Meet our President: Isai German

Club President:
Isai German

Educational background

I've had my run at a few community colleges, and took my crack at art school, but my passion was in Architecture; and my heart with my community.  This school of thought is greatly emphasized at Los Angeles Trade Tech.  This is where I have attained the most growth in my adult life.

From NewVillage.net

Favorite Architect or Designer and why?

Sam Mockbee had the ability to take novel materials and interject an architecture vocabulary that caters to the rural backdrop of Alabama.   His involvement with under-served communities connects academia and the built environment.  His design studio correlates with Auburn Universities Architecture program and introduces students to finite sources and vests in socially engaged projects.  This opportunity would give students a tangible understanding of the practical applications verses theoretical process.



Favorite building material?

From Howitworks.com

ETFE (ethylene-co-tetrafluoroethylene), is a high resistant plastic that is lighter and stronger than glass.  Its components make it extremely durable against the elements and malleable since it dispenses in roll.  It’s recyclable and is ideal when implementing in modular design.


3 favorite website to learn something new?

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/
www.good.is
http://la.curbed.com/

What do you want to do for Los Angeles?

There are 7 community colleges with at least a certificate in Architecture in the Los Angeles Community College District, 4 Undergraduate Architecture programs and one Graduate Architecture program.  This city is one of the largest exploration of Architecture in the world and yet there’s a disconnect with all these institutions and our community.  The emphases of producing ostentatious work, has mired the economy, social justice, connection that urban sprawl devastated.  It’s time we leave our studios and engage the issues that concentrate the streets.  The depository of knowledge these school have should be the catalyst to change our city.

What do you want to do for the world?

The stigma of Architecture has been that it caters to the one percent and it has become an elites’ profession.  My goal is to redefine that social consciousness and create a dialogue that engages everyone.  The roles of academia and the trade profession have quarreled and are often find conflicting, dueling power shifts.  My hopes are to create a new non-profit that communicates with the community and confirms our school of thought.  I want to produce systems of participation, and empower our environments, all in an effort to create solidarity in our neighborhoods.   Striving for autonomous coordination, my hopes are to sustain these patterns and have them blossom into other aspects of human conditions.  All in the effort to recreate spaces for ourselves; the drive to foster creativity, procure innovation, and create jobs; rather than wait to apply.   I want to produce and encourage incubators of knowledge, instilling the entrepreneur mindset to be self sustaining within the community.

“Do whatever the heck you want, even if its wrong, and then tell about it with honesty… Success is [messing] up on your own terms” 

– Guillermo del Toro