IngenuityFest is an annual festival that showcases art and performance works by Northeast Ohio’s creative community to over 20,000 visitors. Since 2016, this event has been hosted at the home of our office, the Hamilton Collaborative work complex. For IngenuityFest 2018, Architecture Office contributed Archetypal Remix: A gravity defying interactive seating and viewing platform.

AO reclaimed and re-engineered four 4’ x 6’ x 6’ tall house forms that had been used during an installation project hosted at Cleveland’s Brite Winter music festival 2017. Our process produced different iterations of arrangements to fit an alcove in the Hamilton Complex’s parking lot: One that would also host a stage for performances.

Our investigation produced an uncanny arrangement — one “house” resting on the ground, the other three stacked atop it in a carnivalesque jumble. Reinforced with floor joists, the bottom two houses serve as viewing platforms for the stage. A void was cut between them for ladder access. Each house was re-engineered and reinforced to increase durability.

Archetypal Remix speaks to Architecture Office’s aesthetic commitment to iteration and simplicity and our work repurposing historical forms into new contexts. Visitors to our office will see this installation nestled in a corner of our parking lot.