Information

Land Collective Studio

The design for the new studio realizes through a series of restrained architectural interventions and vertical expansion of the existing one-story 19th-century shell, a changeable workspace supported by a grid of modern infrastructure. While transformation was the goal of the design, a strategy was developed to preserve and adapt, whenever possible, existing structural elements, which allowed the raw aesthetic of the shell to manifest itself as an integral part of the new architecture.

The light-filled volume set behind the public street façade introduces a gallery space. A moveable, perforated, felt wall panel screens the gallery from the larger area of the studio beyond bound on its east end by an operable aluminum and glass overhead door designed to promote cross-ventilation. When in the open position, the space of the studio extends to the rear, open courtyard, tying interior and exterior spaces together seamlessly.

A second-floor studio space has been added over the rear two-thirds of the existing structure. The new second floor incorporates flexible open and closed office spaces, and a tiered meeting area, which opens out to a planted roof terrace set over existing timber roof framing with views to the Old City streetscape beyond.

The front façade is fitted with a zinc rain screen shroud and capped by a green cornice of sculptural sumac trees set within a zinc-clad planter. The readapted façade fuses old and new together in a transparent composition that invites the gaze of people passing by.

Details

Location Philadelphia, PA
Completion Date 2017
Program Collaborative Work Space