What began as architects Catherine Johnson and Rebecca Rudolph’s provocative response to the question “What is architecture?,” posed by the American Institute of Architects Los Angeles chapter as part of a 2010 competition, became the ethos of the duo’s collaboration: “It is design, bitches” was their answer. The SCI-Arc graduates met while working at Bestor Architecture; they established their Los Angeles practice in 2010. The pair’s projects unabashedly integrate a spectrum of influences, from pop culture to fine art. For Superba Snack Bar in Venice, California, completed in 2012, Johnson and Rudolph crossed a Parisian café with the kind of stoner-chic aesthetic seen in the 1982 movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High. They are currently at work on a second Superba. RECORD spoke to the architects about their projects and the philosophy that fuels their work.
Rebecca Rudolph: It’s sort of an alter ego. Design, Bitches is this entity that allows us to do things that as individuals we might not have the courage to do. It also allows us to be very candid with what we really think. Catherine Johnson: The name is rooted in some of our underlying philosophies. When we wrote that architecture is “design, bitches,” it made the profession seem more approachable and accessible to a larger audience.
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