Little Art Studio – Revisited

The Little Art Studio is an addition to an existing contemporary stucco and glass residence located in Paradise Valley, Arizona, USA. The addition of this building to the site provided a backdrop and bookend to an existing desert courtyard and a gathering area surrounding a fire pit.  In order to distinguish the studio from the existing residence, the design allowed Chen + Suchart studio to establish its own identity.  The manner in which the addition meets the ground was executed in a way that minimizes the disturbance to the existing desert landscape.

The cladding of the studio is largely comprised of standard weathering steel panels with high thermal performing reflective insulated glazing.  The insulated glazing is configured with the reflective surface on surface 1 which allows for maximum heat rejection while offering the most reflection. The combination of these two materials for the cladding is intended to complement, absorb and reflect the existing residence’s landscape.

The interior space is configured as an open plan to allow the freedom of the studio to be used as a working artist’s studio or gallery space.  Three large movable partitions can be configured in any manner to allow for spatial diversity and increased surface area for hanging the artist’s work.  An integrated artwork hanging system is embedded and detailed with the drywall to establish a datum in the space for the constant hanging of artwork for review and display.  Bi-parting sliding glass doors are located directly over the wash in order to celebrate a specific moment in the desert landscape. The configuration of the windows allows views of the existing courtyard and Camelback Mountain.