Earlier this year, Alvin Huang, AIA, Founder and Design Principal of Synthesis Design + Architecture and the Director of Graduate & Post-Professional Architecture Programs at USC, launched USC Architecture Operation PPE. The initiative was in response to COVID19 at a time that government was not manufacturing N95 masks and other PPEs. It inspired and organized design professionals and students throughout the city to 3D print pseudo N95 masks in case a shortage required them. This demonstration of unity, community, and use of design skills and tools for the greater good  drew a great deal of media attention.  But in this Q&A, Huang speaks about USC Architecture Operation PPE, which is the 2020 AIALA Community Contribution recipient, in his own words, as well as a dream project that, we should not be surprised, is about the greater good as well.

1. Out of your projects, can you select one which you believe has most contributed to the city, how, and… why did you do it?   
Despite the timing of its conception (at what felt like the bleakest hours of the pandemic), Operation PPE was such a galvanizing moment and experience for the design community and city of Los Angeles. What started as a call-to-arms for USC Architecture faculty and students to mobilize our 3D printers evolved into a collective movement of over 350 citizens of all ages, backgrounds, and professions collectively mobilized to produce over 7,000+ psuedo N95 face masks and 11,000+ face shields. It was a moment in time when so many of us felt so helpless, and the situation seemed so hopeless. Despite the fact that most of us had never physically met (and still haven’t), the project gave us an opportunity to come together and leverage our design abilities and manufacturing capabilities to make a difference for the greater good.

2. What’s your favorite public place to safe distance in LA right now?
My wife and I have recently been trying to take advantage of that fact that since we are all working from home and my kids are doing distance learning from home, that we can sneak off on Friday’s for a sunset picnic at Hermosa Beach. Hermosa is far quieter and less trafficked than Santa Monica and parking is easy. At the end of the day on a Friday, the beach is almost empty and the combination of the sunset, waves, and ocean air is a perfect way to end the week.

[The AIALA Celebrates Operation PPE during the 2020 AIALA Design Awards, October 29, 2020. To purchase tickets, click here.]

3. What’s the best depiction of LA architecture in a movie, Netflix project, video or book and why (if you’re so inclined.)
I love the future-forward version of LA that is depicted in the 2013 movie Her. It is a version of LA that embraces density and diversity – it is pedestrian-oriented, connected by public transportation, and filled with progressive architecture that features rooftop parks and greenscape. It was such a progressive version of LA, that they had to film it in both LA and Shanghai and collage the two locations together to achieve the vision of the city that they desired.

4. What’s the best thing a client or community member can say to you? (You could make this about Operation PPE)
The single most important thing that I would appreciate hearing from a client, community member, or stake holder, is that my work or efforts allowed them to see/feel/understand something that they didn’t see/feel/understand before. This could be through design in the case of my architectural practice Synthesis Design + Architecture, or my insights in terms of my teaching at USC Architecture, or in this particular instance it could be through social impact in the terms of Operation PPE.

5. What’s on your bucket list design-wise. What’s that dream project.
If it’s not obvious, 3D printing personal protective equipment is far from my dream project. I’ve always wanted the opportunity to work on the design of a significant cultural project – and as we are now facing another pandemic (the tipping point of tolerance for systemic racism), I would love the opportunity to work on a Museum of Cultural Diversity, Equality and Justice. I’ve oftentimes referred to the core essence of the discipline of architecture as the materialization of value systems, and perhaps there are no more important values that need to be expressed at this moment than these shared beliefs that make us who we are.

Read the press release announcing the 2020 AIALA Presidential Honoree Recipients.

Images: courtesy Alvin Huang, AIA
Banner: Members of Operation PPE with the PPEs they produced.