OFFICE 52 Architecture is a studio design practice that envisions transformative projects with the integration of architecture, innovative technology and artistic expression for creative solutions. We express ideas not just in compelling large-scale building projects such as the new competition-winning Nano-Bio-Energy Technologies Building at Carnegie Mellon University and the innovative Tykeson Hall for the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Oregon but also in smaller more playful projects like a museum installation that draws inspiration from saturated color and the poetics of natural light. Our versatility in a variety of traditional and innovative materials and fabrication techniques as a medium for exploring spatial ideas provides opportunity for us to create inventive and cost-effective building solutions with architectural presence and rich spatial experiences.
Architecture, art and construction/fabrication technology are never entirely separate and the boundaries between them are quite fluid. In the studio we work in digital and traditional media and embrace the physical study model, alongside 3D visualization, as an effective and efficient means to test ideas during the design process. We research material fabrication technology methods or create new innovative ones while conceptualizing our design ideas. We develop an overall vision and conceptual idea at the beginning of each project while simultaneously thinking about fabrication and articulation of details.
Profound attention to climate change, sustainable technology and how we use our resources, use of natural daylight and the connection between people, place and the surrounding landscape is important for each design in regard to the reality of each location. For us architecture is about looking and seeing and listening and thinking and sketching and building and intuitively experiencing the space. It’s about how forms and planes interact with natural light in the pastoral or urban landscape. It’s about the transformative power of materials and how to juxtapose and use them in new ways for a unique design with poetic simplicity and an economy of means. It’s about the idea, and what design and architecture can be.
The studio has won numerous design awards, participated in invited speaking engagements, and has been published in local, national and international publications. The most recent book released about our creative process is entitled, Form and Dichroic Light.
As a licensed architect and accomplished artist, Michelle LaFoe has forged a path in both architecture and art with project-based and series-based work with award-winning higher education, museum, and art/architectural installation projects.
Isaac Campbell has planned, programmed and designed creative and highly sustainable environments and buildings for universities and educational institutions, museums, cultural institutions, and commercial and private clients worldwide. Michelle LaFoe and Isaac Campbell are the founders of OFFICE 52 Architecture.
