wood studio...

location: Durham, North Carolina
completion date: 2000
project team:
Frank Harmon
Vincent Petrarca
Robert Wagner
Aaron Brumo
Michael Beaman

problem statement

Our client, a professor emeritus, was a pioneer in bio-mechanics and the analysis of structure in nature who is also passionate about art.  When he is not analyzing natural structure, he enjoys wood sculpting and water color painting.  In 1999, he asked us to design a studio on a wooded hillside next to his home.  It had to accommodate both of his artistic endeavors.  To that end, it also had to allow for maneuvering one-ton logs.  And since his artwork bears the mark of bush and chisel, he wanted his studio to express the craft of construction.

our design response

This was both an unusual and didactic project.  Our team members, including architectural interns, worked on the site with the contractor.  Designing at the place of construction was an educational experience, allowing the interns to integrate details into the overall form.  Helping build the project themselves gave them a valuable, hands-on lesson in the process of construction.

The studio’s structure is comprised of simple, wholesome materials: a skeleton of built-up wood frames within a skin of galvanized metal.  A monitor brings northern light into the space.  Polycarbonate glazing creates soft, diffused light through both the roof monitor and the east-facing wall.  A large window and attached porch visually and physically extend the interior space into the wooded site.  The frames are made of microlaminated wood with a two-foot by six-foot tongue-and-groove roof deck covered in 16-gauge, corrugated, galvanized steel—the same material used in highway culverts.  A crane rail overhead allows the owner to joist heavy logs through the space with relative ease.

The client refers to his 1188-square foot studio as an exoskeleton.  When he first saw the crane, he remarked, “That structure looks like the inside of a centipede!”