Ivan Niedermair / Group XXXI, Oct 2010 - Mar 2011

FINAL PROJECTS: GROUP XXXI

3/11/11 to 3/13/11

Mackey Apartments and Garages 1137 S. Cochran Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90019

Architect Ivan Niedermair looked at Los Angeles's restless quest for a resource it can't produce enough of - water. He focused on Owens Lake, a former source of water overtaken by L.A.'s aqueduct system, and now a dry lakebed that, up to 2001, was the largest single source of particulate matter in the western U.S. The minerals from the lakebed, mixed with water and graphite, form the essential ingredients for a battery and inspired the project. Niedermair conceived a device that used the lakebed as energy source for a long-armed mechanical apparatus that produced pencil drawings of shelters, translating landscape into potential architecture.