Jessica Colangelo and Charles Sharpless met as undergraduate students at the Rice School of Architecture in Houston, Texas. They currently live in Fayetteville, Arkansas, both teach at the University of Arkansas, and have two children, Maya, 3, and Luca, 1, along with two poodle mixes, Cody and Jasper. They said their children have played an important role in this installation since the first site walk last October because they are good at knowing when it’s time to take a break from work. 

They work on all types and sizes of projects, from multifamily residential buildings to restaurant interiors to temporary pavilions such as Ground Rules and small pieces of urban furniture like bus stops, pantries, and even a mobile printmaking cart. Being architects allows them to work with many different people in excitingly different places on wildly different types of projects. 

In Ground Rules, all deck boards, bench seats, purple scallops, and blue pickets are materials salvaged from construction sites in Fayetteville. They explained that materials are necessary for construction when a building is being put together, but that doesn’t always make it into the final project. They call these “facilitator materials,” with examples being such things as bracing, formwork, and offcuts. Since these materials are often thrown into the trash, they spent the first half of the summer calling contractors and lumberyards and visiting construction sites to find as much wood as possible for the project, ultimately filling their pickup truck nine or 10 times.

They said Ground Rules is completely interactive. They have supplied bocce balls, cornhole games, lawn bowling, and big dice to play on the astroturf court.

There is a small slide on the west end of the project that could perhaps also be used as a ramp for remote-controlled cars, for example. 

Jessica and Charles hope their project sparks curiosity and interest because it isn’t something you see daily. They said they are excited to see it utilized in ways they didn’t even imagine.

They are also excited about the future of Ground Rules since they have designed the project to be disassembled. As soon as they finish celebrating its completion, they will plan for where to put the project next. They’re open to any ideas that anyone might have. 

For the next five years, they hope to continue to grow their practice and have fun working on projects such as this one. At some point, Jessica and Charles would like to move their office out of their basement and find a better place to store salvaged lumber than their backyard. Their fingers are crossed that they can accomplish that in five years.

This excerpt is from the 2023 Field Guide. Download it here.