About
XDEA is an interdisciplinary design studio led by architect N. Scott Johnson. We create spaces and buildings, performances and public installations, inspired by the tactile and the ethereal, creating moments of architectural and sensorial experiences that connect to immediate surroundings and the broader physical environment.
N. Scott Johnson is an architect, artist, musician, writer, and composer with a keen commitment to environment and experience.
As an architect, Mr. Johnson has had the privilege to work in the design studios of both Richard Meier and Elizabeth Diller, both of whom continue to inspire his work. At Richard Meier & Partners and Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Johnson worked on numerous cultural, institutional, commercial, and residential projects in New York City and around the world.
His architectural practice is inspired by the arts, an emphasis on theater, film, and music. Among his collaborations, Mr. Johnson’s work has been featured in the 2018 Berlin International Film Festival with filmmaker Barbara Hammer, first performed as part of the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema exhibit in the fall of 2016 and subsequently featured at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio and Contemporary Arts Museum Houston.
XDEA projects are rooted in art, public space and performance, informed by community, memory, loss and renewal. We think of movement, light, sound and the natural elements—sun, wind, rain and snow—as design materials, just as wood, stone, metal and glass are construction materials. We create architectural experiences that connect human and site-specific experiences, to hear and feel the rhythm of the forces that enrich the spaces you move through and occupy.
As co-founder and president of Artists with Evidence (artistswithevidence.org), a collaborative of artists and environmental scientists, Johnson looks to link evidence-based science with artistic inspiration to create educational experiences and new works of art and architecture not otherwise possible.
Mr. Johnson’s collaborations with dancer choreographer Jody Sperling, a Loie Fuller interpreter and founder of Time Lapse Dance pushes the limits of their ‘instruments’ with a sonically responsive algorithm that projects light in Sonata for Dance, Cello and Algorithm, playing with the subtle spectrum of sound in their performance. In his work, Mr. Johnson brings the concepts of breath, harmonics and the sound of the cello to activate the vast space between the 12 traditional tones. The central inspiration in the design of his recently commissioned lake house in Madison, Wisconsin is the rhythmic connection of waves to shore and it’s transforming affect on rock and sand.
CV
N. SCOTT JOHNSON, AIA
Architect, Artist, Composer, Cellist
WORKS IN PROGRESS
Stonewall National Monument, Greenwich Village, New York City, a proposal to re-imagine the six block National Monument area, in collaboration with National Parks Conservation Association, Aspect 120 Landscape Architecture and the American Institute of Architects, New York City Chapter; architect
Student Entrepreneurial Center, Community Collaboratory with Outdoor Amphitheater, Vero Beach, FL, programing and design; architect
WWII Tribute, Vero Beach, FL, Visioning Study Complete July, 2022; architect
CMS Vero Beach, new chamber music residency for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center with three performances 2022 – 2023; founding collaborator
Lake House, Madison, WI, construction complete 2022; architect
Water Bridge House, Cold Spring, NY, new home on 35 acres adjacent to the Hudson Highlands State Park. Planning, health department and conservation board approvals complete 2022; architect
PERFORMANCE/INSTALLATION PROJECTS
2021
Treaty Between Self and Earth, a new performance piece inspired by the poems of Colin Greer, produced by Rattlestick Theater, New York, NY; writer, producer, composer and performer
Unsettled Dust, a new film by Lisa Katzman about the impact of the toxic cancer-causing smoke that hung over ground zero after 9/11 and how the EPA told people the air was safe to breathe. Aired on PBS September 11, 2021; film score composer and performer
2020
CMS Miami, new chamber music residency for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in Miami, FL, January 2020; founding contributor
AIDS Memorial Project, site specific performance piece linking three AIDS memorials in the West Village; creator/writer
2019
AIDS Day Memorial Service, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York, NY, on-site performance collaboration with dancer/choreographer Jody Sperling, December 1, 2019; composer/performer
The Hammer Mix, Decades, Duet for Cello and Film, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, screening of Barbara Hammer’s Evidentiary Bodies, November 13, 2019; composer/performer
Immersive Film Installation with filmmaker Barbara Hammer, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio, May 2019; exhibit designer, composer and performer
Immersive Film Installation, with filmmaker Barbara Hammer, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Texas April 2019; exhibit designer, composer and performer
2018
Evidentiary Bodies, premier of Barbara Hammer’s film, Lesley-Lohman Museum, New York, NY; composer and performer
Duet for Cello and Film with filmmaker Barbara Hammer, five screenings at the Berlin Film Festival, Berlin, Germany, February 2018; composer/performer
Nude Walk, visual musical score for Barbara Hammer’s Immersive Cinema Installation at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, published by Inpatient Press, sold at the Berlinale, Berlin, Germany
The St Vincent’s Project, Novenas for a Lost Hospital, Rattlestick Theater, New York, NY, on site performances; co-creator, director and performer with playwright Cusi Cram, dramaturge Guy Lancaster and artist James Scruggs
Sound Study, Soaking WET, West End Theater, New York, NY, with dancer/choreographer Jody Sperling and projection designer Sergey Pigach; composer and performer
Soundings, Barnard College Dance Department, New York, NY, with dancer/choreographer, Jody Sperling; composer and performer
2017
Evidentiary Bodies Performance installation by Barbara Hammer, Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art Exhibit, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; installation designer, composer, and performer https:/whitney.org/Events/HammerScreening
Creative Climate Awards, Human Impacts Institute, Taiwan Embassy, One East 42nd Street, New York, NY; exhibition designer
The Living Stage, Meltzer Garden, Lower East Side, New York, NY, in collaboration with Superhero Clubhouse, University Settlement and the University of Melbourne; urban, theater, and landscape designer
Carriage House, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Historic Coach Barn, Pocantico Center, Tarrytown, NY, adaptation of museum into performance space, collaborating with acoustic engineers Holden & Jaffe and theater planners Fisher Dachs; architect
EMPLOYMENT
2017-present
Founder and CEO, XDEA Architects
2013-2017
Principal, Diller Scofido + Renfro
Projects include: Charles James Exhibit at the Met, MoMA Expansion, The Shed, Zaryadye Park, Moscow, The High Line
2010-2013
Chief Operating Officer, Robert A.M. Stern Architects
Managed 350 person firm
Led efforts to open promotional offices in Beijing and Shanghai
2000-2010
Chief Operating Officer, Richard Meier & Partners Architects
Projects include: Residential Tower in Tel Aviv, 23 Houses in Bodrum, Turkey, House in Oxfordshire, New Palace for the Ruler of Dubai
EDUCATION
Cornell University, Bachelor of Architecture
New York University, Master of Science in Real Estate Development and Investment
Licensed Architect in New York and Florida
MISCELLANEOUS
Co-founder and President, Artists with Evidence.org (AwE)
Trustee, Tectonic Theater Project, New York, NY
Trustee, PSE Healthy Energy Environmental Research Institute, Oakland, CA
Member, Stonewall50 Consortium
Member, American Institute of Architects