Michi and Yen, the principals of Front Studio, spend their days creating buildings and designing interiors that reflect their insightful approach to space and style. Amidst the fast pace of New York City and the stream of projects they have lined up, they still find time to notice the little details of the things around them, in art, literature, and food. I’m so excited and thankful that they are sharing their thoughts on their workspace, their materials, and the things that surround them:

 ”We’re predominantly architects but we love all sorts of things like eating, making things, reading books and oh yes, eating. In addition to our current architectural work (townhouse addition, sales office and bakery) we’re slowly cataloguing all lunch possibilities within a 15 minute walking radius from our office.”

“We can’t work without Papermate pens, manila folders, Stylist pens, no. 2 pencils, scratch paper, lined Muji notebooks, monthly planner/ agenda and sadly our computers. Aside from the inevitability of being tied to our computers, we love having a bevy of writing implements at the ready for doodling, drawing and sketching ideas. Each year the Ardco door company makes letter-size agendas as promotional items so each year we call them and ask them to please send us a couple. We couldn’t live without our planners.”

“Our studio is white, cream and oak so we like bits of color to keep us company – a bright yellow espresso machine, hot pink slippers for schleping around the office, mostly green cacti, dark blue wallpaper and multi-colored gummy bears. We still buy CDs and so a stereo is pretty essential as well.”

“We have paper slots built into our desks where we slide spam faxes and used paper – we use them as scratch paper and when they pile up we cut them into notepads for phone messages. We save extra plastic-ware and napkins from take-out and ordering-in for use later. In the office we have a set of ceramic plates, bowls and cups so we minimize the amount of plastic and paper use.”

“Since we’re architects we don’t need specific materials in creating our work but we often use materials and samples as inspiration for new projects. We dream of having a separate room to house an entire library of wall to wall materials. And then when we dream about that walk-in-closet of materials we also start to fantasize about having another room for a woodshop where we could play with the materials.”

{You can see a stunning collection of Michi and Yen’s work at the Front Studio website, and you can follow them on their midday adventures at LUNCH.}

April 17th, 2007