WOWHAUS has studios in Oakland, CA and on 3+ acres in Sonoma County, where robust fabrication facilities enable us to work in a wide range of media. We also draw on a nationwide network of skilled fabricators and technicians, adding new members to our team as needed. We welcome you to join us for a Studio Lunch to see works in progress.
An extension of our daily lives, the rural studio is a place to fabricate, incubate ideas, build prototypes, grow food, and host projects and production. Sited on over three rambling acres comprised of studios, apple orchard, open meadow, vegetable gardens, dwellings and outbuildings, home and studio overlap in both proximity and function.
Process
For over seventeen years, Wowhaus has created works in the public realm. Operating at the interstices of art and design, we are pioneers in the realm of socially-engaged practice. Informed by our training in community development and appropriate technology with the US Peace Corps, our work is rooted in a lifelong study of traditional craft, public celebration and the role of art in daily life. Our projects benefit from our particularly convivial, cross-cultural approach, ensuring deep integration with a site and community.
Our temporary projects and interventions inform our more permanent works. We think of temporary projects as “situationist” experiments where we can take risks in both content and form to test new ideas and structures. Our permanent projects reflect this commitment to innovation, resulting in work that is both conceptually and aesthetically compelling.