(gentle music)
- [Voiceover] A typical thesis project for architecture
is really looking at broadening what we have right now
and actually coming up with new solutions.
There's a lot of vacant properties,
and we've noticed that across not just San Diego,
but other cities.
Our idea was okay, well how can
we start incorporating some sort of temporary architecture.
Putting something in as a placeholder for
that future development.
Creating more pedestrian friendly and exciting area,
ready for that new development.
My name is Philip Auchettl, I'm the CEO of Rad Lab.
Quartyard's the name of our first project,
which we created while we were students
at New School of Architecture.
Usually thesis projects are very solo, one man missions.
In the real world that's not how it works.
You have to work as a team and that's how
we ran our thesis project.
- And because they were prepared as developers
they knew all the different parts of the process
to make a building.
This is one of the rare cases that the building itself
is the thesis.
So that's what is exciting about this project.
That they prove their space theories
with the actual building.
(peppy music)
- Quartyard is an urban park in a downtown environment.
It's hard to create this outdoor experience
that is open and free and friendly to the public.
So what we did was we tried to activate it
with things that you would want to have
in your own backyard.
So we've got a sausage place, we've got barbecues,
we've got a bar,
dog park,
coffee shop.
The idea is that it's everyone's backyard.
- Community involvement's one of the biggest
parts of this project.
Our slogan is Your City Block.
And from day one we went and put signs up on the fence
just saying What Do You Want Here?
With a bunch of sharpies and people filled it in.
The main constant theme that just kept coming back
was that people were really excited about
having some sort of outdoor space to gather and socialize.
- The Quartyard is such a community based project
it almost was the same with us, like
a community based internal project.
Everything was a constant conversation.
It was just three guys trying to create their dreams
- You know this is a brand new concept,
especially for the city of San Diego.
This hadn't been done before.
The use of shipping containers was something that
the engineer in the city almost fell off his chair
when we proposed this idea to him.
We brought in outside consultants who have worked
with shipping containers in the past
to assure them that they weren't going to fall over.
- We wanted to do something different, we'd never really
seen a container project where they painted them white.
So a lot of them go with dark grey or just leave
them colorful and what not, so we thought white
could be a really clean aesthetic, as well as maybe
help with the heat gain.
- It really comes back to the concept of building green
and sustainable design and the shipping containers,
they're all recycled, the trays are all
in recycled dumpsters, the trash bins are recycled barrels,
the tables are all reclaimed wood.
I think as young designers and young professionals
that's really our responsibility
that we can build more sustainable
and more green within San Diego.
- Right here is just a picture of essentially Google Earth.
You just see what was there before,
which was exactly nothing.
It was blighted it was a dirty parking lot.
And then you start adding all these layers
and textures to it, and all of a sudden it transforms to
a beautifully curated space.
Anyone can come up with a great design
but getting it funded and actually following through with it
obviously is very difficult.
- It was like a 70/30 ratio, I'd say 70% was outside
the studio and just gaining the community support.
Trying to figure out how we could make this happen.
And then the 30% was as much design work as we could.
- When we initially were looking for fundraising
we did a Kickstarter.
We're a bunch of poor students, we didn't have any funding
so we managed to actually raise $60,000 in just 30 days
which was pretty phenomenal.
For us that was a big step to say yes, you know what
not only do we wanna do this, but this is now proven
that the community wants something here to happen as well.
It was all pure donation and mostly from
the surrounding area.
- So it was one of those things that we could take that
to an investor set and say hey, we were able
to get the community to back us.
The hardest part for us early on was just
sharing our vision of this space.
And it really came down to
these renderings, with the help of Photoshop and Rhino
to get that vision across.
- After we kind of identified a rough layout of the design
and where all the containers were gonna be in this process,
we usually develop everything in Rhino
to kind of give us a more visual aspect.
Window details, opening cut outs, lighting details as well.
And then bring it into V-Ray or something, render it,
and then do all the post production work in Photoshop.
- With the use of Photoshop and rendering agents combined
you can create these really photo realistic renderings
that allow the average person to be able to understand
kind of what you're trying to get across.
So a lot of times you will take
renderings that are just raw, like these shipping containers
that have just a few modifications on them
and then put them into the Photoshop model
and you'll add people, you'll add artwork,
food trucks, and groups of people.
- You know we tried to create a lot of color.
We tried to represent that this is your city block
and a lot of people gathering, events going on.
That's kind of what our mentality and vision was
for the Quartyard and trying to get
investors involved and the community involved
was using these renderings as a marketing tool
and painting a picture for them was critical.
Everyone wants to see what they're gonna get.
- Just sharing our passion and vision was something
that came easy to all of us, but what we were doing
was way beyond anything we had done in the past.
So we had to rely on quite a few advisors
and other professionals that were experts in their field
so that we could execute this project.
- I came in on the project about
right at the end of their thesis.
As this became a real
something they really wanted to build.
And they had questions on how to put a Pr-Forma together,
how much money was it gonna cost, how did we need
to redesign things to make it so it was a reasonable number
to make the actual project real,
could we monetize them for the actual cost
that it took to build it?
- Because we're only here for a couple years
we have to make sure that this thing can pay itself off.
So we really had to balance out those aspects of
what we can use that's sustainable
versus what actually financially makes sense also.
- Creating anything from scratch is already
ridiculously challenging, let alone San Diego's
very conservative and not necessarily wanting to change.
So it took a lot of time and it took a lot of people
to want this project to happen to actually make it happen.
- The property is city owned so we're
leasing it from the city.
We went and met with the mayor's office,
Civic San Diego, city attorney's office,
we got everyone in one room,
and there was a lot of negotiation.
We were a bunch of students, we didn't necessarily
have our own legal representation at that point,
and we were the ones who negotiated the lease.
- We had found the corner of Park and Market
and we thought great, we can just take over this small
40 foot by 20 foot space, and they said yeah
but why don't you take over the rest
of the 25,000 square feet?
And we said, what, what do you mean?
That's a possibility?
And they said yeah absolutely.
So it was a huge game changer just in terms of size
and scope and what we had to put in
to make the project work.
- We actually had Civic San Diego and the city of San Diego
write a brand new conditional use permit
using our project as a case study within that permit.
So especially as a thesis, that was pretty phenomenal
to have codes changed and rewritten
based around our project.
- What you have to provide to the city
is a set of construction documents that
give details to the last nail that's
being bolted into the wall.
So pretty much the design is complete by then.
- It's great to be in paper space and come up with
beautiful designs and think of everything as flat and level.
Life isn't flat and level.
So the more practical experience you have
and the more you can actually listen and learn
the better you will be as a designer
and the more value you will have to your clients.
- As a good designer, you try to lead people
in certain directions.
You try to offer signage or visual barriers and edges
that will say, hey don't go over here or
the exact opposite, you create paths
to direct traffic to that region.
We have a big fence that separates the two zones.
By creating two entry points we're able to
direct traffic around that area.
And then by using Photoshop, you're able to add people
in there so that it demonstrates how the actual
use is gonna go.
In reality, it's a totally different perspective.
You try something and then you realize,
wow everyone's taking this shortcut over here.
We never would have expected that but
it's a total combination between using the technology
that exits and getting hands on experience
and actually trying it out yourself.
- We're big on doing sketching, we're big on
doing physical models, we're big on doing digital models.
They're all just very different processes of
coming up with I think the best solution.
- You don't start out knowing how to do this right away.
The only way to get better is by just doing.
And so by practice and then watching tutorials
and figuring things out,
it just makes every step of the way better.
- [Voiceover] There was plenty of times where we thought
this thing was about to fall apart.
But we just kept pushing through and I think that's what you
have to do to really make something like this successful.
Initially when we decided to do this as a group
and create a thesis and create our own business
within our thesis,
I don't think any of us quite understood how far
this thing would go, but I think we've all enjoyed the ride
and we couldn't be happier with where we ended up.
- We're approaching our first year anniversary,
our first birthday party, and it has
been wildly successful, way more than I ever
would have imagined.
We initially created a project in a place
that we wanted to go
because we thought that that was missing in the city,
and to see the amount of people show up on a daily basis
or for our events is just astonishing.
How many people also felt the same way we did.
- We've had all different types of events
from benefits to
DJ set concerts,
you name it, we're trying to get creative as possible
and try to activate the space as much as possible.
- If the city ends up putting another high-rise here
that's part of our concept is that we are here for now,
we're that placeholder for the future development.
We're creating a more pedestrian friendly
and exciting area to be.
So if that's the case we simply pick all the
shipping containers up, move to a new location,
and start reactivating and rejuvenating somewhere else.
The Quartyard project's been a huge
flag in the ground for us.
We've been able to take on a lot of other new projects.
Mostly commercial, some residential.
Three at California and across over to
the Virgin Islands as well.
- I'd like to say that I'm very proud of these rock stars.
We used to call them The Beatles while they were in school.
They created this incredible place for the community.
- [Voiceover] Just being pulled aside by some of the
local residents and they just say thank you.
I think that really just takes back to
what this is really all about.
And by creating a space, I mean what architecture's about.