As a child, Peter Pelsinski was convinced that astronauts and garbage collectors had the coolest vehicles, and as a science fan, he figured that space travel could well be in his future. When he arrived at college though, he hadn’t declared a major.
One day a simple search for a payphone across the quad at the school of architecture upended his plans. “I wandered over, and before I knew it, I found myself snooping around all of the wonderful drawings and models the students were hard at work on and losing sleep over,” Pelsinski says. “It all kind of clicked at that moment.”
Pelsinski entered his chosen field as an intern at Diller Scofido. In 1995, he co-founded SPAN Architecture with Karen Stonely. Whether for a client’s commercial project or a residence, the studio is committed to the exploration of new building techniques and construction details.
Never one to focus on solitary pursuits, Pelsinski is energized when he collaborates with his teammates. He is fascinated by each individual’s creative process and how their thoughts move from concept to finished structure in unique ways.
When his own inspiration strikes, Pelsinski will doodle and then start to assemble. “There is no better way than to figure things out, on occasion, by shutting off the old mind and making stuff,” he notes. “Most design speculations aren’t even ideas when they enter your mind, and since they are not formed initially, one needs to give them a little room to come to life.”
Today, Peter Pelsinski joins us for Friday Five!
Photo: Ant Farm (American, est. 1968), Curtis Schreier (American, born 1944). DOLΦN EMB 2 (Dolphin Embassy).
1974–1975. Hand-colored brownline. 18 x 22” (45.7 x 55.9cm). University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and
Pacific Film Archive
1. Science/Science Fiction.
Science fiction. Science. Fiction. Love them both together and apart. The wonder of human-created science is that it purports to objectively explain the world in unassailable logical (sorry Spock) terms. Architects and designers have traditionally loved science as a means of legitimizing aesthetic purpose. Perhaps not so curiously, science often gets its human observed “facts” wrong and creates a form of Science. Fiction- allegedly truthful but fantastical at the same time. Like building embassies to communicate with Dolphins, the essence and perhaps illogic of the best designs lies in the earnest simultaneous application of both.
Electric Tree Haircut Photo by P. Pelsinski
2. Natural/ Unnatural
Humans do a strange job of cohabitating with the world and its other life. We seem at once constantly aware of the world through science and art, and inexplicably oblivious as we have made our marks on it. Still there is beauty at play when humans and nature interact. An occasionally gentle but always contrasting state.
Photo: P. Pelsinski
3. Play
If it is not play, it is work. I vote for play as the paradigm. Play represents a lightness of activities done for enjoyment, rather than those done for “serious” or “practical” purposes. It is a wonderful state of mind to create new connections in design.
Strange Weather Photo: P. Pelsinski
4. Shadows and Light
Tanizaki writes “In Praise of Shadow” of the dilemma of light and darkness, which he claims epitomize dichotomies between eastern and western values. A.C Graylings beautifully sums up the value of Tanizaki’s insights as “.. praise of all things delicate and nuanced, everything softened by shadows and the patina of age, anything understated and natural, as for example the patterns of grain in old wood, the sound of rain dripping from eaves and leaves, or washing over the footing of a stone lantern in a garden, and refreshing the moss that grows about it – and by doing so he suggests an attitude of appreciation and mindfulness, especially mindfulness of beauty, as central to life lived well.” Surely a message for designers. Sublime is too unspecific, but the daily phenomena of the churning atmosphere and its modulation of light and wind convey so many qualities and conjure admiration, awe (even fear!), and can strike the mind with feelings surpassing mere beauty- qualities that are perhaps the bedrock cornerstone in aesthetics.
Photo: P. Pelsinski
5. Color
What to say. It is too bad humans can’t see more of the spectrum. But what we can see can be very beautiful.
Works by SPAN Architecture with Peter Pelsinski:
The Bindery
A sculpted white stair volume and floating black treads distill architecture to its most essential geometry, a quiet study in shadow, light, and restraint.
Riverview
Dark walnut screens and open-tread steel stairs choreograph views to the surrounding landscape in this SPAN-designed residence built around a globally-traveled family’s life.
August Moon
SPAN Architecture reimagined this 200-acre waterfront property as a biophilic sanctuary where custom interiors remain in constant dialogue with the surrounding forest and bay.
Dichroic Sky
A ceiling of dichroic glass panels shifts through a painterly spectrum as daylight moves, turning an ordinary glance upward into a kinetic art experience.
L. Samaras Homage Bathroom
A fully mirrored bathroom with polished chrome fixtures and suspended tube elements creates an Infinity Room-effect in direct homage to Lucas Samaras’s legendary mirrored environments.
