Boutique Design - May 2019 - 64

PERIPHERAL
VISIONARY

BY ANNMARIE MARTIN

ANDY LANTZ' THOUGHT track doesn't follow the main line. His

thinking branches off into destinations as unexpected as sensory deprivation after working with the hearing impaired. For any given project, he
might have one eye to "what's possible" and how to make that so, and the
other on how the site was used a century ago. That's why LA-based multidisciplinary architecture and design firm, Rios Clementi Hale Studios
(RCHS), tapped him to be a creative director in 2018 and now put him in
charge of launching and building up their first spin-off office location in
Austin, Texas. His m.o. is to unshackle himself (and the rest of us for that
matter) from the "slavery" of visual cues that has become our reality,
thanks (or no thanks) to the technological advances of the past few
decades. Here's how that passion caught fire, and how he's using it to help
guests experience the built environment in a more authentic way.

DAMI OLUFOWOSHE, ANDY LANTZ, HELEN K ANG,
DUYGUN INAL AND ELISABETH WEINSTEIN.

TELL US ABOUT THE "LIVE EXPERIMENT" YOU CONDUCTED AT SXSW IN
MARCH OF THIS YEAR?

Technological developments over the past hundred years have biased our
vision and dissolved our ability to rely on our senses beyond sight. At SXSW, I
disguised six distinct odors in custom-designed and 3D-printed smelling
vessels. For the first three odors, I showed imagery and played soundtracks to
evoke a sense of memory. For the other three, I removed the imagery and just
played the soundtrack. People found it easy to identify the first three, but the
others were more challenging. People struggle when there are no visual cues
to solicit a memory recall; they don't process and cannot place the smell.
HOW ARE YOU APPLYING THESE FINDINGS TO YOUR DESIGN PROCESS?

Before we even begin imagining finishes or "look and feel," we push our teams
to simply render designs in pure white with texture and form. This allows us
to understand the importance of how minimal visual cues can help us target
narratives that overlay tactile, olfactory and sound-based opportunities.
WHY WAS NOW THE RIGHT TIME TO EXPAND THE PRACTICE WITH AN
AUSTIN OFFICE?

In 2009, I spent a summer with the students and teachers at the Beverly
School for the Deaf in Beverly, Massachusetts. Working in a community
with an entirely different perception of the nature of spaces and how a
person interacts with them was fascinating. After that, I tested all avenues
of what it meant to design beyond vision.

We've had a strong presence in Austin for over a decade, and it felt like a
natural progression to have a physical space there. That's especially true
because of the number of upcoming local projects, like the public amenity
Drake Bridge Commons, allowing us to provide continued support of these
initiatives and further expansion in the area. Austin is also becoming an international city (literally: British Airways now lands a 747 at the airport) and is
looking for ways to engage firms globally to think about its future.

HOW DO YOU APPLY THAT ATTITUDE AT THIS LEVEL IN YOUR CAREER?

WHAT'S NEXT IN TERMS OF BRINGING A MORE SENSORY APPROACH

I try my hardest to constantly question what is normative in design. I leverage
our broad inhouse expertise to mash up expectations for what is possible.
What happens when you combine landscape architecture with product
design? Or when you apply a sensitivity for interior scale on a project that is
over a million square feet of space? Sometimes the simple task of juxtaposing
unfamiliar things helps to push exploration in the most basic sense.

TO INTERIORS?

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO EXPLORE SENSORY DEPRIVATION AND
REPLACEMENT IN DESIGN?

We are maturing our success with interior landscape installations in the
workplace. When employees return to a space that has been blasted with 500
lumens throughout the night, there is a "bloom" effect, with fragrant flower
and earth aromas enlivening them throughout the better part of the morning.
WHAT ELSE IS ON THE HORIZON FOR YOU?

HOW DID YOUR STORY START AT RCHS?

I moved to LA in the summer of 2011. I admired Mark Rios for being a leader
in the LGBTQ community, building a legacy in the LA market and for using
his influence to imagine a profound and unique practice. I aspired to learn
from him, given that we shared such a similar background - both Harvard
graduates, both distractingly handsome, and yes, both part of the LGBTQ
community. Lucky for me, the firm liked me and the rest is history.
64

boutiquedesign.com MAY 2019

In the historic center of Puebla, Mexico, a UNESCO Heritage site, we are
converting a nearly hundred-year-old local market, Mercado el Alto, into a
destination for regional food and culture aligned with other hotel development
in the area. We designed the roof as a cloud form that hovers over the structure,
capturing the second level as usable space. It is inspired by the area's topography, and the clouds that hang in the sky around the volcano, Popocatépetl. As
its arches descend inside the project, they create rooms and frame views. £

C L AY T O N B OY D ( DA M I O L U F O W O S H E , A N DY L A N T Z , H E L E N K A N G , D U YG U N I N A L A N D E L I S A B E T H W E I N S T E I N )

For Rios Clementi Hale Studios' Andy Lantz,
angels are in the details, guiding him toward
unlikely sources of inspiration that give him a fresh
perspective on design's future.

http://www.boutiquedesign.com

Boutique Design - May 2019

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