05. Intertwined Worlds:
Office for Working Mothers
UC Berkeley Design Studio 100A
Academic, 2023
Individual Work
Instructor:
Liz Gálvez
This project reimagines the office as a dual-world environment for working mothers and children. Using a subtractive massing strategy inspired by Tony Smith, carved voids operate as circulation, thresholds, and zones of encounter. An independent children’s landscape, shaped by continuous play, angled walls, and non-orthogonal spaces, is interwoven with a light and open workplace. Rather than collapsing work and care into a single environment, the architecture allows them to coexist through spatial differentiation, visibility, and controlled overlap, creating a resilient framework that supports multiple modes of inhabitation.
Part I:
The Part I of the project is to create a massing form based on the Tony Smith sculptor and use the “subtracting” method. the building is organized around a primary and secondary volume carved by voids that become circulation, thresholds, and moments of encounter.
NIGHT, 1962, Tony Smith
Part II:
In the second phase, the massing is transformed into a continuous, playful interior world inserted into the office: a looping sequence of slides, ladders, angled stairs, and spiral staircases that creates a playful, wandering experience. Thick, angled walls form the boundary between adult and child spaces, producing non-orthogonal rooms, elongated thresholds, and programmatic poche.
Top Left Image: Inspiration, “NIGHT” by Tony Smith
Top Middle Image: Negative Space Massing Model
Top Right Image: Positive Space Massing Model
Middle Image:
Explode axon drawing, colored part showing the children circulation, highlighting the inserted massing
Bottom Image: Section drawings
Part III:
Together, the project constructs two intertwined spatial systems: a light, open, and productive environment for adults, and a dense, tactile, and exploratory world for children. Rather than separating work and care, the architecture allows them to coexist—enabling interaction, visibility, and mutual presence without sacrificing autonomy.
Top Image: Plans
Middle Image: Render, daycare interior, showing the independent circulation for children
Bottom Image: Render, floor 4 running track with a view of the floor 3 open office, showing intersection of the adult world and children world