he renovation of a former Albuquerque Journal building for a high-tech workshop called the Levitated Toy Factory won DNCA Architects the top “Honor Award” in the annual design awards of the American Institute of Architects-Santa Fe.
“When we first went to see the building, it was one of those warehouses where you enter and the heart of the building was completely dark, pitch black, almost a sensory-deprivation chamber,” said the firm’s Devendra Contractor. He worked with Deirdre Harris, also of DNCA, to open up the space with skylights and light monitors.
In their entry for the AIA awards program, they wrote that the revitalized building “engages the growth of downtown Albuquerque while preserving its presence in an established urban context.”
The architects maintained the 6,000-square-foot building’s existing brick and structural steel, but increased its functionality and drama with new interior spaces, modernized windows, and a wraparound shade canopy loaded with photovoltaic panels. The PV array, arranged as a design feature rather than having the usual “add-on” appearance, takes care of all the factory’s electrical needs, including 3D printing and laser-cutting labs.
“It’s kind of a flexible program and the design reflects that as the client’s needs change, the use of the building changes,” Contractor said of the project that was completed in March 2014. “It was quite an extraordinary project for an exceptional client.”
The website of the Levitated Toy Factory shows art designs, many of which — including “Holy Cubes,” “Geodesic,
and “Life Stars” — possess architectural qualities. “What they’re doing right now is a little different,” Contractor said. “The client is, in my mind, one of the great digital artists of our time. I believe he continues to use the space for his digital explorations.”
We asked Contractor how DNCA has been doing in COVID times. “We’ve all been working at home, adapting to Zoom. We spend hours on Zoom. It’s kind of exhausting,” he said. “When the pandemic started, I thought I was going to get so much done, but some meetings are longer than in-person. But we’re all doing well.”
DNCA a few big projects on the horizon. One is the new Vladem contemporary art museum in Santa Fe. He said he expects that the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs will be making an announcement soon about that construction project. The other two are medical clinics for UNM Hospital, one for movement disorders and one for senior health. They will be connected and will be similar to what DNCA did with the Renal Medicine Associates building a few years ago.
“That was kind of an exploration in how to change the clinic typology where you go into the lobby space and then the clinic is almost a labyrinth and has a disorienting quality. So we introduced courtyards into the center of the building, so you have a good sense of view and you can orient yourself to the landscape. We’ve had lots of calls from the doctors and others saying that just going in there makes them feel better, which is a huge compliment. So we’re trying to do the same thing on these two new clinics.”
Another winner in the 2020 AIA-Santa Fe awards couldn’t be more different. It’s The Starship and it won the “Innovation Award” in the program’s conceptual category. It’s a design by the Santa Fe firm Autotroph for a 9,500-square-foot “transportable community hub.”
The project statement by Autotroph principal Alexander Dzurec and his client, Tim Schwartz, says, “With political tension, natural disasters and systems breaking down all around us, mobility is our greatest insurance policy. Behold the Starship! A sustainable, off-grid, mobile, community concept.”
It looks like a flying saucer. The base, more than 100 feet in diameter, is a structure of prefabricated steel floor units on concrete ballast pads. The primary building modules are modified 20-foot shipping containers. Everything bolts together, including a series of masts for the tensile-fabric roof, which is assembled on the floor deck; then self-hoisting winches on the masts hoist the roof into place. At center top is a glass geodesic dome for daylighting the large interior space (See photo on P. 7)
“This is an actual project,” Dzurec said. “We have a paying client who engaged us to do this work. We’ve been working on it for a few years. Tim is looking at climate disruptions and the fact that there’s a large workforce now that doesn’t have to go to work. He calls them ‘digital nomads,’ so this is a base camp for a digital nomad community.”
Surrounding the Starship will be a small village of campsites for nomads to inhabit during their stay.
The structure includes a 92-kilowatt PV system, graywater and blackwater treatment facilities, 6,000 gallons of rainwater collection storage, and a greenhouse for food production.
“We do have the ability to house people as well. We have flex units that have roll-up garage doors to open into the main space, and there are murphy beds. Then on the upper level there’s a collar that wraps around for that flying saucer appearance and it yields bonus rooms on the outside of the flex spaces. When you move, you can break down the roof elements and the rest of the containers are stand-alone units that can be loaded onto a truck or train.”
It looks and sounds far-out, but it may be a practical, and feasible, solution for living, gathering, and working.
Autotroph also won a “Merit Award” for its La Molina residence in Lamy. The custom house on 140 acres utilized rammed earth, colored concrete, and rusted corrugated metal “to harmonize with the tones of the site’s native soils,” according to entry materials. Projecting sunshades of perforated steel provide solar protection for the large windows framing views out to the landscape of the Galisteo Basin Preserve.
The client is an equestrian. “When we planned out the site, we had to think about the horses almost as much as about her,” Dzurec said. “For example we put in a wandering paddock, which is basically just a roped-off path, so the horses can somewhat roam freely but within the confines of the roped-off area and we ran it right by her bedroom patio, so she could literally walk out her door and greet her horses.”
The project also included twin casitas of contemporary design and substantial equestrian facilities: stables with a tack room and hay storage, and an arena.
The owner was interested in rammed earth, so Dzurec was able to reference “Modern Ruin,” the house he did with owner Zane Fischer and which took the top prize in the 2012 AIA-Santa Fe design competition.
The exterior of La Molina — named for the windmill that remains from the property’s ranching time —is about protection from sun and wind, but the interior is all about warmth and comfort. “The rammed earth works for both,” Dzurec said. “It’s a rugged material but it is made from earth so it has a warm color palette, as do the exposed wood joists. And all the interior walls that are not rammed earth are covered with earthen clay plaster.”
