Statement:

Architecture has not been considered as part of the earth’s geology, although it is a powerful geological agent capable of radically transforming the earth’s surface morphology and future stratification. The act of building architecture is adding human layers inside the earth, on the earth and over the earth – initiating new geological epoch Anthropocene.

In the current Anthropocene epoch, our thesis, Prolonged Ground, asks to consider itself as a geological actor which becomes a protagonist of the architecture project by using earth and all of its embedded elements as a raw material. This new building is used as a new museum for exhibiting geological memories of its ground and existing as new strata for communal activities above the mystic ground of Los Angeles.

The project is located in a truly unique site — La Brea Tar Pits, Los Angeles where the ground has been bubbling and unstable over 20 million years. We've been asked an adaptive reuse design proposal for the existing George C. Page Museum which has exhibited the tar pit fossils from La Brea Tar Pits since 1977.

Final Plan Level 3 & Section A-A, 1:100 scale­­­

Final Elevations – South, North, East, West

Earlier Interior Renderings

Final Physical Model, 1:150 scale

Statement:

Architecture has not been considered as part of the earth’s geology, although it is a powerful geological agent capable of radically transforming the earth’s surface morphology and future stratification. The act of building architecture is adding human layers inside the earth, on the earth and over the earth – initiating new geological epoch Anthropocene.

In the current Anthropocene epoch, our thesis, Prolonged Ground, asks to consider itself as a geological actor which becomes a protagonist of the architecture project by using earth and all of its embedded elements as a raw material. This new building is used as a new museum for exhibiting geological memories of its ground and existing as new strata for communal activities above the mystic ground of Los Angeles.

The project is located in a truly unique site — La Brea Tar Pits, Los Angeles where the ground has been bubbling and unstable over 20 million years. We've been asked an adaptive reuse design proposal for the existing George C. Page Museum which has exhibited the tar pit fossils from La Brea Tar Pits since 1977.

George C. Page Museum
Construction began in 1975 and the George C. Page Museum of La Brea Discoveries opened to the public in 1977. The Museum is dedicated to researching the tar pits and displaying specimens from the animals that died there.

La Brea Tar Pits
La Brea Tar Pits are a group of tar pits around which Hancock Park was formed in urban Los Angeles. Natural asphalt has seeped up from the ground in this area for tens of thousands of years. Over many centuries, the tar preserved the bones of trapped animals. Of more than 100 pits, only Pit 91 is still regularly excavated by researchers. In addition to Pit 91, the one other ongoing excavation is called “Project 23”

Urban Context
LACMA Campus — Floating ground (new design, 2024)
Levitated Mass — Carved ground
Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
Petersen Automotive Museum
Wilshire Blvd, La Brea Ave, Fairfax Ave — Main stream of LA

'Bubbling' Ancient Ground
The project is located in a truly unique site—La Brea Tar Pits, Los Angeles where the ground has been bubbling and unstable over 20 million years. The ground has been accumulated long geological time like Holocen, Pleistocene, Anthropocene.