NEXT DOOR Creative Offices
This compound of four buildings provides studio space for artists and creative professionals. Fit within a historic residential neighborhood in East Austin, TX, it forms a porous boundary around the block. The complex introduces landscaped sidewalks and plantings, a courtyard with a magestic Post Oak tree, and a network of rain gardens.
The buildings have a variety of sizes and shapes, but share an architectural vocabulary inspired by industrial loft buildings; high ceilings, exposed structure, abundant natural light and sturdy materials.
Exterior circulation gives each studio direct access to the gardens and views of downtown. The buildings are clad with box-rib metal panels on the upper stories and wrapped with custom concrete panels on the ground floor. The concrete
cladding adds insulative mass and a ‘hand-made’ feel contrasting the factory-made cladding above. The design team’s resident artist worked directly with the concrete crew to ‘draw’ patterns into the concrete formliners. Native plandings, overhangs and fin-like shades buffer the building from the street and reflect the scale of the residential porches across the way.
