In a continued effort to create opportunity for architects in 2010, Architizer worked with the powers-that-be at Building Fashion — BOFFO director Faris Al-Shathir and architect Spilios Gianakopoulos — to match six emerging architecture firms with clients.

The resulting series of pop-up retail shops featuring cutting-edge architecture and fashion design reached fever pitch this fall through parties (see our recap from last Friday’s Richard Chai opening here), performances (Emily Haines of Metric, actress Paz de la Huerta reading Madame Bovary), and press coverage (Curbed, T: The Moment, Gilt, W, to name a few).

At the tail end of a successful ten-day installation for CFDA winner and Vogue darling Richard Chai, we sat down for a chat with the duo behind Snarkitecture, architect Alex Mustonen and artist Daniel Arsham.

Read on for our exclusive interview, plus images of the striking Snarkitecture installation underneath the High Line.

(L) Photo: Kelsey Keith for Architizer, (R) Photo: Lexie Moreland

Can you explain a bit about the theme of the space you designed for Richard Chai?

Alex Mustonen: “The space has an inherently cold feel because of the color and the scale, especially before Richard’s clothes were brought in. We would have done an epoxy floor if we could have.”

Daniel Arsham: “We started out with the idea of a plane tilted in two directions that literally sliced the space in half. The second idea was to fill the entire space and carve it out. Most architecture is an additive process, but the basic concept here is subtractive.”

AM: “It’s very primal, archaic.”

How do the two of you negotiate between the architectural desire to rationalize/be logical and the artistic desire to follow your intuition?

DA: “I’ll propose something impossible and Alex will figure out how to make it work. This space is not chaotic, necessarily, but it’s not entirely rational. We did map out the individual pieces in advance.”

Photo: Snarkitecture

How much input did Richard have on the architectural plan?

AM: “Richard wanted it to have a more experiential quality — much more about moving through a space than inhabiting a typical retail box. It’s a journey that only reveals its hidden moments as you walk through.”

DA: “He looked at it as a way to experiment… We did the same.”

You’ve worked with fashion designers before (most notably, Hedi Slimane for Dior). Can you compare the two commissions?

DA: In the Dior dressing rooms, we created an illusion by removing the surface of the wall to ‘expose’ the mirror. We recreated that verbatim for the Richard Chai store.

Do you see your firm continuing to work in that sphere, or do you have plans to expand the scope of your projects?

DA: “Even though we work primarily in a collaborative mode, we’re interested in being open to projects of varying scale — not just small interiors. We want to build a house for Lil’ Wayne.”

AM: “He gets out of jail in eight days.” [Editor's note: Now six?]

DA: “The house is going to have no ceilings. How big a piece of glass do you think could serve as a floor plate?”

Photo: Snarkitecture

Fun fact: All that routed styrofoam will be sent back to the factory from whence it came once the installation is taken down next week. It will be recycled and reformed back into blocks.

Photo: Kelsey Keith for Architizer

Photo: Snarkitecture

Photo: Kelsey Keith for Architizer

Photo: Kelsey Keith for Architizer

Aerial rendering of Snarkitecture for Richard Chai; courtesy: Snarkitecture

by Kelsey Keith

posted in Competition Identities

tagged alex mustonen, boffo, Building Fashion, competitions, daniel arsham, Identities, interviews, richard chai, snarkitecture

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