Meet the Progressive Questionnaire, with its inaugural respondents, Thread Collective principals Gita Nandan (above left), Elliott Maltby (above, middle), and Mark Mancuso (above, right).
Firm: Thread Collective
Location: Brooklyn, N.Y.
Year founded: 2004
Leadership: Gita Nandan, Elliott Maltby, Mark Mancuso (principals)
Education: Nandan: B.A. art history, University of Michigan; M.Arch., University of California, Berkeley • Maltby: B.A. philosophy, Kenyon College; M.L.A., UC Berkeley • Mancuso: B.Arch., University of Michigan; M.Arch., UC Berkeley
Total staff: Six, plus a studio dog, Felix.
Mission:
We’re interested in the overlap of outside and inside, the social and the ecological, and the city and the home, and we take a wide-ranging approach to sustainability and resiliency at multiple scales.
Sue Kwon
The firm’s large-scale work includes a proposal for a series of ecological field stations along the length of Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal.
First commission:
Printshop, in Brooklyn, N.Y., a conversion of a one-story former print shop into a residence, artist studio, and event space. It’s organized around a new, small courtyard, and incorporates multiple sustainable strategies, such as the use of materials with a low environmental impact and a photovoltaic array.
Fran Parente/OTTO
Work–life balance takes on new meaning with Trout House, the office and residence that Thread Collective designed for its own use.
Favorite project:
Our Trout House, a three-unit sustainable townhouse in Brooklyn that also serves as our office and residence. We had the experience of being our own client and developer, and met the challenge of achieving a high degree of sustainability and thoughtful design with a modest budget, working within the very rigid constraints of New York’s building code. We also had an opportunity to inhabit a project, to live with it, and to learn from it over time.
Design heroes:
Gita’s choice is Eileen Grey, for her avant-garde approach to life and design and her take on Modernism through a wide range of scales, from furniture to architecture. She also loves her lacquer work. Elliott’s hero is Carlo Scarpa, for his development of a personal and idiosyncratic visual language, his use of water as a primary design element, and his integration and use of landscape. All three of us credit Samuel Mockbee for our interest in design/build, thanks to his democratization of design and innovative reuse of materials, centering education around social engagement and building.
Preferred social media platform:
Instagram.
Hobbies:
Gardening, teaching, swimming, cooking, and listening to baseball games in the office. That goes for all of us—although Mark swims less.
A set of cottages for farmhouse resort Basil & Barns will prioritize sustainability on a 100-acre site in upstate New York.
Vices:
Elliott and Gita share an addiction to buying plants.
Superstitions:
We wait until we have a signed contract before we create a folder on the server for a new project.
Fran Parente/OTTO
Lake House, sited on 77 acres in Vernon, N.J., reorients structure upon an existing footprint to direct views over a new courtyard to the lake.
Fran Parente/OTTO
Lake House
Fran Parente/OTTO
Thread Collective transformed a 1-acre plot in Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood from derelict land into a productive source of food for New York City Housing Authority Farms, leading to further projects with the authority, including a demonstration kitchen, now on the boards.
Fran Parente/OTTO
New York City Housing Authority Farms
