Lossy/Lossless was a temporary environment for a neighborhood on the cusp of change. The project was designed for Materials & Applications, a Los Angeles-based cultural organization dedicated to expanding the role of architecture and art in the public sphere. At the time, M&A acquired a space on Sunset Boulevard in a rapidly gentrifying part of Echo Park. This context posed a challenge for an organization dedicated to community engagement through public programming. Who constitutes the public in such a rapidly changing neighborhood? How are the politics of development impacting the community? How can an arts organization address its role in such development? This project sought to provide a forum for these questions. Designed as an occupiable diorama, the space featured a custom-made tableau that wrapped the walls, depicting asynchronous elements of Sunset Boulevard’s past and future — markers of the Boulevard’s history and signifiers of gentrification. Piles of tires from a bygone flat-fix co-mingled with newly installed bike racks; payphones abutted boutique placards. Assembled at multiple scales to collide time and space, the tableau elements were printed on a reflective wall covering. As one looked through the storefront, the streetlife was reflected amidst the tableau elements, blurring the inside and outside to make the space feel like an extension of the street, and figuring the onlooker into a condensed image of the Boulevard. An occupiable floorscape filled the remainder of the space, assembled from a data-center floor system and covered with high-density foam padding. By using a system composed of clearly defined tectonic elements, the object-quality of the floor elements visually merged with the objects depicted in the tableau. The system could accommodate a range of activities, from community meetings to after-school hangouts, all gathered on the floor and reflected on the walls as part of the changing neighborhood image. Team: McLain Clutter, Cyrus Peñarroyo, Lucas Denit Year: 2019