limonLAB

By Ingrid Spencer

It’s an urban laboratory. That’s how architect Enrique Limon explains why his New York City—based firm is called limonLAB. Established in 2005, the two-to-four-person firm’s bent toward experimentation has yielded a number of completed and on-the-boards projects, including a bar in Philadelphia, a gallery in New York City’s Harlem, a guest house in Hawaii, an auditorium for a school in Kenya, a resort in Thailand, and a prototype soccer park slated to be developed in 20 U.S. locations. Crediting his education for his success is fair — B.Arch. from the University of Southern California; M.Arch. from Columbia University; and a graduate degree from the Architectural Association in London — but Limon says it is working for others that taught him the most. “I think architects really need to work for people before they have their own firm,” he says. “Working in a firm, you see all the roles, and how everything happens. With your own firm, you take on all those roles yourself. It helps to have watched others accomplish construction managing, accounting, and marketing. Running a firm is much more than just designing.”

When Limon returned to New York City following his studies in London, he was awarded a Smithsonian Fellowship at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. The research he did there was for an exhibition that never actually materialized. Despite that fact, Limon says that what he learned from the experience of researching the “complex transparency” in the work of artist László Maholy-Nagy continues to influence limonLAB’s current work. “We experiment with every project, but there’s also a thread from previous work and experiences. The objective with every new project is to do something that has never been done.”

One important thread he’s currently working on has to do with a competition he just completed for the 2012 Expo in South Korea, centered around preserving the Earth’s oceans, which are threatened by toxic waste.

“Through our research for this competition, we came up with the concept of a biomembrane — a growing algae wall. This same system could be used in a suburban house. Competitions, teaching: It keeps me flowing.”

It seems that each job he has had has resonated, he says, especially the last one at a firm, Clodagh Design. “From Clodagh, I learned that there are no limits to what an architect can do,” he notes. “From silverware to resorts, she does it all, and that really inspired me. As well as creating the architecture, you can make a piece of furniture for one project, a lighting fixture for another, and on and on — and suddenly you have a line of products that you’ve designed, which can really augment your architectural practice.”

For Limon, augmenting his practice is paramount. He would like to grow limonLAB to six or seven people; come out with a line of products; continue his teaching at Pratt Institute School of Architecture, in New York; continue competing in international competitions; and get some larger-scale commissions for the firm.

“There’s a lot of international work out there,” he says. “And our intent is always to move things forward.” 

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