Brief:    Santa’s house at the North Pole, with 
Santa’s workshop in the background.  Story: A 
young boy is driven to Santa’s house to exchange a broken toy by his mother in their new Jeep.  Santa exclaims, “How did you get herre?”, only to see over the boy’s shoulder, mother awaiting in the reliable SUV.

(1)    My first challenge was:  What does Santa’s 
house look like?  What type of architecture? Does he have neighbors? Would he live close to the factory, or in it?  I answered these questions with some research of Santa Clause, who originally began as a Norse and Germanic character, so I went to those cultures for answers.This is the Icelandic location I chose with Zack because of the ease of accessibility (Iceland has “glacial enthusiasts” with special equipment for access to the more remote areas of the glaciers necessary for the feeling of being at the North Pole.

It was miles within the Vatnajokul glacier, the largest in Europe, where we built the interior/exterior set for Santa’s House.

 (2)    Miniature of the full house built simultaneously back in Los Angeles, via digital communications of CAD files and photographs of the ‘as built’ set in Iceland.

(3,4)    The final concept illustration and the original scrap of research I found inspiring from Norse architecture.  The agency suggested a more “suburban” vibe, so I ended up with the more accessible final design.