{"id":5055,"date":"2016-05-18T15:37:27","date_gmt":"2016-05-18T15:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modelo.io\/blog\/?p=5055"},"modified":"2020-12-28T03:41:56","modified_gmt":"2020-12-28T03:41:56","slug":"design-manifestos-matt-baran-baran-studio-architecture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/blog\/index.php\/2016\/05\/18\/design-manifestos-matt-baran-baran-studio-architecture\/","title":{"rendered":"Design Manifestos: Matt Baran of Baran Studio Architecture | Modelo Blog Series"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Design Manifestos: Matt Baran of Baran Studio Architecture<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n
<\/canvas><\/div>\n<\/div>
Matt Baran (Photograph courtesy of Baran Studio Architecture)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n

Matt Baran founded Baran Studio Architecture<\/strong><\/a> in 2010 at the peak of the Great Recession. In his spare time, he worked on concepts for architectural robots that shifted their form and location to adapt to various contexts. This work won him an AIA award in 2006, and a full scholarship to UC Berkeley to complete a master\u2019s thesis on adaptable robotic architecture. Upon graduation he began to teach at UC Berkeley and the Academy of Art. He also worked on the construction of a dwelling that employed the adaptive theories he had been exploring academically. These efforts were the beginning of Baran Studio. Currently, Matt continues his efforts, working closely with staff and clients to further explore architecture that is closely adapted to its context. Modelo<\/strong><\/a> recently spoke with Matt and learned more about his robotic approach to architecture and what inspires his designs.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n
<\/canvas><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

On becoming an architect<\/strong>
\nWhen I was younger I was interested in fine arts, and I was doing a lot of sketching, drawing and painting. I realized that because I\u2019d come from a very modest family background\u200a\u2014\u200aa working-class background\u200a\u2014\u200ato survive I needed to do something that was going to pay. Fine art didn\u2019t seem like it was going to do that. I was looking through a course catalog and saw a drafting class at a community college. I thought I\u2019d give it a shot. I thought that\u2019s what architecture was\u200a\u2014\u200adrafting up homes or something. I thought \u2018well, it\u2019s good enough, I\u2019ll work on this for a while and see where it goes.\u2019 I had some help from some family and they guided me towards university. I got into USC, and when I arrived they basically re-trained me and I started to understand at that point that architecture was art\u200a\u2014\u200anot just drawing preconceived-looking houses. They started forcing me to think about things more abstractly. I was excited at that point and it took off from there.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n
<\/canvas><\/div>\n<\/div>
\u2018Bordertown\u2019 (Photograph by Scott Hargis courtesy of Baran Studio Architecture)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On discovering his voice as a designer<\/strong>
\nFor architects, it\u2019s a combination of experiences. You can guide your voice on some level and it just sort of happens to you on some other level. When you\u2019re younger you just try everything and you see what other people are doing and you see what\u2019s in the magazines. When you\u2019re being trained, you\u2019re experimenting and trying to develop a voice.<\/p>\n

Coming up into the late 80s and early 90s there was a lot of Deconstructivism theory<\/span> that was going on, and that still factors into my work and my voice now. I\u2019m not so interested in traditions of order. Earlier on I was influenced by my social class background, and for me there was a required resourcefulness and improvisation that went into who I was. There is part of me that was looking at more unconventional places and unconventional means of construction because I grew up around that.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m still very interested in places that have been erased, such as spaces under the freeway and places that were considered undesirable. I try to look at those places and say \u2018what can I extract from them? How do you find beauty in places that are traditionally considered not beautiful? How do you take advantage of what\u2019s there and try to bring it up? And not try to \u201cfix it\u201d but try to actually take what\u2019s there and bring out the positive in it?\u2019<\/span> A lot of Oakland and Detroit is like that, San Francisco has some of that as well. I\u2019ve been working with developers and clients that are interested in those places. You have to work with them to find a way to take what you had, from context to budget. How can you take an inexpensive or common thing and make it into something uncommon and give it a voice\u200a\u2014\u200alet it be beautiful as opposed to being considered an unfortunate necessity? That\u2019s how a lot of the work we do evolves.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n
<\/canvas><\/div>\n<\/div>
\u2018Juniper Lofts\u2019 (Rendering courtesy of Baran Studio Architecture)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n

On starting his own firm<\/strong>
\nThat was another thing that was out of necessity. Speaking to this idea of improvisation or resourcefulness- the economy had collapsed. I had gone back to school; I was tired of working for other people. It wasn\u2019t exactly how I would do things, and I didn\u2019t feel a lot of architects were willing to do the things I wanted to. I went back to school, retooled, and thought about some of these ideas I had. In the process I actually did a development project, where I was the developer, the designer, and the builder. I started being able to express some of these concepts in the work. But when I came out of school after getting the degree, there was nothing. There were no jobs. It was a desert for architecture. So I just taught because I had a Master\u2019s. I started teaching at Berkeley and at the Academy of Arts. I continued some of these ideas in the courses that I was running and then started to express them in the built projects that I was doing. It just took off from there. The economy has rebounded and it seems to all be going very well. The work has evolved out of those initial ideas. I started the firm because there was nothing else.<\/p>\n

On how his approach has evolved<\/strong>
\nSome architects choose to look at evolution as striving toward greater \u2018consistency\u2019 and some architects choose to see it as a process of change. I\u2019m more interested in the latter. We\u2019re always trying to adapt the design process and language to the given problem. The office is collaborative, and people are always bringing ideas to the table. I try to be as open to those ideas as possible. I think it\u2019s inappropriate when the same design is used repeatedly. There are architects out there that are doing that\u200a\u2014\u200aGehry is the obvious one. They have a signature and they do it if they\u2019re in Dubai, New York, or Minneapolis. Alternatively, it is possible to take a process and apply it. You have a process that looks to context and looks to function. It\u2019s a time-worn thing but it\u2019s gotten lost because people are looking at everything outside of architecture that they can find.You can look to elements that simply inform architecture and it suddenly becomes a very radical thing again. There are other architects who are more famous out there doing this now, like Big or OMA. They have a process that is very based in analysis and research and looking at program, looking at context and letting all those things come together to form the architecture. There\u2019s this idea that it designs itself. That\u2019s where we evolve constantly because every project- at least in its best state- is a new opportunity to develop a form, space and language that is unique. Every project is a new opportunity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n
<\/canvas><\/div>\n<\/div>
\u2018MacArthur Annex\u2019 (Rendering courtesy of Baran Studio Architecture)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n

On recent projects that represent his unique approach<\/strong>
\nWe have an apartment building in Oakland where we are taking an old warehouse and repurposing it into both parking for the building and loft space. We\u2019re taking a piece of that building down and building up a new structure that\u2019s interacting with the existing one. We\u2019re taking an existing condition and using it to inform the new design, we\u2019re finding a way to connect those things. It speaks to a lot of what we do, we adapt.<\/p>\n

We also do a large number of mini-lot subdivisions in and around West Oakland. This often results in an increase in density, which is one of the more sustainable urban strategies you can implement. Oakland allows you to subdivide and make smaller than typical lots as long as your overall project conforms to code. While increasing density, we also maintain livability. We take the initial mass, and clean them and cut them, pushing and pulling the as a response to immediate contextual conditions. We deal with issues of privacy and light and air\u200a\u2014\u200ait\u2019s functionality of space. Each move is a response to all those aspects of the given project. That deals with the adaptability idea.<\/p>\n

The office was founded on these little conceptual robotic projects that were basically not only about that response to the site, but they were about how the site changes over time. The architecture responds to those changes. In one case, I developed a machine that clips itself to the side of the highway and moves along, unfolding itself into various sites. Program would grow out of what was available in that existing space. In one case study, what emerged was a truck stop, because the mapping process showed there were a lot of trucks and truck traffic and we wanted to make incremental improvements with respect to emissions. We thought we\u2019d put a biofuel station and a center where they could learn how to run their trucks more efficiently. Other programs emerged out of it as well\u200a\u2014\u200aa library, a grocery a skatepark, all emerged from the site.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n
<\/canvas><\/div>\n<\/div>
\u2018Wordpress\u2019 (Photograph by Scott Hargis courtesy of Baran Studio Architecture)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n

On his design toolkit<\/strong>
\nWe are interested in building on various levels, and I am excited by theidea that design, documentation and construction be more tightly bound. We have used BIM from our inception. BIM is a great tool because you can use it as you design to understand the things 3-dimensionally and how it will be built and how it will be documented. There\u2019s no gap between design work and your model. There are criticisms of that and there are some issues that often times it\u2019s working with very conventional considerations of how to draw a window. In many ways that\u2019s the stuff we have to work with in the field, so it gives us an opportunity to take those conventions and see if we can\u2019t turn them on their head in some way. It forces us to do that.<\/p>\n

We rely a lot on the software because it gives you the opportunity to visualize these things as you\u2019re doing them- with interior spaces that you can get inside of, which is challenging to do with physical models. And you can move through them. We\u2019re starting to use VR technologies now, so we\u2019ve managed to transfer some of our computer knowledge into VR models, so they can download it to a headset and you can use that to basically be standing in the space. However, even with advances in technology, we still sketch by hand and work with physical models. There is no substitute for that.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n
<\/canvas><\/div>\n<\/div>
Zero Street (Rendering courtesy of Baran Studio Architecture)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On the future of the firm in the next 5\u201310 years<\/strong>
\nOur impact is increasing; we\u2019re having a greater influence on the neighborhoods that we\u2019re in now. And we are expanding to other places. We certainly have larger project in terms of footage and dollar amounts, but I would say that our interest is in valuing projects on multiple levels, not just in terms of size or dollars, but in terms of our own values. We want to analyze new solutions that are unique to each problem\u200a\u2014\u200adoing even more analysis, looking at deeper structures. A lot of what people refer to and look for the context say, \u2018we don\u2019t want this thing in our neighborhood because it doesn\u2019t look like the building next to it.\u2019 They\u2019re thinking on a very superficial level about what context means. Context is many things that you cannot see and a character that maybe you can see it takes a longer and more extensive look. You have to walk further down the block. You have to go to the library or go look at old maps and understand the history of that place. You have to look to infrastructural or organizational issues that exist. Where do transit lines run through? What\u2019s the history of that transit line? We have tools that can measure pollution levels, light levels and noise levels\u200a\u2014\u200aall these things that are essentially invisible. My hope would be that we have more and more opportunity to expand our research and do extended analysis that will let the architecture develop out of a comprehensive understanding of a place.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n
<\/canvas><\/div>\n<\/div>
Zero Street Model (Photograph courtesy of Baran Studio Architecture)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On the future of architecture in the next 5\u201310 years<\/strong>
\nIn the last few decades architecture lost a lot of ground in the area of construction. You saw lawsuits happening in the 70s which caused architects to give up some of the ownership of the construction process because they wanted less liability. Construction management companies took scope from architects. We\u2019re taking on more of the builder role and also taking on the responsibility but the control of that. That affects the design. More recently, you\u2019ve seen architects regain some of that control through CNC manufacturing and design-build processes. We\u2019re very engaged in that. We are actively involved in construction, even all the way to taking on the developer role.<\/p>\n

On the other side, change is coming from technologies that are evolving\u200a\u2014\u200aeven your little app like Instagram or YouTube or an iPhone. It allows people to generate their own artistic content. There\u2019s a certain degree of danger in that, there are assumptions that get made, preconceptions that are perpetuated. Also in that process, everybody has a voice. The trouble is that when one person thinks that they\u2019ve got all the answers and that they\u2019re basically trying to wipe out everything else. We work in so many neighborhoods and with many neighborhood groups. My feeling is that you should allow for diversity of ideas, varied thoughts on what that city should be or what architecture should be. We have a lot of people who are looking for homogeneity and what I hope we continue to see is diversity in cities. There isn\u2019t one over-arching voice that says \u2018the city has to be this way\u2019 and tries to level it. We\u2019ll continue to see a range of ideas about what that city should be like- a diversity of ideas.<\/p>\n

On advice he would give his younger self<\/strong>
\nInvest in Microsoft. (laughs) Hang in there- the profession is very slow moving. It\u2019s hard to recognize that when you\u2019re younger and you\u2019re always in a hurry. You have to have some patience both for yourself-to let yourself evolve- and for the profession- to let the profession evolve. Sit back and look for the opportunities. I would say you just have to sit back and wait for the opportunity and steer your course. Your time is so valuable. It\u2019s the most valuable resource you have. When you see an opportunity that really fits with what you\u2019re hoping to do, take it. When you see one that looks like an opportunity where you\u2019re making too much sacrifice to your goals, then let it go. I still have trouble following this advice even now because your risk aversion instincts kick in or whatever it might be. In any case, you make a choice about where to go and eventually you\u2019ll be there. Choose wisely.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Design Manifestos: Matt Baran of Baran Studio Architecture Matt Baran (Photograph courtesy of Baran Studio Architecture) Matt Baran founded Baran Studio Architecture in 2010 at the peak of the Great Recession. In his spare time, he worked on concepts for architectural robots that shifted their form and location to adapt to various contexts. This work won him … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Design Manifestos: Matt Baran of Baran Studio Architecture | Modelo Blog Series”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5057,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5055"}],"collection":[{"href":"\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5055"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6603,"href":"\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5055\/revisions\/6603"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}