Ivan Navarro and Courtney Smith Art Studio

Ivan Navarro and Courtney Smith Art Studio | Brooklyn, United States | 2021
[Scalar Architecture]

Scalar works with a renowned artist who crafts socially and politically relevant sculptures and installations.

Located on a former warehouse within the industrial neighborhood of Sunset Park, the three-level 5000 sf studio for the artists Ivan Navarro and Courtney Smith is a diaphanous volume for art production. Courtney Smith is an artist working in sculpture and performance. Iván Navarro is a Chilean artist of global recognition who works with light, mirrors, and glowing glass tubes to craft socially and politically relevant sculptures and installations.

In line with their conceptual and political stance, the architectural solution reimagines, inhabits, and expands the existing facility by means of articulating recycled steel -so prevalent in the industrial activities of the neighborhood – both as structure and reflective skin. Structurally, the recycled steel structure afforded the possibility to perch over and maintain the existing masonry through a series of frames.

Ivan Navarro often relies on a different concept of framing to contain his works of sound, light, and reflections. In relating these complementary ideas of “frames”, the building creates a larger two-story open frame that ties all the production spaces together. Text description by the architects.