This was a group project with work by Elijah Ortegon, Emanuil Sklianin, and me. For this project, we were assigned to design a live-work space in the RiNo district of Denver that served ten different “makers.” The only rule for selecting our makers was to select two different professions that made things. We chose five blacksmiths and five composers, and we chose these for a few different reasons. First, we liked both of their unique relationships with sounds. It was very interesting to us how a composer produces beautiful sound as the main product of their craft, whereas blacksmiths create loud and harsh noises as a side effect. The other reason we chose these makers was to prove that blacksmiths and composers were both crafts and required a lot of skill. Composers are generally seen as white-collar college graduates, and blacksmiths are seen as blue-collar working men. We wanted to show the public that this is a preconceived notion and that both are proper art forms.

The central design aspect of this building was the inside-out form. There are 2 main features of the building that make it inside out. The first is the use of thick central walls instead of thick outer walls. We did this to provide an area of access for both the composer and the blacksmith side while providing a barrier to separate their sounds from each other. The second inside-out feature is our corner, communal spaces. While most buildings have communal spaces in the front or center of the building, ours are on the corners. We did this to provide a communal space for each maker, while simultaneously making them a place one could stumble across and enjoy.