Office Kovacs

Office Kovacs is led by Andrew Kovacs, who teaches in the UCLA Architecture and Urban Design Department and is the creator and curator of Archive of Affinities blog, an outlet for his fascination for finding and sharing architecture’s unturned stones, or “B-sides,” which he shares on social media. “Instagram has allowed for a more rapid and open exchange of ideas, sensibilities, and tastes,” he says, adding that social platforms broaden the reach of architecture. In 2015, Kovacs created Bust of Medusa, a model constructed with found objects that speculates on the possibility of collective, densely populated human habitation. He collaborates with L.A.-based architectural designer Erin Wright, who joined Office Kovacs over two years ago.

Archive of Affinities

Los Angeles-based creative studio Office Kovacs’ Colossal Cacti consists of seven brightly colored cactuses, the four largest of which range in height between thirty-six and fifty-two feet, while the smaller three stand less than twenty-four feet tall. The grouping sprawls like a skyline, casting long shadows and creating a fun, attractive, and shaded gathering space. The platform on which the cactuses stand each have large steps lined with paint that reference Frank Stella’s “Multicolored Squares.” Instead of spines, or spikes, the “plants” in Colossal Cacti have road reflectors that illuminate the sculptures at nighttime and signal Kovacs’ preference for using found and ready-made materials to build architectural forms. By using the recognizable form of the cactus, he offers a bridge from the architecture community to the broader public.