Barefoot Photography Studio / Quarta & Armando

Barefoot Photography Studio / Quarta & Armando - Chair, WindowsBarefoot Photography Studio / Quarta & Armando - ChairBarefoot Photography Studio / Quarta & Armando - ChairBarefoot Photography Studio / Quarta & Armando - Chair, Facade, WindowsBarefoot Photography Studio / Quarta & Armando - More Images+ 8

  • Architects: Quarta & Armando
  • Area Area of this architecture project Area:  85
  • Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2019
  • Photographs
    Photographs:Peter Dixie
  • Lead Architects: Gianmaria Quarta, Michele Armando
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Barefoot Photography Studio / Quarta & Armando - Chair, Windows
© Peter Dixie

Text description provided by the architects. After carving out their niche through fifteen years of hectic practice, Barefoot needed a new, bigger and better home. Specialized in family portraits and loved for creating cheerful galleries full of happy families and couples, Barefoot is not just another photography studio: it’s a place in which memories are crystallized for the future - a bright, open future full of possibilities. Quarta & Armando designed the new studio, located in Shanghai’s Jing An district, to become the best possible background for collecting happy moments of people’s lives. In line with Barefoot’s signature no-frills approach in which trust is gained (and kept) by means of sheer quality and efficiency, the whole space is designed around one single element: a twenty-four meters long parete attrezzata (equipped wall unit) separating working space and reception space.

Barefoot Photography Studio / Quarta & Armando - Chair
© Peter Dixie
Diagram 1
Barefoot Photography Studio / Quarta & Armando - Chair, Facade
© Peter Dixie

Hidden in the thickness of this monolithic “toy box”, all storage requirements are absorbed, all functions contained (including reception desk, office, make-up room, dressing room and pantry) and all flows organized: it is neither architecture nor furniture, but both at the same time. By managing to squeeze eighty percent of all fixed functions in twenty percent of the whole surface, the resulting space becomes the stage for endless interaction. Towards the actual working area, a patchwork of materials and textures defines different working areas, exposing the workshop nature of the studio.

Barefoot Photography Studio / Quarta & Armando - Chair
© Peter Dixie

The external surface of the wall towards the glazed corridor is entirely cladded with soft cork sheets to acoustically separate the studio from the waiting areas, while its internal OSB wood structure is exposed in nooks and openings. Avoiding traditional doors, the transition from space to space relies entirely on sliding panels, low semi-transparent partitions and milky PVC shower curtains, marking soft thresholds which invite rather than excluding.

Barefoot Photography Studio / Quarta & Armando - Image 10 of 13
© Peter Dixie

Taking into consideration the ever-changing nature of a photography studio, Q&A adopted a just-enough approach to the design of all shooting areas, resulting into careful subtractions into otherwise white pristine surfaces, exposing and framing the roughness and beauty of construction materials.

Barefoot Photography Studio / Quarta & Armando - Image 7 of 13
© Peter Dixie

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Project location

Address:715 Ao Men Lu, Chang Shou Lu, Putuo Qu, Shanghai Shi, China

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Location to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.
About this office
Cite: "Barefoot Photography Studio / Quarta & Armando" 19 Jul 2019. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/921383/barefoot-photography-studio-q-and-a> ISSN 0719-8884

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