EPIC LAND

EPIC LAND

Work by Ryotaro Okada (MArch '24) for "Design With an Explicit Statement of Mission & Vision", a Research Studio taught by Greg Lynn. This studio spends the first two quarters constructing conceptual ideas through writing to define each individual project's outcome. In the Spring, the conceptual is brought to digital reality as each project becomes defined by space, structure, and material.

Project Statement:

“EPIC LAND pushes the boundaries of what an urban theme park can be. By leveraging Disney's expertise and technology in entertainment space design, EPIC LAND gives Los Angeles a full day of immersion into the world of Epic Games IPs in one building. My mission statement is ’to create well-known tourist destinations that integrate architecture with inspirational entertainment and storytelling landscape’, which guided me in all aspects of design decisions from master planning to the details of every single space, but at the same time, reflects the designer I aspire to be moving forward.”

Design With an Explicit Statement of Mission & Vision

A mission or vision statement is not a vague platitude. These are articulations of unique competence and measurable goals. For three years in the MSAUD program, Professor Greg Lynn taught a two-quarter seminar that used corporate brand defining tools as a critical instrument for historical and cultural research. Last year, Lynn's MArch Research Studio used those tools as design method. The experience with goal setting and defining personal criteria for success can assist in team building and studio culture alignment in future professional practice.

The Fall 2023 and Winter 2024 quarters of Professor Lynn's 2023-2024 year-long Research Studio will focus on the formation of critical architectural concepts with clear measurable consequences. The disciplined skills of problem formation, value decisions, radical editing, profundity, and extreme clarity of communication will be applied to the studio. During these two quarters there will be no modeling, drawing, model building, or creation of forms, shapes, patterns, or diagrams. You will define your own design brief during these two quarters. During the Spring 2024 quarter of the research studio, everyone will share a site where a building design will be executed with relevant comprehension guided by personal Mission and Vision statements.

During the Fall Quarter, each student will be responsible for writing four sentences, selecting four images, and writing four captions in twenty weeks. If the last four years are any indication, it will be the hardest conceptual work you have ever endured. The process is collective, and all conversations are vetted and supported by the entire group. Each student will select an architect from a given list based on their interest in their work. They will define the core competency in a one sentence mission statement; a visual argument using two images; and a factual caption for each image. Based on mission statement, each architect will be positioned on the wheel of Carl Jung’s twelve archetypes.

During the Winter Quarter, using this definition of their cultural archetype, each student will then define their own strategic objectives and expected outcomes using the precedent architect’s engagement with the real world. This will be the vision statement and it should three sentences. Three images of previous work by each the student will
be selected that best describes each sentence of the vision statement. A clearly stated factual caption should be written for each.

The three sentences will guide the design during the Spring quarter studio. Each student will complete the design of a building with relevant comprehensiveness regarding identity, functional activities, structure, materials, spatial qualities, civic presence, energy systems, method of construction, audience address, and cultural conversation. The proof of core competency defined in the Mission, and the achievement of expected results defined in the Vision, will be the criteria for evaluating success in the individual building designs.