Design Narrative
This presentation features ten architectural models created exclusively using ASCII—American Standard Code for Information Interchange—characters. Conceived as an abstract design exploration, the project was developed for the American Institute of Architects East Bay Design Awards 2022 in the “Unbuilt Idea” student category.
ASCII Digital Design MecCA (ADDM) represents a visionary proposal for a new school of arts, design, and technology planned for 2025. Imagined as a forward-thinking, multidisciplinary media arts institution, ADDM embraces ASCII as the foundational language of its design philosophy—treating characters as the building blocks of structure and space.
Each of the ten architectural models presented here is based on a shared concept: two transparent, identical cubes intersecting and merging within one another, realized through glass volumes supported by metal frames. This dual-cube structure, along with a consistent architectural language and repeated visual motifs, forms the core identity of the design series.
The envisioned site for the ASCII Digital Design MecCA is the Berkeley Waterfront, offering a symbolic bridge between digital culture and physical environment.
The ASCII Digital Design Museum originated on Facebook in 2012. Over the past decade, more than 10,000 works have been created in real time through Facebook's native text interface—using simple ASCII characters as the sole medium. As the first fully digital-only museum on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Museum), it has pioneered a new form of online creative practice and cultural preservation.
During this period, the museum’s catalog—including digital design books, fashion pieces, and multimedia installations—has been exhibited internationally across Europe, Asia, and the United States. The growing community around this work has sparked demand for a physical research center dedicated to the study and applied exploration of ASCII as a design and artistic language.
The ASCII Digital Design MecCA will encompass ten dedicated research divisions: Art, Architecture, Communication, Design, Fashion, Library, Media, Music, Research, and Museum—each contributing to a shared mission of advancing ASCII as a contemporary creative discipline.
