The Writer's Block is an award-winning 1,500 square foot live-work loft designed as a creative production nook within a historic warehouse building. The space was purchased by a couple, one a New York Times bestselling author and the other a game designer. The unit was not intended to be their primary place of dwelling, and they approached CHA:COL for it as a compact urban getaway. Their work involved writing, drawing, music and game design within this getaway. They also needed it a place of respite between extensive book tours and travels. The loft was zoned Live-Work in downtown Los Angeles, a use set up

specifically to address this kind of dual-use by artists.

Our design focus therefore centered on the creation of a compact but fluid artistic environment, to put users at ease with creative production and rest. Taking cues from their writing, gaming and fantasy environment background, we drew inspiration from the Escher-like geometries of the game Monument Valley.

Our proposed design therefore played on a premise of shifting and fluid relationship between the graphic and the spatial. We studied many iterations of a single core geometry to aid each activity without shutting off other possibilities. We nicknamed our solution the Writer's Block. As a central element it functions as spatial separation, production workhorse and a piece of furniture. A writing desk on one face, a shelf in another and a lounge elsewhere. The mural and floor finishes extend the concept of

2d/3d manipulation, interchangeably graphic and spatial. All design areas flowed from and into the Writer's Block.