christ the light
In conjunction with SOM SF, S/U/M was asked to design a pair of acoustically optimized pipe organ enclosures within the main congregation space of the Christ the Light Cathedral in Oakland, CA. Acoustic performance, structural support for the massive organ pipes, and integrating with the structural lightness of the building shell were the primary performance criteria for the design.
drift wall
Developed for the Oakland, CA based retail store, “drift”, the shop proprietor sought a wall partition that could weave retail display on one side, and changing room/ seating area on the flip side, collapsing the retail experience into a single system. The wall is made of recycled plywood.
SOMA residences
Working with the Emerald fund development company and David Baker (architect of record for the building), S/U/M was asked to provide full design/build services to renovate the existing lobby area of the SOMA residential building. The goals of the renovation: diversify the needs for enhanced reception and hospitality services offered to the residents of the building, while respecting the heavy foot traffic of the lobby during construction by using prefab technology.
Industry partner:
Mackie Builder- Matthew Pigman
texas back house
To meet particular budgetary and spatial/programmatic requirements of the client, the project was developed through an extensive material research phase to come up with a solution that would meet certain performative criteria.
Two of the major requirements for the design were that the building use natural lighting extensively and that the building would enable excess heat from the Texas sun to be dissipated efficiently.
The outer skin of the lower auto space uses a high R-value polycarbonate twin wall material that allows for high light emission with low heat transfer, providing an even light distribution throughout the space. The upper guest apartment was thought of as a box within a box, able to be constructed economically without need for expensive weather membranes and details. The canted roof structure which skirts the entire building uses vertical air circulation that pulls air from perforations in the cooler auto space and draws out the hotter air using a series of apertures at the highest point of the building. A technique of natural ventilation used in plantation houses of the South.
deform house
Consisting of a major house renovation and a series of permanent installations, Thom Faulders of Faulders Studio asked S/U/M to process and fabricate the individually pieced ceiling patterns of the clients private gallery space.
3 years after completion of the gallery installation, Thom contacted S/U/M once again to produce the decking surface for an outdoor surface installation.
MoMA/PS1
Graftworks LLC contacted S/U/M to help develop an efficient and easy to assemble plywood structural system that would produce an array of different configurations while keeping waste and part count to a minimum.
The proposal represents one of five finalists of the sixth annual MoMA/P.S.1 Young Architects Program. MoMA/P.S.1’s brief, to create an artificial landscape- the Urban Beach, prompted a proposal which attempts to collapse two ideas of creating an exotic water environment with an architectural expression that is both authentic and has a clear and economic construction logic.
“A competition that invites emerging architects to propose a building project for the courtyard of P.S.1 in Long Island City, Queens. The objective of the Young Architects Program is to identify and provide an outlet for emerging young talent in architecture, an ongoing mission of both MoMA and P.S.1. This year, five finalists were selected and instructed to transform P.S.1’s outdoor courtyard with the allotted project budget of $60,000″
san francisco arts commission
For the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery’s annual benefit and auction, local bay area designer Jordan Geiger of Ga-Ga contacted S/U/M to help produce a temporary event space that would create various types of zones in the gallery and the atrium spaces of San Francisco’s neoclassical War Veterans Memorial building. Defined only by light and lightweight materials, these zones were modulated by digitally milled thin plywood sheets, which in turn filtered projected light around the event for the bar, auctioneer, DJ, and other functions. The entire installation needed to be installed in 2 hours and taken down in 1 hour, so an inventive system of simple zip-ties held the panel system together, and once snipped, the panels can be flat packed and stored for future events.
