Episode #27

James Brillon, third-year M.Arch student at Columbia GSAPP, speaks with Antón García-Abril and Débora Mesa of Ensamble Studio on the occasion of their lecture at the school on September 25, 2017.

They discuss the firm’s recent participation in the Chicago Architecture Biennial, the need for embedding localized notions of prefabrication in the design process, and the beneficial ways in which simultaneously working in rural and urban contexts can inform and influence the other.

Ensamble describe their Chicago Tribune Tower project for the biennial – the Big Bang Tower – as an opportunity to challenge the relationship between a tower’s core and shell in order to create a new typology with a permeable structural perimeter expressing urbanity: “a column of columns”. They also describe the experience of working in the expansive western landscape of Montana for the Tippet Rise Art Center, where the perception and role of the building continually changes with the light, season, and climate.

Ensamble has offices in Madrid, Spain, and Boston, Massachusetts. In addition to their architectural practice, Antón García-Abril and Débora Mesa lead the POPlab (Prototypes of Prefabrication Research Laboratory) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.).

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