Johnston Marklee

Since the founding of Johnston Marklee in 1998 by Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee, the diversity of the duo’s professional projects has been characterized by a continuous line of approach: the conceptual approach seeking to explore possible relationships between design and building technology in order to produce unique architectural works. Indeed, the way Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee approach projects that vary in size and scale – from blueprints to construction, to temporary installations – distils the inherent complexity of each project in order to transform it into a set of coherent solutions. Johnston Marklee has strong professional record where residential, commercial and institutional environments coexist together with exhibition spaces, with a special interest in the arts. While maintaining its deep commitment to the history of architecture and the ongoing evolution of the discipline, Johnston Marklee know how to take advantage of an extensive network of collaborators in related fields, seeking the expertise of contemporary artists, graphic designers and writers to expand the scope of their design work in the research phase. Johnston Marklee agrees on the collaborative model in which, the distinguished expertise of a discipline related to another discipline increases in intensity rather than vice versa, thus maintaining permeable boundaries that lead to better results.

Ongoing projects include a new campus of workshops for UCLA’s Faculty of Arts in Culver City, California; the Grand Traia-no Art Complex of the DEPART Foundation in Grottaferrata, Italy; Vault House, a private beach resort in Oxnard, California; and Chile House / META, a center of art and cultural action in Penco, for the Chilean government. The agency has won several distinction awards, including the AIA California Council Honor Awards and the American Architecture Award, and Architectural’s Emerging Architecture Award Review.