Carpenter ParkWe are happy to report that Carpenter Park in The Town of Cary is moving forward! We will be designing several structures for the park this summer, in collaboration with DHM Design. The park design aims to highlight the agrarian tradition in and around the town of Carpenter.

Book of the Month
April's book of the month is The Architecture of the Barnes Foundation, which highlights the work of Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects (TWBTA) in relocating the Barnes Foundation collection previously located in the suburbs of Philadelphia to a new location in downtown Philadelphia. The move was controversial in large part because of Barnes' explicit instruction that the collection never leave the context of the original house, a problem TWBTA solved by embracing the foundation's history. Our selection of this book was spurred by Tod Williams' masterful lecture at the College of Design last month and unfortunate news that another of TWBTA's masterworks, the American Folk Art Museum, is under threat of destruction by MOMA. Learn more about theAmerican Folk Art Museum and sign the petition to save it here.

Please contact us if there is any way we can help you. 

Best.

in situ studio

919 397 3949
www.insitustudio.us

This month's newsletter is a bit short because we have a lot going on!

a house named Fred


L.E. Meyers Builders has done an incredible job building a house named Fred! We received the CO this week, and the final walkthrough is scheduled for 04 03 13. We started working on the house in December of 2011, and now, seventeen months later, are happy to see our clients move into the house of their dreams! You can revisit the design and construction process on our clients' blog, a house named Fred.

a new studio

We are excited to announce that we are moving to a new space! Our new studio space is located in the North Person (NOPE) commercial district and will provide additional space for our growing staff and all the models we have built in the past two-and-a-half years! We will be sharing the storefront with So and So Books, Raleigh's first downtown, independent bookstore. We are also excited about who else is in the neighborhood -Raleigh City Farm, Market Restaurant, Oak City Cycling Project, Marsh Woodwinds, Nicole's Studio, andPieBird, to name a few. And, we are right next to Person Street Pharmacy! We are doing most of the up fit ourselves, with the help of Dopko Cabinetry and Carrington Electric. We'll be up and running in the new space by 05 01 13 at the latest, so please drop by to say hello!

That's all for now. Hope you have an amazing April!

Best.

in situ studio

919 397 3949
www.insitustudio.us

Church of the Holy Family

We have been working with Chapel Hill's Church of the Holy Family for the past year to craft a masterplan that includes a renovation and addition for their fellowship spaces. They are now about to begin a feasibility study of the design to assess the scope of work they can ensue.  Starting next week, Jeremy Leonard and Jeremy Alford will begin a physical model of the proposed design and surrounding landscape for them to use in this process! Please see our website for more about the project. 

Farmery

Over the past month, we have been working with Ben Greene, founding CEO of The Farmery, and David Hill AIA to design a retail store. "The Farmery is an integrated retailing and growing system for locally grown food that raises the value of the produce through a stimulating retail experience and reduces the cost of produce by consolidating the entire food distribution system." Our work with Ben has focused on a large-scale grocery, convenience, and cafe store to be located in an urban setting. Ben's growing units are housed in storage containers, and use of these containers is the defining characteristic of the store design. Learn more about the Farmery here and see more images on our website.

City of Raleigh Museum

We are excited to announce we are working with exhibit design firm Riggs Ward Design out of Richmond, VA on a project for the City of Raleigh Museum located on the ground floor of the Briggs Hardware Building in downtown Raleigh! The project scope includes two exhibits to be designed and installed in phases. The first exhibit will be an interactive timeline titled, R3: Raleigh Then, Raleigh Now, Raleigh Next. The second exhibit will be City Lab: Your Space in this Place, an exhibit about Raleigh Lifestyle. We are thrilled to collaborate with Riggs Ward Design and the City of Raleigh Museum on the architectural aspects of the exhibits.

Book of the Month

Project is a concise, affordable, and finely crafted print publication, featuring new writing and visual presentations of new work, compiled by four recent graduates of the Yale School of Architecture. With its first edition, this new journal invites architects and critics to debate and examine projects in their own terms, through both images and text. It goes beyond the generalization of contemporary subjects by contextualizing new projects within a history of architectural work and ideas. Issue One features contributions from Hernan Diaz Alonso, Michael Meredith & Hilary Sample, Peter Eisenman, and more. We are encouraged to see a publication of this caliber created by young architects who are interested in exploring the fundamental questions facing architecture today. 

Upcoming Events

Raleigh's Identity - What's Downtown Got To Do With It? is the theme of the Raleigh Urban Design Center's current Education Forum lecture series. Matt and Erin will join Brett Hautop of Gensler, for a lunchtime presentation at the newly located Raleigh Urban Design Center on March 20th from 12n - 1:30pm. The presentation is titled Residual Raleigh - Tapping the Potential of Unused Space in Downtown. For more information on the Education Forums, click here. We hope to see you there!

On March 6th, Erin will be a guest lecturer for UNC Greensboro's Interior Architecture's IARc Speaker Series. Her talk is titled Clean Slate, and describes the approach in situ studio takes on each project that comes into the office - our philosophy that every project is situated in a unique context, formed of specific physical and cultural characteristics. We believe our responsibility as designers is to respond to each unique context by uncovering appropriate design solutions. 

Please contact us if there is any way we can help you. 

Best.

in situ studio

919 397 3949
www.insitustudio.us

Happy New Year from in situ studio!

We hope the first month of 2013 has treated you well. Our January has been busy, with three houses going out to bid and several new projects coming on line. Check out what we are up to at the office and beyond below!

Sillings Residence

The Sillings Residence is located in Rolesville, NC and will be the home of our clients' family and their new farm. The design of this modern farmhouse responds to the site and the demands of a growing family, providing open interior spaces, large windows framing the forested site, skylights to bring light into private areas, and ample porches for outside living. 

Where We Live

Now that Ashley "Oz" Ozburn has been with us for a few months, we are adding her house to our mini-series "Where We Live". Oz lives in south east Raleigh, three miles from our studio, and only seconds away from the Walnut Creek Trail, where she and her great dane Louie Kahn walk every morning. Oz has renovated her kitchen and a small studio and has many more projects in store! Read more about her space and see pictures of Louie on our website.

Book of the Month

Toyo Ito's Forces of Nature is a collection of projects and essays stemming from a lecture given by Ito at the Princeton University School of Architecture in 2009. The book illuminates the nuances found in Ito's work, in particular, Ito's modification of the architectural grid, which, brings buildings into a more fluid relationship with their surroundings. In the introduction, Stan Allen writes, "It is this suspension-- between memory and forgetting, between possibility and impossibility, between language and silence-- that makes Ito's work significant today." We couldn't agree more.  

Detail of the Month
Inset gutter in cantilevered roof.

Event of Note

Through AIA NC's Program Committee, Erin has been working with with geothermal expert Tom Paonessa to help organize the Center for Architecture and Design's first Saturday Seminar. The seminar will focus on residential scale geothermal heating and cooling. If you are interested in attending the event on February 9th, please RSVP!

In Our Community
We want to take a moment to reflect on the inspiring life of Judy Harmon. Erin, Matt, and Oz had the opportunity to work in close proximity to Judy for several years, and her impact on the way we each see architecture, landscape, and the world at large is significant. We are better for knowing her, and her beautiful presence will live on in the memories of many. Gifts in her name can be made to J.C. Raulston Arboretum.  

We love our work and have a great time in the studio every day! Still, we find time to do plenty outside of architecture. A few weekends ago, Erin participated in her first trail race, the Little River Trail Run, at the Little River Regional Park. She placed third in her age group! She is also working on renovating her master bedroom, with a planned completion date of the spring equinox! Erin continues to hone her mad violin skills with regular practice.

Matt is teaching an architecture design studio again this semester at the NCSU College of Design. This semester's studio is a graduate level study of architectural form. He has also been honing his Cajon skills at Ekklesia Church, where he helps lead worship on Sunday mornings. A life-long billiards enthusiast, he has recently established a weekly match with a good friend at Snooker's Billiards in west Raleigh. He, his wife, Ashley, and three kids spent last weekend at Topsail Beach, where Ashley, who is an ordained Presbyterian minister, was preaching at Emma Anderson Memorial Chapel. It was the coldest beach weekend ever, with wind chills in the low teens. You can follow his daily shenanigans via instagram, user name @m_h_griffith.

Oz can be found most days rushing from the office to a second job site- the renovation and addition of her parents' house in the Hayes Barton neighborhood. She is working with the Raleigh Construction Company on this 1930s Dutch Colonial; the progress is exciting! On nights where she is not studying for her Architecture Registration Exams, she and Louie Kahn attend agility class, which, for a 5 month old gangly Great Dane, can prove to be very entertaining. 

On Tuesday evenings from 5-7pm on WKNC 88.1 FM, Jeremy becomes his alter-ego, DJ Spaceman Spiff, and co-hosts his radio show, "The Afterschool Special" with DJ Salinger and DJ e baby. Be sure to listen in for your entertainment! He has recently taken up the guitar. We see a potential in situ band on the horizon!

Please contact us if there is any way we can help you. 

Best.

in situ studio

919 397 3949
www.insitustudio.us

NCBG Plant Sale Shade StructureThe Shade Structure at the North Carolina Botanical Garden had its first successful sale season. See new pictures by Richard Leo Johnson of the completed structure on our website. The NCBG Plant Sale Shade Structure has a screen system of wood laths. Double kiln-dried, pressure-treated 2x4s were cut in half on a diagonal to create 2 laths from each 2x4. The lath pattern was designed to provide a variety of shade conditions for different plant species. We highly recommend visiting the Botanical Garden to see the structure first hand, and experience the trails and natural settings of this cultural treasure!

Raleigh Backyard CottagesThe discussion of allowing Backyard Cottages (BYCs), a type of Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU), in Raleigh has become an active and polarized issue. Nicole is engaged in the public conversation, and has been recently quoted in articles from the Raleigh Public Record and Indy Week. As an extension of her thesis and personal interests, she launched the website Raleigh Accessory Dwellings as a community resource on the topic. Erin is also an active voice in the conversation. She is a member of the Planning Commission and a former BYC dweller. Read Erin's thoughts on backyard cottages on the Raleigh Accessory Dwellings News Page. Learn more and join the discussion here.

This debate has been a timely follow-up to our recent Building Trust International competition entry, RA-50, which has been featured by The Atlantic Cities, Fast Co. Design, inhabitat, Archdaily, and Architzer. RA-50investigates the potential for modular living units on oversized residential lots with rear alleyways in downtown Raleigh.

Book of the MonthLA Now studies Los Angeles at the turn of the 21st century, and explores ways for addressing the challenges of future growth. The book was produced by an interdisciplinary team of film and photography students from theArt Center, graphic design students from CalArts, and architecture students from UCLA under the guidance of Thom Mayne. 

Working in Our CommunityMost of our office has been busy at the School of Architecture as the semester ends. Matt's students had their final reviews this week, with Erin and Ashley on the review. The work was amazing! And, Jeremy is hard at work completing his second to last semester. Good luck, Jeremy!

Please contact us if there is any way we can help you. 

Best.

in situ studio

919 397 3949
www.insitustudio.us

New Project Announcement

We are very excited to be working with DHIC, Inc. as Design Architect for a ten-unit contemporary row house project on an urban site just southeast of downtown Raleigh! We are also looking forward to our collaboration with Perry Cox, AIA, who will be the Architect of Record. Thanks to Gregg Warren and Drew Robinson at DHIC for this incredible opportunity!

Bida Manda to open soon!

The opening of Bida Manda Laotian Restaurant and Bar is just around the corner! Installation of 6,000 pounds of natural sticks harvested from the NC mountains, woven together to form surfaces for walls and ceilings, began last week. Along with dozens of other friends of Restaurateurs Vansana and Vanvisa Nolintha, we enjoyed lending a hand to help create a one of a kind space in Raleigh. Thanks to contractor John Cooper and his team at Southeastern Properties, electrical engineer Greg Rice of Diversified Consulting Group, graphic designer Jaime Van Wart, and the many people at the City of Raleigh who helped make this project a reality!

To learn more about Bida Manda, visit their website or follow their Facebook page.

Book of the Month

Cube by David Morrow Guthrie is a documentation of students’ material investigations in the form of cubes. David’s goal when teaching students at Rice University’s School of Architecture is to “close the gap between conceptual speculation and material reality”. Lessons learned in exploration of forms with real materials are invaluable to architecture students as they grow into a profession centered around form as experienced through the senses and expressed through physical assembly. The “Cube” project is stated as follows:
 
2x4 Frame: Using mechanical connections, construct a wooden frame with outside dimensions of 16”x16”x16”. Materials List: 2x4s; mechanical fasteners; chemical fasteners are not permitted
 
2x4 Frame + Skin: Using only mechanical connections, construct a box with outside dimensions of 16”x16”x16”. Materials List: 2x4s; 5/8” gypsum board; ½” or ¾” plywood; tape; drywall mud; corner bead; mechanical fasteners; chemical fasteners are not permitted

Synthetic Solid: Using only two materials, construct a solid cube with outside dimensions of 16”x16”x16”. Materials List: anything but food
 
Have a look at some of the student work and feel free to try this at home!

Please contact us if there is anyway we can help you. 

Best.

in situ studio

919 397 3949
www.insitustudio.us