Studio Description

The studio engages disciplinary questions about the architecture of an ideal city pointing to a deep interest in shapes, forms and compositions, comprised of elements derived from the design of buildings, elevated to an art. The elements explored and activated here are parti, shape, figure-ground, phenomenal transparency, scale, dimension, grid, axis, narrative, character, mise-en-scène, collage and kit-bashing. These elements are rigorously deployed to make arguments about community and social space—about how we might live and work together in an ideal setting of a city whose “citizens” are older kids.

The vehicle for this investigation is a real, miniature city whose citizens are kids, ages 12 to 14 (grades 6 and 8). The city has a mayor and citizens hold various jobs: mailperson, banker, restaurant owner, teacher, doctor, and other professionals and business owners. It is real—the client is Junior Achievement-–and the design will potentially be built in a large interior, like a warehouse. The mini city, called JA Biz Town and JA Finance Park, is, in fact, a facility where Junior Achievement educates older kids about career possibilities that they otherwise may not have access to. Our role as architects is to address the programmatic needs of the client, but to go beyond their brief and take a position on the city by way of design.