Hybrid work(place)

The studio introduces the student to speculative approaches towards a design problem. The first sequence focuses on questions of "interiority" and it's relationship to the setting in which it resides (an existing building), and to its cultural context (program & narrative). Cultivating transformative logics of representation, students are encouraged to develop the project from the inside-out. The studio aims to disrupt conservative logics of part to whole relationships and spatial composition by examining and materializing unexpected correlations between familiar objects. The studio will embark on experimental design procedures that involve cycles of making (analog) then modeling (digital), at various scales. The studio will simultaneously conduct research on the history of the office and its trajectory to the contemporary workplace, discuss relevant cultural topics, and engage in discussions. The project is an adaptive reuse of a warehouse in the city. Students will research and understand the history of the workplace - from the autonomous cubicle layout, to the hyper-technological open office environment, to the current emergence of the shared office space that offers a hotel-like interiority. The studio ultimately argues for an object's role in an architectural interiority.