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Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Landscape Architect's Office Fits In A Trailer, Follows His Work

by Lloyd Alter, Toronto
from http://www.treehugger.com/

mobile office design xs/la photo
Image: XS/LA

Design used to take up a lot of space, with big draughting boards, huge drawings and interns to do all the repetitive and boring stuff. The computer changed everything and reduced the space and staff required to almost nothing. Andreas Stavropoulos of XS/LA tells Alex at Shedworking about his mobile office, built into a 2003 cargo trailer.
mobile office design xs/la photo interior
Image: XS/LA
The landscape architect writes:
The mobile studio is designed to unite the designer with the site. Equipped with a drafting table, small library, solar power, and wifi, the mobile studio doesn't just sit pretty, but it works hard. This original design and fabrication features an translucent skylight, which allows diffuse light to fully and shadowlessly illuminate the interior. The studio is particularly useful during the concept design stages, when clients are invited inside to provide initial feedback on conceptual design sketches.
It is a wonderful idea for a design professional, being up close and personal with the site and the trades. According to Sunset Magazine,
This isn't exactly the norm in the modern, virtual reality-driven world of landscape architecture. But Stavropoulos​--who earned his MLA from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2007--is a back-to-the-land kind of guy. He wants to ground his garden plans in the realities of the site, and he retrofitted the 6- by 10-foot cargo trailer to help him do that.
Oh, and did I mention that he lives in an Airstream trailer.
bsq-interior-trailer.jpg
Image: Lloyd Alter

It is a lot smaller than Robert Boltman and Alex Bartlett's BSQ shipping container office, but the principle is the same: Your office is where your work is. The trailer is also more mobile; the Bsq. Container is languishing on a dead construction site right now, while Andreas can tow his office behind his Honda. It is smaller, lighter and ultimately more flexible. More at Bsq. Office in a Shipping Container

nissan van photo
Too bad Nissan never produced their NV200; It really made the office mobile.

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