SOFTlab

SOFTlab is a design studio based in New York City led by Michael Szivos. The studio operates at the intersection of architecture, art, video, and interactive design. They approach projects by exploring contextual conditions and effects. By examining local conditions, they create interventions that become an extension of something existing on site that might not be readily apparent. The studio develops their work as a translation of these often dynamic phenomena on the site. In that way, their work forms an experiential contextualism, rather than a literal one. The specificity of the connection to the site is made through active engagement. This allows SOFTlab to achieve projects which are unexpected, yet become appropriate as they unfold.

Through the studio’s public work they strive to strengthen the connections between people and the places they share by combining new ways to engage with making, agency, and community. The studio blurs the lines between design and production through their interest in both vernacular and advanced digital craft. SOFTlab considers their projects open ended through the projects’ ability to elicit excitement in visitors and public to create their own interpretations through dynamic extensions of the site. In that way they become observer, participant, and author as they are contributing their own memories of the place.

In 2012 SOFTlab was awarded the Architectural League Prize for Young Architects & Designers, and previously in 2010 the studio was selected for the New Practices New York award by the AIA Chapter of New York along with 7 other young studios. The studio has produced a wide range of design projects and collaborated with various artists, designers, publications and institutions including MoMA, IBM, Adobe, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Hall of Science, Eyebeam, New Museum, 3M, Vice Media, Intel, The New York Times, Van Alen Institute, EPFL, Pratt Institute, and Columbia University. The studio has exhibited work in galleries throughout New York City. The studio continues to work on many projects in New York while taking on new projects and clients in Europe and Asia.