ADDM — ASCII Digital Design MeCCA
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 Submission) category.
ASCII Digital Design MeCCA (ADDM) represents a visionary proposal for a multidisciplinary institution dedicated to art, design, and technology, projected for 2025. The project embraces ASCII as the foundational language of its design philosophy, treating characters as the building blocks of structure, space, and architectural logic.
Each of the ten architectural models is based on a shared conceptual framework: two transparent, identical cubes intersecting and merging with one another. This dual-cube structure—realized through glass volumes supported by metal frameworks—establishes a consistent architectural language across the series. Repetition, modularity, and geometric constraint form the core identity of the design system.
The envisioned site for the ASCII Digital Design MeCCA is the Berkeley waterfront, positioned as a symbolic bridge between digital culture and the physical environment. While speculative in nature, the site reinforces the project’s conceptual dialogue between virtual systems and spatial presence.
The ASCII Digital Design Museum originated on Facebook in 2010. Over the past decade, more than 10,000 works have been created in real time using Facebook’s native text interface, with ASCII characters as the sole medium. As one of the earliest fully digital, web-native museums operating on a social platform (facebook.com/Museum), the project pioneered new models of online creative practice, authorship, and cultural preservation.
During this period, the museum’s catalog—including digital design books, fashion works, graphic systems, and multimedia installations—has been exhibited internationally across Europe, Asia, and the United States. The sustained growth of its global audience and research community has prompted the conceptual development of a physical research center dedicated to the study and applied exploration of ASCII as a contemporary design and artistic language.
The ASCII Digital Design MeCCA is envisioned as a research-driven institution composed of ten dedicated divisions: Art, Architecture, Communication, Design, Fashion, Library, Media, Music, Research, and Museum. Each division contributes to a shared mission of advancing ASCII-based systems as a contemporary creative discipline grounded in logic, constraint, and post-material design principles.
This project is presented as a conceptual and research-based architectural proposal.
AIA EAST BAY
