A growing household name within the profession and in academia, Jennifer Bonner's whimsical and highly technical design approach has enabled her to create and re-work traditional design methods. Her creative practice, MALL, is a compilation of playful approaches to "ordinary architecture." The name itself is an acronym with its own flexible meaning, similar to Bonner's design process. By focusing on everyday materials and familiar architecture motifs, the Alabama native architect seeks to perceive and portray architecture through whimsical discourse.
Recently a winner of the 2019 Progressive Architecture Award, Bonner used her original project study, Best Sandwiches to help create her award-winning project Office Stack. The architectural stack may seem like a conventional building process. However, Bonner allows for each layer of the structure to act as its own entity, much like the elemental pieces of a sandwich. By creating distinct layers, this allows for the mid-rise tower to challenge the conventional relationship between building and ground. "In architectural stacks, there is no longer a single ground upon which a unified figure sits. Instead, these stratified buildings propose a multiplicity of grounds (or rooftops), a multiplicity of figures slicing elevations into a series of horizontal figures, versus the straightforward north, east, south, west orientations of the past."
Through abstraction, mid-rise building typology is re-imagined as a series of interchangeable layers. Within a BLT sandwich, for example, the layers of bacon, lettuce, and tomato, each present individual characteristics that add to the sandwich's overall typology. With this concept, it changes the perspective within the structural design of a building like Office Stack, which allows for the rejection of common monolithic tower design. The five leveled tower located in Huntsville, Alabama is designed to allow multiple tenants inhabit the space while emphasizing each layer to perform as five separate entities. In addition to the distinct structural stacking method, the building's color and attractive facade creates an intriguing sense of cohesion.
According to fellow architect Paul Andersen, AIA the project "optimistically makes a very American office tower. It is a promiscuous collection of parts irreverently arranged, and the mismatch of different pieces seems deliberately organized so that each can have its own identity. Within a non-hierarchical composition, the chunks are all exceptional." The project's design thesis may seem almost too literal. However, to Bonner's credit, the design allows for a new discourse within the possibilities of mid-rise typology.
This is one of the more interesting buildings we've seen put up here, light, playful, and complex, coherent in its assemblage of different parts. I don't like the colors but others will and it fits the scheme.
Still, I get no sense of context—she creates her own—or of the spirit of the times. It feels like an inside joke, a good one, but one that outsiders won't get. It needs a better metaphor than sandwich, or more pickles.
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So, post-modernism and facadism got high and made a baby.
meh
Jennifer's great, but it's sad to see the state of the industry when they recognize this stuff instead of her Domestic Hats series. This stuff is super weak in comparison.
the state of the industry is that they recognize stuff when the architect (or their marketing person) feeds pictures and text to the publisher. domestic hats recently resulted in a house, which we'll probably read about when those pictures are released. best sandwiches is a different project and its being 'recognized' first because that's how the architect chose to present the work.
The tastes of the jury presenting the award doesn't necessarily have anything to do with an office's promotional ability. This is pastel-colored re-con-de-con, and while it's good work, you've got to wonder why these industry taste-makers would choose something so facile.
its possible they didn't want to award just houses? iirc there was also a wojr house, a para project house, and some others in the stack
fwiw i think its super fucking cool this is happening in alabama and not nyc or some other boring coastal city filled with insufferable, obnoxious jackoffs
This isn't actually happening at all. She's making pictures
it is happening. there is a site and a client and more importantly $$$
I kinda like it.
Why? It's not architecture, at best it's art. It's image making without concern for client, program, budget, structure, etc etc etc. I honestly don't get why this is any better than any other student project out there. I don't know this person's other work, but this is weak.
Not sure.
I guess the interior renders make it seem like surreal and ordinary/mundane at the same time.
Exemplifies the sad state of architecture and criticism today. I'm guessing the award jury was a kindergarten class.
"With this concept, it changes the perspective within the structural design of a building like Office Stack, which allows for the rejection of common monolithic tower design."
"In addition to the distinct structural stacking method, the building's color and attractive facade creates an intriguing sense of cohesion."
ok
Just nonsense.
It's an attractive design and the presentation is very well done.
This is largely a revival of a certain subset of 1980's thought and style. If you weren't around back then or have forgotten it, it seems fresh.
Hey, my ol' professor! She gave me hell in grad school lol but we ended up on good terms. This 100% seems like something she would design. Side note, she refused to let us use color in our studio, haha.
If you see it as a critique of architecture critique it is actually rather nice.
This is one of the more interesting buildings we've seen put up here, light, playful, and complex, coherent in its assemblage of different parts. I don't like the colors but others will and it fits the scheme.
Still, I get no sense of context—she creates her own—or of the spirit of the times. It feels like an inside joke, a good one, but one that outsiders won't get. It needs a better metaphor than sandwich, or more pickles.
It could be one of the buildings in The City of the Captive Globe, both in its lack of context, its use of colour and the inside joke part of stacked volumes and faux complexity.
Somehow reminds me of this
wonder what Eisenman would think of the sandwich concept...
While not a hater at any level, I'm surprised that this is being presented as any sort of innovation, since nothing in this building hasn't been done before many, many times around the world...
Looks like a more fun version of OMA early (good) stuff -- though it's depressingly ordinary in the interior. Cool that its pushing Alabama in a new direction. Nice work
so much reminds me of michael graves: the pastels, the window grids, the stocky massing and emphasis of facade over space.
and i think graves works are usually nice despite some boringness - look forward to this nice building with interesting characteristics. hope the budget supports a good enough execution to let the idea shine through.
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