Componibili means welcome
Lisa Smith is a designer, educator, and writer based in Chicago, IL. She co-founded the Object Design League and Smith and Linder with Caroline Linder in 2009 and Show Show Room with Michael Savona in 2011. She currently teaches in the Contemporary Practices and Designed Objects departments at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Contact her at lcsmith (at) gmail (dot) com.
• CV
Everything is Research, Everything is Work
• CV
Everything is Research, Everything is Work
While brainstorming on how to layout the space, I came up with this great idea.
Smith Camp, a Domestic Experiment
ODLCO is moving into a storefront in Chicago’s Fulton Market/West Loop neighborhood, at Randolph and May (next door to Alderman Exhibitions and Method Bikes). The building was once a meatpacking facility, and has been gutted down to brick and concrete, ready for us to rebuild.
The storefront and office will live on the first floor, the workshop in the basement, and me in the second, with roof access. The unit is the one in Google street view that has the “Koenig’s” sign above it. The glass block in the interior shot above corresponds to the window wall located above the signage in the exterior shot. Currently, it needs everything, starting with the electrical panel and plumbing stubs.
I’m interested in the relationship between rooms, objects and behaviors, and how they might mix differently to create adventurous and experientially rich spaces. It’s a rare opportunity to be presented with a totally undefined place to live. In any normal apartment, most lofts included, there is some kind of kitchen/bathroom/heating situation built-in. Here everything is absent, and I’ll add it in piece by piece. It’s my domestic dream.
I’m calling the project Smith Camp, a name my dad uses for our beach house on Galveston Island. The house was permanently set up for temporary occupancy, a big open space with loose furnishings that slept 12, accomodated 20, but cozy enough for two—part camp, part home.
From here on out, this blog will mostly be dedicated to the unfolding of Smith Camp (Jr.). You can also keep track of this project in this Flickr set.
Looking from the glass block wall out into the space. The ladder is leaning against an old elevator shaft with roof access.
Back of the space, bathroom wall still there.
Bathroom wall removed, gross mens urinal exposed. Don’t step on those nails like I kept doing.
