Artists Space, Greene St

Artists Space is a non-profit exhibition space that supports artistic experimentation and dialogue in contemporary culture. The design process for this project was an inclusive exchange between the director, the staff, and the collective design team. A limited budget and tight project schedule informed the construction techniques and material systems used in the project. The result was a complete erasure of the existing layout replacing it with a simple plan for the new environment, based on flexibility and openness.

Incorporating the notion of time into the design, the plan was kept open-ended to be completed in phases. A series of fixed coordinates divide the space into nine rooms. Partitions between the coordinates with variations of connectivity provide specific access to conditions and situations within the open space prepared for the possibility of changing functions. In this current stage, four of the rooms are legible (the office, the entrance space, the bar/bookshop, and the study room). The everyday routines and social interactions of the workplace overlap with the space of display. An open framework of wood studs defines the negotiated boundary between staff workspaces and the public areas of the gallery. The floor is left unfinished, and a long bench occupies the corner window area where the director’s office once stood.