COMMONWEALTH CLAYWORKS

• commercial / artisanal studio

• adaptive reuse & recycled components

ONGOING DESIGN CONSULTANCY & CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT SERVICES

Commonwealth Clayworks is a small full-service ceramics studio that offers classes and studio membership for all generations.  The project includes 13 electric pottery wheels, 2 work tables that seat 17 in total, one wedging area, one glazing area, and two electric Skutt kilns with filtered exhaust systems. 

The challenge of this project was to design and build within a a certain budget and still create a workshop atmosphere where one can get down and dirty with clay. Given this challenge, our team recycled as much material as possible from previous projects and leaned on the unique character of furniture and material from antique or vintage store to refinish and furnish the space. The project was successfully built with $75/sf or PHP46,500 per square meter which was only 18% of the typical commercial cost/sf build at that time. 

Another challenge of this project was during the Permitting phase. We had to appeal through a zoning and land use public hearing in order to permit Commonwealth Clayworks required use of the space, not only for artisinal production but also for instructional and educational classes. We successfully navigated this process with the support the City and neighborhood, resulting in an amendment in the city zoning ordinance to allow Arts Education as a permitted land use. 

We provided architectural design, interior design, project management and construction management services for this project. 

• architectural design

• permitting

• bidding

• construction management

• project management

Architects Local, Shepherd Engineering Inc, Rebuildmen, Inc, F&J Plumbing, Kris Johnson Mechanical & Electrical

Nina Gonzalez, Hector Castillo, Michael Sarazin, Karina Spassova