Studio 1B - First Year M. Arch - Instructors: Brian Price, Antje Steinmuller

This proposal explores the various modalities of working spaces within the home, juxtaposing the different requirements of each and the potential for exchange of resources between them. Some work activities require environments that are more shut-off from the outside for specific light and acoustic conditions, but those spaces also tend to require escape to the outside for fresh air and movement. Other work activities require more physical space and the freedom of mobility. In all cases, each environment can benefit from the exchange of tools and resources, and also the flow of energy from outside to inside and from inside to outside.

Given these conditions, I’m proposing an architecture that responds to how these various workflows might overlap by emphasizing the specific transition in light and acoustic qualities and also a transition in materiality of walking surface that allows for the occupant to be un-precious with the space, not in a way that promotes disorder, but rather promotes ‘usedness’. By overlapping programmatic schemes of the different work environments, the occupant can feel encouraged to ‘bounce back-and-forth’ between work activities, favoring what Tschumi referred to as the “passionate uncertainty of thought” over “a well defined axis.”