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Project: Design Office 2, Culver City, California Description: experimental low-cost construction [$15 per sq. ft.] for 400 sq. ft. architectural design studio Client: Design Office The DO 2 Studio project is a new studio building designed and built for a small, start-up design company that suffers from the typical expansion problems of a creative company; both its size and its financial situation are chronically unstable. The building is provisionally situated in one of the partners' suburban backyard in Los Angeles. There was no completed design or final drawings. The architecture does not represent or bring one back to the world, rather it incorporates some of the world itself into itself, complete with all of its messiness and indeterminacy. The design/build process was a provisional and open-ended method that remained perpetually sensitive to TIME and embedded in the rich, unstable field of multiple forces, allowing for design and detail evolution based on OPPORTUNITY. Some such forces are: the availabilty of volunteer labour, practices instigated from previous phases, or newly obtained or recycled materials. The final design cannot be understood by its spatial relations or configuration alone as PRACTICES, not form, define the object. The provsional nature of the design process carries over into the practices of its lifecycle and use. The finished building is constructed of components and systems that can be demounted, relocated, reconstructed, reconfigured or enlarged as the needs of the company change. The materials used are primarily recycled, alternative or used alternatively. The final construction was 385ft2 (36m2) at a cost of $5/ft2 ($54/m2). The building provides a creative environment conducive to working for long hours with minimal distraction. The space is filled with natural light that is diffused through the 48" sand-blasted glass skirt (recycled shelves from a clothing store) and half of the north polycarbonate wall slides open for air flow and to complete the feeling of working in a garden in Southern California. The structure is made from an off-the-shelf scaffolding system of recycled steel pipe and cast aluminum connectors, allowing quick erection and maximum transparency. The roof and outer skin are made from recycled, galvanized, corrugated steel. |