Live + Work: Modern Homes and Offices: The Southern California Architecture of Shubin and Donaldson
Ground Zero, Marina del Rey, California
Ground Zero, Marina del Rey, California
Mindfield Post Production, Marina del Rey, California
Mindfield Post Production, Marina del Rey, California
Fuel Design & Production, Santa Monica, California
Fuel Design & Production, Santa Monica, California
Ogilvy & Mather, Culver City, California
Ogilvy & Mather, Culver City, California
Hydraulx, Santa Monica, California
Hydraulx, Santa Monica, California
Wong Doody Advertising, Culver City, California
Wong Doody Advertising, Culver City, California
Brand New School, Santa Monica, California
Brand New School, Santa Monica, California
Biscuit Filmworks, Hollywood, California
Biscuit Filmworks, Hollywood, California
Saatchi & Saatchi, Torrance, California
Saatchi & Saatchi, Torrance, California
Davidandgoliath, El Segundo, California
Davidandgoliath, El Segundo, California
The workspaces designed by Shubin + Donaldson Architects need to be every bit as innovative as the advertising, graphics, post-production and special effects firms that use them. Here are 10 offices from their new book, Live and Work: Modern Homes and Offices: The Southern California Architecture of Shubin + Donaldson with commentary from the architects.
Robin Donaldson: "We made them an unreasonable proposal: run a ramp up a full story in height outside the length of the building, cut a hole in the wall, and run the ramp back down a full story again through the length of the space. Everyone has to walk through the entire space before getting to the receptionist. No one gets off the ramp without making that journey."
Russell Shubin: "Remember, this is an idea-driven client, so they got it. They understood that the strategy needed to be uncompromising."
Russell Shubin: "The progression of the circulation spine through the building is continuously intersected by a series of arcing aluminum walls that weave throughout the floor plan. And when these rational and irrational parts of the project meet they create all kinds of unanticipated residual spaces that are eccentric and sculptural."
Robin Donaldson: "This was definitely a case of 'function follows form.' The space does have great functionality, but function can be found intuitively, and it can exist in sculptural form."
Robin Donaldson: "We could not approach this project from a conventional paradigm. People in the entertainment industry have to be up and running very quickly, so we had to hone in on materials and methods that could fit the ideas, attitude, and budget. We went to places like Home Depot to investigate off-the-shelf materials for lighting, flooring, and structure."
Russell Shubin: "There are advantages to tight constraints in the design process, because they force you to design something that is strong and direct. You don’t have the luxury to mess with it a lot."
Robin Donaldson: "When we made our initial presentation to the client, we also showed them a couple more conservative design options, but they went for the tube. It’s important to understand that they went for the more aggressive option, and that gutsier design choice illustrates their commitment to shift the image of their company via built space."
Russell Shubin: "They were intent on altering their image, which is why they hired us; a smaller firm willing to experiment. One of the challenges for Ogilvy was to change their corporate culture, but to keep their core values intact."
Russell Shubin: "The [clients] are fascinated by the grit and substance of objects and materials. People that work with simulations and ephemera need tactile and corporeal experience. So we wanted to give them an architecture that was honest and direct in its material execution."
Robin Donaldson: "The space planning is rather intricate. Some spaces are very compact and others are expansive."
Russell Shubin: "These [warehouse] spaces have beautiful layers of decay and fragments left over from their past uses and urban memories. The misregistration that can happen when you put a creative office into a beer shipping facility creates all kinds of eccentricities that people are very drawn to."
Robin Donaldson: "This idea of misregistration is another form of irrationality or unreasonableness. It sets up experiences that you would never have arrived at by methodological analysis. The [spaces are] generated through forms of intuition, perception, and memory, and yet they function very well."
Robin Donaldson: "Even though this is clearly an industrial space, it has taken on some domestic functions. I think creative companies have realized that people are often more conductive to creative activity when they are in a comfortable environment or one which inspires them to think and make, and these are often domestic spaces."
Russell Shubin: "We have an adage in the office that we call 'working at home and homing at work.' This building is located in a commercial complex with galleries, artist studios, and other creative office spaces. There are probably a fair amount of creative businesses here making work 'at the kitchen table,' and artists going to sleep at night in their airplane hangars."
Robin Donaldson: "Although we didn’t know it when we began this project, this has started to represent an emerging philosophy about how we design for creative companies in the recent economic challenging times."
Russell Shubin: "The client was interested in spaces where old warehouses were adapted and reused without compromising the look and feel of the old warehouses. The client was looking for a space that wasn’t branded or stylized but maintained the authenticity of the warehouse. They wanted a factory for producing things; a place for making.
Robin Donaldson: "We asked, what’s the office of the future for creative company’s like advertising agencies? Work in a creative company necessitates more elastic and less linear conditions in which to work."
Russell Shubin: "Businesses recognize that a lot of professional transaction occurs, and has always occurred, in peripheral social situations. We’re interested in the zones where private and professional life overlap."
Robin Donaldson: "The client had strong feelings about how creative thinking happens; that it doesn’t always happen in an office or at a desk. He wanted places to spar ideas. The kitchen and bar, the informal gathering spaces and ping pong tables, as well as the circulation were all organized to instigate free association and cross-pollination among the staff."
Russell Shubin: These spaces were a pathway for unconsciously causing people to experiment and riff. These areas of play were landscapes for creative collaboration and the spontaneous generation of ideas.
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