Established in 2004, The Los Angeles Design Group (The LADG) is led by principals Claus Benjamin Freyinger and Andrew Holder. Working at a range of scales, the firm has completed projects in California, Colorado, Hawaii, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, and the United Kingdom. The founders see their work as contributing to a “longer history of ideas,” and draw on this history to craft unexpected solutions to conventional problems. Recent projects include installations at the Taubman College Gallery at the University of Michigan and commercial interior renovations in New York and Santa Monica.
The LADG is one of the winners of the 2014 Architectural League Prize, one of North America’s most prestigious awards for young architects and designers. The prize, established in 1981, recognizes exemplary and provocative work by young practitioners and provides a public forum — through lectures, an exhibition, and a catalogue — for the exchange of their ideas.
In this interview, Freyinger and Holder discuss the genesis of their work and their interpretation of this year’s competition theme, Overlay, in their exhibition installation, which they call a “living room turned inside out.” With a literal interpretation of the word “overlay,” the two share the stories of the construction of the exhibit and how the “lumps” interact with the tables and tchotchkes of the living room.
