JAVA-NOV-2018

More documents

Recommendations

Info

UNDEFEATED, Photo: Winquist Photography like that without being jarred by the juxtaposition of old and new. It creates a tension that is evocative and speaks to people because it is so powerful.” For anyone who’s spent time working and playing in central Phoenix, Kaiser’s work has spoken to them at some point. Christoph’s firm, KaiserWorks LLC, has been quietly and steadily altering the face of central Phoenix: redesigning elements in the Garfield neighborhood, including the new home for Welcome Diner on Pierce St., the Undefeated clothing and sneaker boutique next to Lux Coffee, and Changing Hands Bookstore’s Phoenix location. These are just a few of the local projects that Christoph and his team at KaiserWorks (Mark Lewis, Trevor Kowal, Drew Scharnitzke, and John Davis) have masterminded over the years. While Kaiser and his team are quickly leaving an indelible mark on the Phoenician landscape, the architectural designer wasn’t always set on putting down roots in Arizona. “When I left Phoenix to go study in Boston [at Harvard University] and Germany, I didn’t think I would be coming back to work here,” Kaiser says. “I thought, okay, this place is not on the cutting edge of things. It’s just not. Our finger’s not on the pulse of culture and art here; we didn’t even have a downtown core to speak of at the time. We didn’t have urbanity.” It was while Kaiser was doing interviews for work in Germany, San Francisco, and New York City that he started to realize the potential of Phoenix. “New York is a city whose story has been written,” he says. “It already has a very strong identity. Any kind of jobs I’d be working on there would be smaller infill projects – cool bars, maybe, or furniture showrooms and such.” Phoenix’s lack of history and culture ended up becoming a major reason for Kaiser’s decision to hang his shingle here, because the city represents a sort of blank slate where people with vision can still leave a mark. 10 <strong>JAVA</strong> MAGAZINE UNDEFEATED, Photo: Winquist Photography “The thought of coming to Phoenix, to a place where I actually would be needed and could become a player in the field, was immediately attractive to me,” Kaiser muses. “Design can be an insecure endeavor, in a way. I don’t like having to explain to people why my profession is justified. It’s nice in Phoenix because most people recognize the need for designers, for people that bring vision to the city. Because if it’s left up to number-crunching developers, we get horrible spaces. And I think a lot of people see that if it’s not done well, you end up with places that people really don’t want to spend time in.” Part of what drew Kaiser to become embedded in the Garfield neighborhood – where his home and studio are located – was that it was a part of town that hadn’t been ruined by those number-crunchers yet. In a recent interview, Kaiser said of Garfield: “I discovered buildings with soul, buildings built by hand before
Photo: Thomas Ingersoll Photo: Shelby Moore developers perfected the art of building houses as cheaply as possible and then cosmetically jacketing them with stucco and faux materials to make them look like something they are not.” That desire to preserve the original spirit of a building is central to Kaiser’s practice. It’s one of the principles behind his “Mullet Modern” approach to design: “Conservative in the front, party in the back.” The shell of an old structure like the grain silo is preserved while the inside and its surroundings are transformed into something bold and forward-thinking. Kaiser didn’t always want to study architecture. As a child, he had a deep interest in both science and the arts. “I was fascinated with everything phenomenological,” Kaiser says. “The sun, the wind, how the elements of the earth built structures. But I also had a proclivity for art.” Initially studying to be an industrial designer in college, Kaiser quickly pivoted toward architecture. “I always wanted to make things that people use: something that has utility, but that is also beautiful.” One artistic method that cast a particularly strong spell on Kaiser as a student was the hand sketch. “The ability to capture three-dimensional space with a hand sketch really appealed to me,” Kaiser says. “Seeing that you could capture the form of a bird with a few lines. To sit in a room and draw a space with pencil and paper was just an amazing skill to me because it’s a two-part thing. You sketch the space you see, and then you sketch what you want to apply to that. It could be a drawing of a city intersection or a vacant lot in front of you. You sketch the intersection and then follow suit with whatever building you are designing for that space.” When it comes time to fill that empty space, there are two core concepts that Kaiser comes back to time and time again. “There has to be an integrity there,” he says. “Building a wood frame house and then putting plastic elements on it so it looks like a castle is dishonest and horrible, like building a stage set. It has no soul. It’s like talking to a superficial person who is putting on a facade. You’re not connecting with the soul of that individual. You’re seeing this other thing they’re putting out in full force. Architecture is the same way: That what it is, is what it is.” Kaiser is also fond of playing with what he calls tofu. “I have an appreciation for these pure white forms,” he says. “Because it becomes about light and shadow at that point. If it’s a pure form, you’re looking at how light plays off the object. It’s like tofu to me. This material that takes on whatever form or flavor you give it.” That appreciation for pure form ties back in to Kaiser’s Silo House. “Once you walk inside, the game changes. Outside is this white cylinder, but you walk in and now you’re encountering black leather and walnut and it becomes much more haptic, tactile and warm.” That interest in contrasts also informed Kaiser’s approach to designing the Changing Hands Bookstore in Phoenix. “There’s so much merchandise there. You’re swimming in this sea of almost white noise, like every book is a different color of the rainbow. Just this cacophony of stuff. So the First Draft bar, the large chimney and the point of sale areas act as counterparts – these recognizable moments within all of that.” Much like the old medieval craft guilds that gave birth to the Freemasons, Kaiser also sees a spiritual dimension in the art of architecture. As a designer, he looks out at the universe and sees something that bears the hallmarks of being crafted. “It strikes me as being purposeful,” he says, reflecting on the nature of the world. “It’s so tremendously uncanny. We have this periodic table that lets us build silicon wafers and computers. We can also build bombs. This whole thing is like a playground for the human imagination. That doesn’t strike me as accidental.” <strong>JAVA</strong> 11 MAGAZINE
Page 1 and 2: 273 • NOV 2018 CHRISTOPH KAISER F
Page 3 and 4: INVENTING AN AMERICAN ICON OPENING
Page 5 and 6: Photo © Jim Louvau, 2017 SEE GROUN
Page 7 and 8: CULTURE BUILDING By Robert Sentiner
Page 9: Photo: Winquist Photography A white
Page 13 and 14: The most memorable art exhibit in t
Page 15 and 16: HERSTORY NOV 17 7:00 PM NOV 18 4:00
Page 17 and 18: It wasn’t Klip’s first time wor
Page 19: Photo: Bill Goodman Photo: Elaine T
Page 22: NOVO 22 JAVA MAGAZINE
Page 27: 27 JAVA MAGAZINE
Page 30 and 31: Brandon Decker Relocates to Califor
Page 32 and 33: JAVA: That seems like it is an impo
Page 34 and 35: Litmus New Work by Christine Cassan
Page 36 and 37: Photos: Monica Fernandez Casal fill
Page 38 and 39: GIRL ON FARMER Lounge Life BY CELIA
Page 40 and 41: NIGHT GALLERY Photos By Robert Sent
Page 42 and 43: Make your degree Register for Sprin
Page 44 and 45: 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59
Page 46 and 47: LAURA MENARDI JACOBSEN, You’re No

JAVA-NOV-2018

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?