Connect the Dots Part 1 Project 2007 Damita Wai Tsong Yu Architectural Association London | UK I have created a mirage: horizontal housing planes float weightlessly in the air embedded with shimmery pods enticing the passerby to explore the realm deep within the block. Dynamic circulation patterns are drawn from the energy and trajectory paths taken by people in the surrounding city. Event spaces deform out of the layered circulation patterns creating a myriad of public spaces in differing volumes and environments setting up various ambiences and scenes for human interaction. The public and private life of the inhabitants co-exist at such close proximity, one's front door could open out into a gymnasium or an impromptu session of tai chi. However, the feeling of security and suburban living is retained through private backyards shared by small clusters of flats. Within this enormous volume of the housing block, this clustering creates small intimate neighbourhoods. In this imposing block of monumental proportions, the juxtaposition of stunning views of downtown Los Angeles with the quiet oasis of one's private backyard, fosters new urban typology supporting an alternate communal living in a mega-city setting. Damita Wai Tsong Yu Damita developed the housing Superblock far beyond our expectations by creating a project with an unrelenting approach towards constructing - through form, program, and site contextuality - a highly defined proposal that argues for collaborative and communal living. Her building has at its core a very simple idea – to provoke interaction and connection for both residents and visitors. This is in itself a novel idea in a city like Los Angeles. But more importantly, the building is NEW. It has an unprecedented freshness that comes from a real sense of possibility that a building like this could possibly transform a small part of a city and create a more humane type of inhabitation.