Firm Description and Profile

inspiring | sustainable | sympathetic | contemporary

nonzeroarchitecture provides full architectural, planning and design services to local, national and international clients from its offices in Playa Vista, California. Evolved into its current form around 2004, it builds on an experienced team and seamlessly continues the work of its accomplished predecessor firm studio bau:ton, founded in 1990.

nonzeroarchitecture explores the potential of architecture to enrich and enhance people’s lives.

Our designs address the human desire for both the beauty and functionality of their surroundings, whether at home or at work, at leisure or in the public realm. Based on an awareness of historical evolution and broader culture, we search for contemporary architectural solutions to the challenges of today’s built environment.

The creation of stimulating spaces and structures is a primary aspiration of the firm.

Concurrently, we carefully consider the economic realities, social dynamics and limited natural resources that all demand a thoughtful and conscious approach to design and construction.

nza’s innovative strategies aim to make the most of any given budget, and to conserve materials and energy at every practical level. Sustainability and the preservation of building substance, of financial and material resources, are always integral parts of the firm’s designs.

Our team understands that in a truly successful project the interests of owners, users and the public at large need to converge. Based on this awareness of architecture as a non-zero-sum game we try to balance each part of the project to the fullest extent possible.

But a constant infusion of fresh ideas and a passion for good design must be inherent to the process to transcend buildings into architecture. Balancing divergent needs is only the foundation on which we build our own strong point of view, aiming to fulfill our client’s needs to the fullest and to offer a unique modern design sensibility for a contemporary world.

A dynamic combination of all these concerns forms the foundation for nonzeroarchitecture’s work.

architecture | art | technology

studio bau:ton, founded in 1990 as a boutique architecture firm, is now a fully integrated division of nonzeroarchitecture, carrying on its legacy as a pre-eminent force in the field of media production facilities design.

Within nonzeroarchitecture, the studio bau:ton division continues to offer a comprehensive approach to the complex challenges of projects for the creation, recording, production and distribution of audio and visual media and for the live arts.

The award-winning studio bau:ton made a name for itself from the very beginning, particularly in the music recording and audio-visual media industry. It introduced a new architectural approach to the design of media production facilities and its work and general aesthetic have since been widely emulated.

Architecture and sound share many parallel and intersecting elements. While this had been recognized for centuries, contemporary artistic, cultural, scientific and technological developments have given rise to new building types for audio and visual media. These projects demand solutions that offer a comprehensive approach and bridge architecture, art and technology.

studio bau:ton has been pre-eminently involved in drawing together these diverse disciplines, specializing in the design and construction of buildings with unique requirements for sonic and visual performance and media technology.

A multi-disciplinary outlook has always been studio bau:ton’s basis to finding integrated solutions for all aspects of its projects. Grounded in the historical foundations of design and the building sciences, the team is continuously looking for new architectural solutions to the evolving challenges of space, construction, technology, sound and vision.

In projects of every size and type, the client’s needs and budgets have consistently formed the framework for studio bau:ton’s search for the most efficient and economical solution. Applying both traditional and unconventional methods, the creative potential of programs, spaces and materials are always exploited to the fullest.