute right