On Thursday, May 9th, from 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm Helms Bakery District and the Cal Poly LA Metro Program in Architecture and Urban Design are excited to host a reception, lecture, and discussion with Benjamin Ball & Gaston Nogues of Ball-Nogues Studio 

Benjamin Ball & Gaston Nogues of Ball-Nogues Studio

Benjamin Ball grew up in Colorado and Iowa where his mother’s involvement in theatre proved influential. While studying for his degree at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), Ball logged a stint at Gehry Partners. Upon graduation, he sought work as a set and production designer for films (including the Matrix series) as well as music videos and commercials with such influential directors as Mark Romanek and Tony Scott. His experience ranges from work on the Disney Concert Hall and small residential architectural commissions for boutique design firms to complex medical structures and event design.

Gaston Nogues was born and raised in Buenos Aires before moving to Los Angeles at the age 12. Frequently accompanying his father to his job as an aerospace engineer, Nogues acquired a fascination with the hands-on process of building. An honors graduate in architecture from SCI-Arc, he moved directly from school into a position at Gehry Partners where he worked in product design and production; he then became a specialist in creative fabrication. Nogues remained at Gehry’s office until 2005 (except for a one-year stint in 1996 as an assistant curator at a fine arts publishing house, Gemini GEL). In his spare time, Nogues flies paragliders.

Ball-Nogues is a collaborative design and fabrication studio led by Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues that produces architecture, art, and industrial objects. The studio has exhibited at major institutions throughout the world, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Museum of Modern Art; the Guggenheim Museum; PS1; Indianapolis Museum of Art, arc en rêve centre d’architecture + Musée d’Art Contemporain de Bordeaux; the Venice Biennale, the Hong Kong | Shenzhen Biennale; and the Beijing Biennale. They have received numerous honors including two AIA Design Awards, United States Artists Target Fellowships, and a grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. In 2007, the Studio was the winner of the Museum of Modern Art’s Young Architects Program Competition. Recently, their work became part of the collection of the MoMA. The partners have taught in the graduate architecture programs at SCI-Arc; the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and the University of Southern California. Their work has appeared in a variety of publications worldwide including the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Guardian, Architectural Record, Artforum, Icon, Log, Architectural Digest, and Sculpture.

Introduced and moderated by Stephen Phillips, AIA, PhD, Principal of Stephen Phillips Architects (SPARCHS) and professor, director, Cal Poly LA Metro Program in Architecture and Urban Design (California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo)

Free Parking is available at the corner of Helms Ave. and Venice Blvd.

Photos (Left to Right): Benjamin Ball & Gaston Nogues, Installation at San Diego International Airport by Ball-Nogues Studio, Healing Pavillion in Los Angeles by Ball-Nogues Studio.

Upcoming Schedule
May 23rd Sylvia Lavin (rescheduled)
June 4th Lucia Allais (Princeton)