Group Goetz Architects Design Studio
Washington, DC
Group Goetz Architects

In this flexible studio, lighting defines and clarifies work zones

© Maxwell MacKenzie

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As a work environment, the architect’s space needed to satisfy certain requirements. This included allowing for ongoing flexible rearrangements of people, as is common in studios. In addition, furniture and lighting had to meet the highest ergonomic standards, and differentiated zones for the client, studio, and production, and an stimulating and enriching environment, completed the list.

Having learned a lesson from their former offices, which were based on a hard-walled concept of dispersal and separation into rooms or static spaces, the architects created an interior of concentrated energy and of overlapping zones with few fixed walls. Zones are defined by objects and by lighting, by the movement of hard edges into curves.

The architects took full advantage of the physical traits of the brute space, especially the natural lighting and 41-foot bays. Vast, column-free expanses and huge windows allowing northern, southern, and western exposure resulted in a center-out design approach. The clustered and denser center of the space grows looser towards the perimeter as the areas expand into city vistas.

The computer-intensive studio is primarily lit indirectly, combining up and down lighting with minimal task lighting. Illumination in the reception and conference areas is used as an architectural object; fluorescent tubing is inset and quad lamps with color gels become sculptures of gradually shifting color. The space is about consciousness and movement, perception and perspective. It is in the experience of this space and the actual movement through it that one begins to discover that the architects have played their transformational hand, creating a truly dynamic work environment.

Formal name of Project:
Group Goetz Architects Design Studio

Location:
Washington, DC

Gross square footage:
23,000 sq ft

Total construction cost:
$1,081,000 ($47/sq ft)

Owner:
Group Goetz Architects

Architect:
Group Goetz Architects
2000 L Street, NW, Suite 410
Washington, DC 20036
P [202.682.0700]
F [202.682.0738]
E [info@gga.com]
www.gga.com