Projects
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33.0
Design Store
Interior
Construction
Concrete, drywall
In-progress
33 is a new addition for a robust, roughly built industrial building dating from 1950, with very course detailing and textures. It is an attempt at exploring process within the context of the existing building's construction. The original structure was built to accomplish pragmatic tasks: house heavy manufacturing equipment and the people operating the equipment. Very little care was given to aesthetic or cultural considerations when the original structure was conceived and constructed. Our idea, in response to a limited budget, was to apply the same coarse construction systems that were used in the original structure to build the addition (rough poured in place concrete, steel windows). We attempted to introduce a sculptural form into this conventional and coarse construction process – without being precious about it – and see how the form survived through the procedures of building. The form was considered relative to the dimensions of the human body in motion, at times accentuating the experience of verticality, at other times the experience of horizontality. In the end, using Kurt Schwitter's Merzbau as a precedent, we chose to paint the entire assembly exactly the same shade of white as the rest of the building; thus, the reading of the piece becomes somewhat confusing – is it somehow part of the original structure? Can we add further accretions of this built fabric in an organic manner?
Programatically, the intent was to build an exterior stair connecting two floors of a new high end contemporary design shop. The stair wraps around an exterior void space, into which we inserted a vertical element (bamboo). The stair is designed such that there are two generous landings along the path of descent or ascent, where special objects may be exhibited. The inside face of the stair and its roof are glazed to fold energy and sight lines back into the store interior.With Chercover Massie and Associates Ltd.
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