Archinect - Features

UpStarts: Ball-Nogues Studio

2009-09-25T14:45:00-04:00

I arrive at Ball-Nogues Studio in downtown Los Angeles ten minutes early. Benjamin Ball is still on the phone with a client, which I take as a green-light to snoop around the office — a spacious room decked with suspended shapes and colorful projects-in-progress. Against one wall, a small library points to the ‘reference medley’ Ball and partner Gaston Nogues bring to their practice. Art and architecture represent in the titles, of course, but no less so than, say, Constructivist theater. I find this fitting for a young design and fabrication firm whose varied projects give way to many hyphenations: “architecturally-integrated”; “digitally-hand-crafted”; “lightly-weighty.”

Student Works: Rock and Roll Fantasy - SCI-Arc at Coachella: Elastic Plastic Sponge

2009-05-19T10:40:00-04:00

The title "Rock and Roll Fantasy" might be a little misleading for this SCI-Arc studio project lead by Ball Nogues ' Benjamin Ball, Gaston Nogues and Andrew Lyon. While the program was 100% rock and roll, the practical lessons learned during this collaborative design-build experience were far from fantastical.

The goal of the studio was to develop an iconic architectural installation for the popular music festival Coachella . The students had to work within the tight constraint of a single semester to design and build a structure using a budget of only $15k.

Ball Nogues' studio is across the street from the Archinect HQ in downtown Los Angeles, so I was fortunate enough to follow the progress of this endeavor since the conception, prior to the start of the semester. I caught casual stories and occasional development drawings during my lunchtime visits with Benjamin. It kept me very curious and, honestly, a little doubtful that they could pull off such an ambitious undertaking....

Venice Biennale Review

2008-09-16T17:58:00-04:00