Artist's Studio

Slumping into the earth, exhausted from a hundred year battle with decomposition, this 12×16 foot garage was to be razed or raised. Dust was the only remainder of the ancient wood sills, but above were tight-grained studs and framing supporting a reasonably straight roof. Resurrection would prevail, as I jacked its wood bones into the air.

This Artist’s Studio is designed for the imagining and crafting of ‘Illuminated Sculpture’ – interesting organic forms that transform a room with light fantastic. Daytime design goals were simple: provide an oasis for the mind, celebrate daylight, and surround the studio with flowering gardens. Nighttime design goals required simple white interior surfaces, canvases for sculptures to express their unique light, shadow and color projections.

The Studio is sealed for minimal infiltration, with R-20 floors, R-22 walls and R-30 ceilings, so it heats quickly with an electric radiator. Winter sun passively warms the studio by midday; deciduous trees filter much of the summer sun. By reusing stockpiled materials, purchasing inexpensive new materials and providing all the labor, the total cost was kept to $11,000.

All of the windows, long ago retired, were given a second life. The curved windows and west casement were freely salvaged, the used triptych casement and sliding door panels were a steal from ReStore and the north skylight was a Craigslist special. The key to designing the elevations was the positioning of the curved windows. Many schemes combined them in various strong forms on the same elevation, but separating them on adjacent elevations as “quotation marks” effectively embraced the conversation between daylight and interior space. The west wall was textured with horizontal scrap wood for shadow play. The north tool wall, bench and custom designed rolling layout table provides for an efficient and dynamic working space.

A monumental east entrance, emphasizing the gable form, celebrates a fantastic 120-year-old salvaged and restored stained glass window. Fine vertical corduroy metal siding ripples with the corrugated galvanized roof. The north side roofline was extended to shelter ladders and kayaks. A rebar trellis over the west windows supports honeysuckle, for leaf-stippled summer shade. The south side has a strong solid-void composition; separated with a curved window edge, while a feast of harmonic colored clapboards create a festive garden backdrop. What was once a dark, sagging, skeleton of a garage has been transformed into an artist’s sanctuary, celebrating the wonders of form and light.