Firm profile
Bade Stageberg Cox was founded in 2006 by Timothy Bade, Jane Stageberg and Martin Cox. Our firm’s portfolio spans a wide variety of project types and scales, from public and institutional projects to the design of interiors, residences, and spaces for culture and the arts. Our clients range from large and complex institutions to small, non-profit organizations. With a growing body of critically recognized projects, our work stems from a desire to create architectural spaces that are imaginative, beautiful, and a source of pleasure in the lives of their inhabitants.
Our approach is founded on the principle that each project requires a design solution uniquely responsive to the specific needs of the client, the particular community and site in which the project is situated. We believe in the power of good design to create spaces that make a difference in people’s lives and positively affect their world.
The work of our firm draws on the diverse talents and experiences of its three partners. Jane Stageberg spent her formative years at the offices of Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, Gluckman Mayner Architects, and Davis Brody Bond. Martin and Tim developed their working relationship through their long tenures at Steven Holl Architects, where Martin gained senior associate status and Tim was made partner in 2005.
Bade Stageberg Cox is a certified Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE) with a diverse staff who bring a variety of perspectives to our work. The work of the firm has been published widely and honored with numerous awards for design excellence, including an American Architecture Award and an International Architecture Award from the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design, and five design awards from the American Institute of Architects.
FIRM PHILOSOPHY
Over hundreds of thousands of years, the human body and brain have evolved in response to the environment. The need for balance developed into an innate sense of the horizon. Harnessing fire provided heat and the ability to tolerate extreme climates. An awareness of cycles of the sun and moon and the passing of the seasons set the stage for farming. Circadian rhythms tuned to seasonal daylight and the slow rotation of the heavens make us aware of time. The need for navigation required a sense of global orientation that lead to knowledge of the heavens while an understanding of the cosmos has given us a sense of scale that is beyond normal comprehension. Pattern recognition: seeking meaning in complexity.
As hominids evolved, moved indoors, civilized, and formed collective cities and societies, those early ingrained connections to our environment remain important for understanding our place and time. Architecture began at the crux of history – humans building the first environment in the wilderness.
Over the last 350 years the rise of reason has accelerated humankind’s intellectual development. Artistic, intellectual and technological advancements in art, music, sciences, literature and philosophy have greatly accelerated. Many of these advancements are based on exploring our innate connections to our environment.
ARCHITECTURAL IDEAL
Architecture is at the intersection of these pursuits. Architecture has a dual responsibility to both protect and illuminate the essence of the world. Providing shelter for the body as well as nourishment for the mind, architecture is at the intersection of many art forms.
Our work seeks to use architecture to further this evolution, to engage the human senses that situate us in the universe, while promulgating the cultural knowledge we pursue as a species.
At the root of our practice is the idea that architecture is the poetic ordering of space, light and material in time. While these ideas have been explored by many architects throughout history, it is through our particular inspiration, readings, and translations of these ideas that our work takes on relevance.
The purpose of architecture is to move us. Architectural emotion exists when the work rings within us in tune with a universe whose laws we obey, recognize and respect.
- Le Corbusier, Vers une architecture, 1923
SITING AND CONTEXT
Site can be construed in many different ways and at many different scales. Unlike other art forms, architecture is bound to its situation.
Working within the urban and suburban, interior and exterior, ‘site’ takes on an expanded meaning. Our exploration of site operates at different scales and durations.
Each of our projects grows from its circumstance. The always variable combination of site, climate, client, and budget influence the direction of the project.
We begin each project with an analysis of its program and site, seeking to mine potential opportunities. It is through the intuitive study of many of these variables that an approach is conceived. During this phase we explore subjective approaches to atmosphere, sound, heat and light. Our approach is to see each project as its own manifesto.
TECTONICS AND MATERIAL DIALOGUE
We view the tectonic as imbuing construction with poetry. How materials are joined is an opportunity to reveal an intent full of symbolic meaning. The qualities and characteristics of materials suggest how they are best used. Each detail has its own logic.
Details offer clues to the designer’s method of thinking. One can regard the finished detail as a puzzle. Through examining it one can understand the method of thinking and the production method employed.
The architecture of small objects is an avenue for exploring materials and tectonics. For many of our projects we design light fixtures and furniture. These can be fruitful explorations into materials and fabrication techniques that extend the project’s design into the details.
Our work often provokes investigations that are rooted in cultural history. By focusing on one material or detail we aim to capture a glimpse into a universal truth. Revealing the intellectual progression of tiling on a surface connects us to history and embeds craft, mathematics and tectonics into everyday surfaces. The intellectual metaphor is combined with a study of sensory perception.
ILLUMINATION
Ever-changing light renders each moment in time. Strong sunlight, diffuse light on a rainy winter’s day, or the shadows of passing clouds in the early fall alter one’s perception of time and space.
We utilize the power of light when orienting a building, when designing facades that serve as a filter for light, and when considering illumination within an architectural interior.
Considering how spaces and forms are rendered by light in its 3 states - daylight, artificial light, and night light - is of great interest to us. The transition from daytime sunlight to nighttime artificial lighting is an opportunity to adjust our designs to these changing conditions. We often develop concealed light sources to illuminate architectural surfaces rather than using off-the-shelf fixtures that appear as objects in space. Using filament bulbs or multiple light sources, subtle shadows are cast, allowing the mind to perceive depth and contour.
ARCHITECTURE IN SOCIETY
The following projects illustrate how these principles have been employed, from single-family homes to large academic campuses. Our work aims to develop architecture for personal enjoyment and societal good. Our projects have challenged us to work at a multitude of scales, and to address human concerns of seemingly small consequence and of great concern. The ever-changing nature of the tasks before us demands attunement to our present condition in the world. We seek to do good and build well.
