SOFTlab is a design studio based in New York City founded by Michael Szivos. The studio combines a research-based design practice with an interest in how technology, craft, and materials come together in ways that explore the boundaries between architecture, other disciplines, and the public. We are a mix of artists, listeners, geeks, dreamers, teachers, believers, programmers, and architects. Above all, we are curious designers. Our curiosity is driven by the idiosyncratic nature of the world and the expectations people have of how they engage with that world and each other. Rather than rationalize or give order to that world we are inspired by its peculiar messiness and seek to reframe it through our work. While technology can be seen as simply an alibi for innovation or progress, we see technology as an opportunity to enable new perspectives of where we might find unexpected possibilities, playfulness, and beauty in an increasingly complex world. Ultimately, we strive for our projects to elicit a sense of wonder and a rethinking of our relationship to each other and the world around us. Our approach always starts by exploring contextual conditions and effects. This context can be anything from a place to a project brief. By examining found conditions, we create interventions that become an extension of something existing that might not be readily apparent. We develop our work as a translation of the often dynamic phenomena on the site. In that way, our work forms an experiential contextualism, rather than a literal one. The specificity of the connection to the site is made through active engagement with people. This allows us to achieve projects which are unexpected, yet become appropriate as they unfold.
