Medium

Medium

Project by Nathan Logan (MArch '26) for Research Studio "Los Angeles" with Jeffrey Inaba

As a sprawling urban fabric with pockets of high density and miles of single family homes in between, Los Angeles has struggled to develop medium-rise, multi-unit housing that is both architecturally compelling and effective in adding density to the city.

MEDIUM activates the “mid” to be a space of novelty and dignity rather than a compromised middle ground.

Chains of mini-towers delicately emerge from the ground and can span lengths in the air to minimize impact on sites. Short spurts of verticality bring interior unit proportions that are less familiar to LA but well represented abroad.

As an adaptable and re-configurable design, MEDIUM can grow to fill up larger lots or shrink and scatter to fill in the nooks of the city.

Within a built environment that is home to a vast variety of architectural styles and types, MEDIUM could exist anywhere, yet aims exist in the spaces Los Angeles under utilizes and work around the conditions that make building housing here challenging and normative.

2025-2026 Research Studio "Los Angeles" (Jeffrey Inaba):

Los Angeles has so many different qualities, which makes it a deeply rich context to create new architectural possibilities. From urban districts to wildland neighborhoods, from impossible-to-make-up histories to pressing realities, from unbelievable landscapes to hardcore infrastructure, LA is a source of untapped architectural inspiration.

We will embrace LA’s paradoxical beauty to develop speculative architectural proposals. The three-term course will be structured into interdependent sequential parts. Research and projection (Fall), master plan proposal (Winter), and architectural proposal (Spring).

For Fall 2025: This term the research seminar will provide you with a conceptual framework and set of reference points for you to formulate and develop a speculative project. The conceptual framework here is Los Angeles, a subject matter and place, with a phenomenal present and past. Together, we will pick and choose events (real or fictional, present day or historical) to put together a unique take on LA. In this case, the set of reference points will be added elements to thicken the plot related to program, tectonics, and materials.

Here, speculative is meant as, to speculate or imagine what your take on LA will be like in the future. You’ll formulate a proposal for a master plan and a building(s) or a building-landscape for that future.