WORKHOUSE: 2014 Advanced Topic Studio

As a design and research problem, students were asked to consider the increasingly blurred boundaries between the office and other more domestic spaces. Office spaces today increasingly take on domestic characteristics and 21st Century technologies allow one to work from anywhere, including the home. This being the case, students were tasked with articulating why the office headquarters is still a viable space and explore how this blurring can be creatively harnessed by architects.

Student groups were each assign a company to study: outdoor clothing company Patagonia, game developer Blizzard, and technology giant Apple. Their task was to look at the company culture, needs, current (or proposed) headquarters and relevant case studies. From these studies students created a program that both reflected the current state of the company and took a critical stance as to how it could change. Student then designed a new regional headquarters for the company. The final product of the studio was three company books. Each book contains the group’s research and design process, from studies to programming to final design.