Funktion Design Office

Funktion Design Studio was conceived as an exploration of inversion—both spatially and structurally. Located on a constrained urban site, the project challenges the conventional logic of a commercial building by elevating the primary workspaces above the street, allowing them to engage with the surrounding tree canopy and natural light rather than the immediate urban context.

The building is organized around a series of exposed reinforced concrete portals that form its primary structural framework. Rather than functioning as a conventional stacked structure, the project investigates the relationship between suspension and support. The two lower floors are suspended from the concrete portals, creating an unusual structural condition where the mass of the building appears to hang within the frame rather than rise from the ground. This inversion of expected load paths becomes a defining architectural idea, making the structure legible and experiential.

Above, two levels are supported by a system of steel portals arranged on the perpendicular axis. These steel frames sit atop the concrete portals, creating a layered structural assembly where concrete and steel work in dialogue. The shift in structural direction establishes a clear distinction between the lower suspended volumes and the lighter upper workspaces while allowing large, flexible floor plates and unobstructed interiors.

An external suspended staircase is threaded through this structural framework, expressing movement as an architectural element. Detached from the enclosed spaces and suspended within the portal system, it reinforces the building's central themes of gravity, balance, and inversion. Through the interplay of concrete, steel, light, and void, the studio becomes a built investigation into structure as both engineering and architecture.