Kanner Architects, in collaboration with Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects, won a competition to design a cutting-edge 3-D film studio for Performance Capture Technology. The technique—poised to dominate Hollywood’s digital future—involves placing sensors on actors’ faces and bodies to capture their movements and expressions, and rendering them into 3-D animations that can be morphed, aged and placed in any virtual environment the filmmakers desire. Located in Novato, California, the new studio, which employs 400 artists and technicians, seals the reputation of the Bay Area as the center of the new media universe.

Transforming two huge airline hangars on a former Coast Guard base, the massive blank slate has been designed for an intensely collaborative and highly creative studio and office environment. The design is conceived as a loop to provide a sense of procession around the core of the building, allowing members of the various artistic and production teams to constantly engage with each other. At 60,000 square feet each, the design adds a second floor, through which strategically located curvilinear voids allow the experience of the vast height of the hangar from the ground level. A presentation system surrounding these openings dynamically communicates project information, facilitating the working sessions and enhancing visual interest. A motion capture studio, model shop, executive area and theater are also part of the program.