Amazing Things Architects Make When They Aren’t Architecting
Making buildings is so 20th Century
MARTIN SLIVKA
Nothing in architecture happens quickly. Designing a building takes ages, and actually building it longer still. That can frustrate architects, who have an almost compulsive need to design and create. Many of them turn to fields as diverse as filmmaking and boatbuilding to spur creativity, develop ideas, and hone skills. It helps that they're already good at three-dimensional thinking and digital manipulation. "If you pull yourself away, it opens your mind to new things," says Pilar Proffitt of Poesis, and architecture firm that also designs, ahem, architectural furniture.
Martin SlivkaFurniture
Architects love designing chairs, and the best of them have penned some classics. Marcel Breuer's Wassilly, Le Corbusier's LC2 Petit Modele, and Eero Saarinen's Womb come to mind. And then there's the late Zaha Hadid, whose liquid aesthetic resulted in gorgeous chairs. *UltraStellar*, her final collection for David Gill Gallery, seems to defy physics. Wood and plastic twist and flow in a single line throughout each piece.
LaceJewelry
Los Angeles architect Jenny Wu uses CNC milling and 3-D printing to create intricate jewelry fashioned from precious metals and composite materials. She draws inspiration from nature to create mesmerizing interlocking forms that resemble teardrops, insects, and fossils. Celebrities like Jessica Alba, Carrie Underwood, and Christina Aguilera have worn Wu's work, which she likens to "architecture on the body."
Jose SanchezVideo Games
Video game designers create worlds, which makes the medium a natural for architects. You'll find their work in blockbuster titles like *Grand Theft Auto* and *LA Noire*, and a growing number of them are developing their own games. *Block'hood* byJose Sanchez riffs on *Sim City* and *Minecraft* to create sustainable cities using ecological designs like windmills, living rooftops, and solar panels.
Debi van ZuylToys
Debi van Zyl started designing oddly adorable stuffed beasts in 2006. Her hand-knitted wool *beasts* are all the more lovable because of their incredible strangeness. Are they cuddly aliens? Colorful octopi? Hammerhead sharks? Frogs? Picasso-inspired nightmares? Yes. She’s also created larger beast pillows and, of course, a beast coloring book.
Chris BallSculpture/ Installation
LA architects Ball-Nogues have made their name creating eclectic, sculpturally-complex sculptures and pavilions around the world. *Pulp Pavilion*, a series of intertwined, tree-like forms made of cured paper pulp, soared over Coachella in 2015.
Ger Ger for SCHÖNFashion
Architecture and fashion share a focus on structure, proportion, and style, so it's only natural that an architect like Julia Koerner would be a natural at designing clothing. Her 3D-printed clothing and collaborations with haute couture designers weave fabric, plastic, and silicon to create ornate, sexy styles that bring to mind flora and fauna. Several works incorporate scanned natural artifacts, like kelp found on the beach in Malibu for *Kelp Jacket*.
CoolhausFood
Natasha Case and Freya Estreller love ice cream as much as they love architecture, and combined the two in Coolhaus. Everything they do combines a delicious flavor with a famous architect to create hilarious puns like Bananas Norman Foster and Frank Behry. They've created an empire of ice cream, with trucks, storefronts, books, merchandising, and nationwide distribution. "Architecture is very much about creativity and almost art---but within constraints; I really believe entrepreneurship and doing business successfully is just like that," says Case.
Simon StoreyWallpaper
Anonymous Architects have taken wallpaper to a new level with *Peeling*, a line that appears to be, yes, peeling but in a digital, artsy way. Anonymous founder Simon Storey likens the paper to an archaeological discovery where layers of history have been carefully removed to discover what lies beneath. "The contrast between the ephemeral nature of trendy decoration and the permanence of the architecture is the lasting memory," he says.
Bureau VLighting
Architects love lamps almost as much as they love chairs, and they're often reimagining the form. *Enter the Dragon* by the architecture firm Bureau V features riotous white neon wrapped around an angular slab of black marble. Designer Peter Zuspan wanted to humble some common symbols of wealth---marble, chandeliers---by surrounding them with a a prosaic, commercial material.
Adrian GautBoats
Los Angeles architect Greg Lynn loves sailing, and saw his passion for the sport as an opportunity to work with composite materials. He designed a 42-foot carbon fiber trimaran, and enjoyed it so much he plans to make a business of it. “I used to think that aerospace was a great place to focus my research, but it became clear that racing boats were more interesting and more affordable,” says Lynn.
Atelier ManferdiniCarpet
After creating stunning clothing, furniture, and accessories, architect Elena Manferdini decided to give carpets a try. Her colorful Urban Fabric rugs, made with hand-woven New Zealand wool, recall subway maps or urban grids. She adapted them from a series of abstract drawings, inspired by the work of famed Modernist architect Mies van der Rohe, she created for her Art Institute of Chicago exhibition *Building Portraits*.
Aranda LaschFine Art
The New York architecture firm Aranda Lasch worked with Native American artist Terrol Dew Johnson to create *Meeting the Clouds Half Way,* a series of elegant coiled and woven structures that combine traditional materials like straw, grass, steel, copper, and horsehair with contemporary techniques like CNC milling. "This kind of deep and ancient legacy of design seemed like something that could really reinvigorate the discipline of architecture and contemporary design," says Aranda Lasch principal Chris Lasch.
