Architect Lawrence Scarpa Interview 1

Interview with

Lawrence Scarpa

V5: Pugh+Scarpa has developed a fast response design studio which works closely with a wide range of trades. How does this work?

LS: Each project is different so the team and relationships change. In the case of our project “Inside Out” , a renovation of a building built in the 1960’s , the owner wanted to convert it into a place where they could do off-line editing. The first thing that really struck me was how the courtyards were buried internally within the offices, and we really wanted to make them part of the public space. I worked from the conditions that presented themselves. The found conditions were inspiring to me and something that has always been of great interest.
A lot of the paneling and theexterior doors on the exterior were reused in the interior. We wound up reusing quite a bit of the materials that were already there by virtue of stripping and reconfiguring them.

V5: Did your team design all the built in furniture ?

LS: Yes. We were using a lot of the materials that we found on the site for this as well.

V5: That requires a level of "hands on" evaluation as you go through a project.

LS: Absolutely. A lot of times we wind up changing our minds in the middle of things and having to deal with decisions that we have.

V5: Does that scare the client ?

LS: Initially, yes. But we have gotten into a position where they are more comfortable with the interiors that we do by virtue of our past portfolio. But in the beginning it was very difficult.

V5: You are working with a very rich palette of materials; existing woods, metals, plaster and drywall. Is that hard to controll?

LS: In this case, the materials stemmed from the existing wood in the office, so we used that as a base for our palette. The steel that you see is actually something that we developed with the fabricator, who is incidentally a great craftsman. We did probably a hundred samples of steel and this is just cold rolled, eighteen -gauge steel, we sandblasted it then started rubbing it with gun blue and copper.

V5: Did you make your own finish recipe?

LS: Yes, we developed our own recipe to come up with the kind of finish that is there. So what really interests me and has taken me a long time to learn is what you can find in simplicity. I have become less interested in form-making and more interested in space shaping and the experience of it. In fact, I taught a studio this past semester at Otis College with my wife, Angela Brooks, where we did an interiors project. Unlike most student projects, we did not concern ourselves with form making at all, but did material exercises.
We looked at how we could turn the horizontal grains, how the verticals changed with subtle patterns, things you also see in steel as well as in wood.






“Inside Out” Interior view of reception area.



	“Inside Out” Interior view of edit room.



		“Reactor Films” Interior view of conference room.



		“Reactor Films” Office doorway.



		“Reactor Films” Interior view of reception area and desk.




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		Brian Crommie, Julio Chaves and Tom Hinerfeld- General Contractors. Solicraft - cabinetmaker and custom wood work. Dave Scott - Steel fabrication.

			Brian Crommie and Tom Hinerfeld General Contractors Dave Scott - Steel fabrication.

V5: In your design process, how do you visualize these factors in order to bring that kind of decision making information to the project?

LS: With this particular project we did do all drawings. Generally we try to do it differently for each project so that we get a fresh perspective each time. For example, I find that working in the same method over and over again, whether it is doing drawings or making models, will have a certain predictability of what the outcome is. We try to say, ‘let's not do it the way we did it in the last project and let's try something completely different.’ What that does is it makes us see things that we would not normally see.

V5: There is clarity of all the materials.

LS: Yes. That is an interest that repeats for us over and over, this kind of idea of surface wrapping or making space through surfaces that create a negative space. You can see things that penetrate through such as ceiling planes that turn into wall planes and connect to the floor planes. The materials are important. How can you put a material on the floor and wall that will work in both cases.

V5: It adds a level dynamic quality to the space, there is not a bottom, middle or top. It is not a classic language.

LS: Right. Which is what I am interested in and intrigued with. What we try to do is to make each piece extremely readable and the whole project will in some ways become more abstracted through readable pieces.