Working out of the Box is a series of features presenting architects who have applied their architecture backgrounds to alternative career paths.

Are you an architect working out of the box? Do you know of someone that has changed careers and has an interesting story to share? If you would like to suggest an (ex-)architect, please send us a message.

Archinect: Where did you study architecture?

Tronic: We both received our masters in architecture from Columbia University.
 

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Still from the image video for Herzog & de Meuron's 56 Leonard tower in NYC (Click on this and all of the images to get a detailed view)  

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Still from the image video for Herzog & de Meuron's 56 Leonard tower in NYC     

↑ Click image to enlarge
Still from the image video for Herzog & de Meuron's 56 Leonard tower in NYC 

At what point in your life did you decide to pursue architecture?

T: When I was in high school I was able to take an architecture elective and really fell in love with the idea of form and space. Jesse grew up in a family of landscape architects, so architecture and design were always surrounding him.


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Still from GE’s GO Big Brand Video    

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Still from GE’s GO Big Brand Video        

When did you decide to stop pursuing architecture? Why?

T: Neither of us feels like we ever really stopped pursuing architecture, we just shifted scales. The intersections between the body, space, form and technology have always been what has interested us and what we have explored in the work. We were drawn to the immediacy and intimacy of film, animation and digital design. These digital mediums allowed for explorations that were more time consuming and costly to achieve in the built form.


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Still from Bloom film, from the Sharp installation   

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Photo of Bloom, from the Sharp installation   

Describe your current profession.

T: First and foremost we're designers. What we design changes from project to project. Sometimes we create sculptures and installations and other times we create films and animations. No matter what the medium we bring the same conceptual focus to the project. We aren't interested in working in just one medium, we really enjoying the process of working in different mediums, each with its own structure.


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Still from Target’s Art for All Brand Video   

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Still from Target’s Art for All Brand Video 

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Still from Target’s Art for All Brand Video   

What skills did you gain from architecture school, or working in the architecture industry, that have contributed to your success in your current career?

T: Architecture school provides an invaluable education. It challenges the way you think and see the world around you. It teaches you to be rigorous in your process. And maybe more important than anything, it teaches you how to be a strong communicator. By having to present, explain and defend your work, you gain the knowledge and confidence to articulate a vision to a client.


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Still from Sony Style Brand Video       

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Still from Sony Style store in NYC

Do you have an interest in returning to architecture?

T: We are interested in all forms of design, so of course that includes architecture! We've been moving back and forth between the digital world and the physical world with many large scale CNC sculpture installations and it would be exciting to shift scales and move into larger built architecture forms. What really interests us is bringing new media and digital design into architecture to open up new realities of form and experience.


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