Jessica Colangelo and Charles Sharpless, principals of Somewhere Studio, in the Salvage Swings prototype. Image © Somewhere Studio

Enthusiasm and the freedom to create your own design framework lie at the heart of every emerging studio. For Jessica Colangelo and Charles Sharpless of Somewhere Studio, the inspiration for starting their practice is precisely that. With architectural interests in research and an understanding of "architecture as a conversation," the duo explores ways in which practice and academia provide new opportunities worth investigating. According to the duo, "setting up frameworks can both be a design method as well as an end goal for a project." With this in mind, the Arkansas-based practice thrives by approaching each new project with a scalable goal in mind that pushes new interventions and creativity.

For this week's Studio Snapshot, Archinect had a chance to connect with Colangelo and Sharpless. Together they discuss their goals for starting a practice and how working in academia influences their design framework. They also offer their take on research, intervention, and history's role in preserving the built environment. 

How many people are in your practice?

Two. We sometimes say our dog participates, but he is usually sleeping.

What prompted you to start your own practice?

We wanted to start a band, but neither of us can sing or play guitar. Having our own architecture practice seemed to make sense with how we envisioned structuring our daily life. We appreciate having the creative freedom and the possibility to produce work on our own terms.

Is scaling up a goal?

Of course! Architecture is all about scale. Jessica designed a waterfall and a mountain in graduate school...the scale of the planet and the scale of the climate are very interesting things for architects to consider. 

What are the benefits of having your own practice? Staying small?

Right now, our office is in our basement, so it is a very short commute. We aren’t determined to stay small. It would be great to grow and have new opportunities that come along with that.

What have been the biggest hurdles of having your own practice?

Finding a hobby for when we aren’t working. We both like doing the work that we do and it’s good to remember to take breaks every once in a while. But in just getting started, there is always a kind of low humming F.O.M.O. where you really want to make the most of every opportunity you have and you really don’t want to overlook any potential opportunities. In the end, we embrace it.

What do you want your studio to be known for?

We want to be known for having fun, doing great things, and making friends along the way.

Where do you see your firm in 5 years?

If we can do one or two really nice projects a year, that would be five to ten projects that we are proud of. How great would that be!

Do you have a favorite project? Completed or in progress.

Obviously, we would have to say Salvage Swings. It is recently completed, and it has been rewarding to see it enjoyed by so many people. We were lucky to build that project. On the night before it opened, the band Command+X put on a very magical performance from inside the pavilion. It was very cool to see and feel the project had finally left our imagination and was a part of the city.

Architects have always had a knack for drawing connections between scales, and we are interested in how we can advance projects within our state that might become models for thinking about global challenges.

As educators, how do you see the future of architecture changing? What advice do you give to your students at Arkansas?

We are interested in a future where architects and designers work closely with engineers, scientists, artists, farmers, politicians and even business people on projects that create the circumstances in which more freedom can be shared between peoples, animals, plants, rocks, water, and air.

In general, for architecture students, this means nourishing their creativity, curiosity, empathy, and adaptability. These really aren’t new qualities, but as teachers we seek to encourage students to find what moves them, to embrace their own ideas and to run as far as they can with them.

For students in Arkansas, we are situated in a state with great natural and cultural beauty, yet one that also has a highly uneven distribution of wealth and opportunity. Now we might go back to your early question about scale. Architects have always had a knack for drawing connections between scales, and we are interested in how we can advance projects within our state that might become models for thinking about global challenges. We are optimistic that the students we meet here are up to the challenges that the future may hold.

Academic work is never purely speculative, and we think it is important for academics to make sure that conversations that are being held in design schools and institutions make their way out to the world of practice.

Do you notice your academic work influencing your own practice and design approach?

Most directly, as members of the design community at the University of Arkansas Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, there is a prevailing interest in Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) construction from sourcing the raw material and sustainable forestry, to fabrication technology, detailing, and durability. And we probably would not have been able to accelerate a project in CLT such as Salvage Swings had we not been here and had that knowledge base to tap into. 

Academic work is never purely speculative, and we think it is important for academics to make sure that conversations that are being held in design schools and institutions make their way out to the world of practice.

Research plays a heavy role in your firm's design ethos, can you talk more about this?

All architecture projects are a process of searching and investigation. Our process might not be the same as in science or medicine, but we believe that the task of invention and imagining another future is research nonetheless. Even if that search is not always carried out in such a linear manner. It is important that architects frame our work this way so that we are not caught simply specifying known solutions for routine problems. 

Much of your works discuss the hypothetical and how you answer these hypotheticals in design. Take Preservation’s Excess for example, you both dive into what the "archistorian" can do and what they could be responsible for. Can you share how this project came about and your interest in how “history is represented through built form”?

Preservation’s Excess was Charles’ thesis at the GSD which was interested in potential futures for Philip Johnson’s Ash Street House. Harvard had just purchased the house and was in the initial process of studying the feasibility of its preservation. The project was interested in ways in which historic preservation could create a more expansive narrative. Preservation is compelling to us because it is a never-ending process. It’s not possible to really freeze something in time, and instead of idealizing architecture in a frozen state, we are interested in the ecology of forces that surround and are created by buildings. This idea of building as an expansive set of possibilities is very much an interest in every project we do.

Jessica’s thesis at Princeton was also questioning preservation, but instead of looking at an individual building, she was interested in the history of Niagara Falls and the landscape preservation movement that started there. In each project, we attempted to design a series of interventions that might create a network of other possibilities for the sites. We are always interested in how very specific interventions can speak to larger ideas. This is why today we are excited by small projects like Salvage Swings and Shelter Shift, a bus stop we are designing for Athens, Georgia. 

Salvage Swings is an exciting new project. I’m most interested in the design layout and its interaction with the park/people. How did this idea come about? As a public installation it breaks this barrier of engagement and aesthetic intrigue really well.

Again, continuing from broader research interests, we like to think about architecture as a framework. Setting up frameworks can both be a design method as well as an end goal for a project. For Salvage Swings, we were interested in designing with a repetitive module that could create different conditions in its aggregation. Each swing in the pavilion is essentially the same geometry with the exception of the window placement and the paint striping. And when we gang them together and flip them around and set them in an active site, we get a lot of particular moments. 

The site of Lighthouse Park at the far north end of Roosevelt Island is quite amazing. You have views of Manhattan and Queens, enormous barges moving up and down the river, beautiful trees, and yet in the middle of the city, the park is relatively empty. The project’s scale is slightly smaller than normal building scale. Kids love this. Adults have to adjust their body to interact with the project which we think contributes to a heightened sense of awareness of your surroundings.

What is the best advice you’ve been given during your career? 

We have been very fortunate to have wonderful mentors throughout our careers. Maybe it’s not directly advice, but a mantra we always keep handy is from Carlos Jiménez, our professor at Rice University. He often says that “Architecture is a conversation.” For us it is a reminder to embrace the open-ended nature of our field, don’t be in a hurry, and never worry about trying to be a hero.

Lastly, if you could describe your work/practice in three words what would they be? 

Conversant. Composed. Cheerful.