Information
BAD STUDIO (Bay Area Design Studio) is an Architecture firm based in Oakland, California, USA. We strive to involve ourselves with projects that encourage the re-imagination of the world we live in through connectedness.
What we do:
- Architecture / Interior Design
- Design-Build Partnerships
- Creative Strategy and Branding
- Master Planning and Schematic Design
Why BAD? Because buildings communicate values, and our verbal language, which is rooted in dualism, fails at communicating values properly. At our core we want our buildings to communicate connectedness. Words are inherently dualistic, and our verbal language fails us in helping people understand that our world is interconnected. We strive to create architecture that shows connection between disparate parts to the whole.
Why would you want to do that? So that people can see that every part of this world is interconnected, and that they are not separate from the world they live in.
What is dualism? Dualism is the conceptual division of the world into categories.1
“The limits of my language are the limits of my world.” - Ludwig Wittgenstein
Words have no inherent value, but are merely rudimentary placeholders for ideas. When we say that a tree is a tree, we fail to describe the fact that it was once a sapling, and we fail to understand that it will potentially one day turn into lumber. Our descriptions are often static judgments, and these judgments can destroy capabilties and connections. When we name something bad as a judgment only, we do not do evolution any justice. So, we aim to take back the dualism inherent in our thinking with an open language of architecture - one that a person can understand is trying to communicate connection within it’s own language.
1 “At the core of dualism, according to Zen, are words - just plain words. The use of words is inherently dualistic, since each word represents, quite obviously, a conceptual category. Therefore, a major part of Zen is the fight against reliance on words.”
Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (Hofstadter, 1979)
Email:
info@badstud.io
Phone:
510-859-5202
Address:
248 3rd Street
Oakland, California 94607
People:
Joshua Horne, AIA
Founder/Principal Architect
Josh is a highly sought after architect who grew up in North Carolina and Philadelphia, and has lived in California since 2000. He received his degree in Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley with Honors, where he received a full academic scholarship and numerous design awards. In the span of his career he has worked at various notable firms in the Bay Area, where he designed wineries, custom residences, and offices all over California.
Josh is a licensed Architect in the State of California, and in his free time enjoys hiking with his dogs, running, and traveling as much as possible.
ASSOCIATES
Alan Huynh - Consulting Associate
Jeff Baleix - Consulting Senior Architect
Past contributors: Xiaokang Feng, Micah Blevins