Architect & Designer: George Ranalli

Project Architect: John Butterworth

Project Team: Ursula Kyle, Lester Yuen

Fabricator: Union Hardware Company

This project presented the opportunity to explore mass production techniques as well as the relationship between utility and beauty. Asked to design a set of hardware for the beginning of the twenty-first century, we worked closely with the manufacturer to push the parameters of metal casting while still remaining within a fixed budget. The design mediates between the scale of a building and the human hand. Since the hand is the first part of the body to make physical contact with a building, this door hardware attempts to communicate, both visually and tactually, the intensity of the spaces, colors and forms that will follow in the building.