Year: 2023
Medium: Architecture
Class: ARC 301 Studio
Location: 1461 E Apache Blvd,
Tempe, Arizona, United States

Typology: Apartments,
Collaborative Studio
Program: Live/Work
Scope: Architecture, Interior
Area: 75,000 ft²

Kito: project director, building floorplan, facades, interior, renders.
Kamile Zemblys: unit floorplans, 
site analysis (not included), 
physical model (not included).

Study Unit Monestary Complex

This two-part project begins with a singular unit designed for a solitary creator. It could be an artist, scientist, or inventor living in devotion to their work. The architecture informs a ritual: the body lives below, the mind ascends above. The daily procession becomes a physical metaphor for creative transcendence.

In the second phase, the unit is expanded into a shared monastery for the desciples of creation. Each unit surrounds a large collaborative atrium, designed to spark unexpected encounters. Built from full CLT panels with zero waste, the structure draws from both architecture and fashion logic, echoing Issey Miyake’s A-POC method. The structure becomes a sanctuary for knowledge, experimentation, and communion in a world that often separates us.

The project began with a simple brief to design a 12,000 ft² live/work unit for an independent creative, using CLT timber panels as the main construction materials. The client is imagined as someone who lives in devotion to their craft, such as an artist, scientist, or entrepreneur.

The spaces are organized not through convenience but by a value system. Physical needs are grounded below, while mental and spiritual activities are elevated. This reflects a hiearchy of mind over body, and work over life, framing creation as a sacred pursuit.

The project’s central gesture is a large exterior stairwell that separates the space for living from the space for working. In the morning, before anything else, the user must leave their bedroom, step outside, and climb the stairs to reach the kitchen and studio. In that transition, you leave your human obligations to ascend to a higher plane.

But that state is temporary, because you are human. Eventually, exhaustion, or the need to use the bathroom, forces the user back outside and down the stairs, as if being cast out of heaven. You can ascend to this higher plane but you must always come back down. That rhythm trudging back and forth out of heaven forms a daily procession

At the center of the lower floor is a massive stone. It anchors the space like a burden, evoking the myth of Sisyphus: the artist endlessly pushing their work uphill, never free from the pull of the real world.

Issey Miyake’s A-POC (A Piece of Cloth) was a radical innovation in fashion. Each garment was pre-designed into a tube of fabric, and the buyer would cut out their clothing from a single roll with no scraps left behind. It was a system that rethought how material is used, reducing waste while celebrating the intelligence of the cut.

This building takes the same approach. The form was shaped by the constraints of the CLT panels, which are provided in fixed dimensions of 54 feet by 10 feet. Instead of cutting them down and generating waste, the design works within those limits, fitting each element of the building like a pattern in a garment. 

In total, the structure is assembled from exactly ten panels, with nothing discarded, as a simple act of respect for the material.

The brief was to then translate the same themes from the original study unit into an apartment complex with three different unit types and integrated retail. Early on, we explored simply stacking the units, but found that the ideas no longer made sense when applied to a collaborative context. 

Instead of giving each unit its own individual journey, the project became about designing one collective journey. The building acts like a living cell, with each resident contributing to a larger whole. 

Whether you’re heading out for coffee or returning to your apartment, the space invites you to check in on a neighbor’s work, share feedback, or maybe stumble into a conversation that shifts your entire project.

All of the units surround a central atrium, which serves as a large shared workspace inspired by the architecture studio. The stairway from the original study unit returns here, enlarged into a multi-level collaborative zone designed to encourage interaction.

The layout promotes both friction and flow. Spaces pause, overlook, and connect. At the top of the grand stair, a meditation platform offers quiet views of the horizon. On the opposite side, a rooftop café becomes a night bar, hosting weekly performances and gatherings.

The space can be seen as a contemporary monastery, in honor of creation and collaboration itself. A place built to honor the creative process and the shared rituals of invention.