Following last week’s visit to residential specialists DAHLIN, we are moving our Meet Your Next Employer series to Brooklyn, NY this week, where we meet the self-described “unconventional architecture practice” SITU.

Founded in 2005 by four friends studying architecture at The Cooper Union, SITU has since grown to a studio of 38 people practicing a multi-disciplinary style including design, research, and fabrication. 

The firm is already familiar with our editorial, having recently collaborated with the Design Trust for Public Space on an initiative that aims to transform underutilized spaces into vibrant, accessible venues for arts and culture. Back during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the firm also collaborated with Gensler, WXY and others on a 100-page guide for safe social distancing in schools.

From their base at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the firm is currently hiring over on Archinect Jobs. For candidates interested in applying for a position, or anybody interested in learning more about life at the firm, we spoke with the SITU team for a behind-the-scenes look at their studio.

How did SITU get started?

SITU was founded in 2005 in Brooklyn, New York. Since its inception, SITU has had a transdisciplinary approach working across fabrication, architecture, and research. 

In the early days, this was all under the common title of SITU. It soon became clear that the brand functioned on two tiers: first as an overall SITU ecosystem and simultaneously as distinct divisions with their own distinct identities as SITU Fabrication, SITU Studio, and SITU Research. What began as a 5-person practice now employs around 40. Despite the growth of the organization, SITU remains fully committed to innovative work across the domains of fabrication, architecture, and research. 

Currently, SITU employs staff with a broad range of backgrounds, including architecture, film, computer science, art, welding, curation, furniture making, and many more.

Where did the name “SITU” originate? What does it say about your practice?

Literally translated, SITU means “in place.” A core value of SITU's work is to identify the essential question of a project. Another way to think about it is that we are constantly seeking to discern the signal amidst the noise. This idea of identifying the essence of a project to determine what is “in place” aligns well with our name.

How big is your team?

38 people

Is your office one open-plan space or subdivided?

We work between two facilities at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Our studio space is an open plan with reconfigurable partitions and focus spaces, as well as individual workstations. Our fabrication facility is a 10,000-square-foot shop where projects are prototyped and built.

Describe the area of town your office is located in.

We’re located at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, an industrial space on the Brooklyn waterfront, on the edge of Fort Greene. The Navy Yard houses lots of creative offices and workshops, as well as manufacturing-focused businesses.

What is your favorite thing about working in Brooklyn?

Brooklyn feels relaxed, which matches our team’s energy. We’re in a part of the city largely away from honking horns and high-rises. Instead, our various greenspaces (Fort Greene Park is less than a 10-minute walk away!) and access to the waterfront offers us a variety of commute options; a lot of our staff take the ferry or bike to work. Sharing a space with a plethora of artists and makers, it feels like we’re well-positioned at the nexus of a lot of talent and passion for design.

If you held a movie night for the team, what movie would you show?

Spirited Away

What does your office ‘sound’ like? Do you listen to music or the radio at work? Can you hear the street life outside? Or is it a place of quiet work?

Our studio is quiet. Our shop is loud. It runs the gamut!

Where is the most popular lunch spot in or around the office?

Most people bring their own lunch, and a lot of SITU employees are really into cooking. Photos of experimental meals and recipes (+ great restaurant recs) can be found on our dedicated ‘Chaos Meals” Slack channel. For takeout, Russ and Daughters, Tiger Box, Wegmans, and Holy Pita are pretty popular options.

What is the most popular design tool in the office (whether digital or manual)?

This definitely depends on the team. All divisions tend to work through digital 3-D modeling. We primarily use Rhino, and the research team has increasingly been utilizing gaming engines like UNITY and UnReal. We do 1:1 prototyping and testing whenever possible.

How do your three divisions of design, research, and fabrication intersect with each other?

There’s a lot of potential for knowledge sharing across divisions, both in subject matter and tools. Sometimes there is a crossover in staff and skills – for example, a fabricator might spend time working with the research team, depending on our project needs. There is also occasional crossover in projects; a project may come out of a Research initiative, get designed by Studio, and then mocked-up and built by Fabrication. 

Projects involving all three divisions are rare, but there is often some overlap. The diversity of our work and facilities definitely allows us to be a resource on projects that require more coordinated scopes. This also makes for fascinating monthly reviews where we share what is happening across SITU.

Tell us about a completed project you are proud of:

We’re excited by the progress of Turnout NYC, a project we’ve designed in collaboration with the Design Trust for Public Space, and with generous funding from the Mellon Foundation. Turnout NYC required an intense amount of coordination between our design and fabrication teams, Turnout’s site partners, local operators, an artists advisory council, and artists and performers, with the goal of bringing high quality arts programming and vibrant public life to sites across the five boroughs this summer. 

The traveling kit of plaza furniture that we’ve designed and fabricated for Turnout will soon be active at its final site in the Bronx – after a summer of performances and community events across the city. We’re looking forward to reflecting on Turnout’s impact as its inaugural season comes to an end.

What position(s) are you currently hiring for?

A Marketing and Business Development Manager, and a Fabrication Marketing and Business Development Manager

In three words, how would you describe your team’s design ethos?

Inventive, passionate, open

Meet Your Next Employer is one of a number of ongoing weekly series showcasing the opportunities available on our industry-leading job board. Our Job Highlights series looks at intriguing and topical employment opportunities currently available on Archinect Jobs, while our weekly roundups curate job opportunities by location, career level, and job description.