Bruce Tomb

Bruce Tomb was raised in a context of boatbuilding and the heritage of three generations of artists. In 1956 his parents built a modern home in Oakland, California, and it was growing up in this environment that inspired the pursuit of a formal education in Architecture from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, California.

Tomb furthered his architectural studies with Cristiano Toraldo di Francia of Superstudio in Florence, Italy. Upon returning to San Francisco, in 1981 he joined the office of Batey and Mack Architects as project architect, renderer, and collaborator with Mark Mack. It was the collaborations on neo-primitive furniture and his urban pioneering in a raw warehouse space that led to experimental furniture investigating new relationships among people, objects, and inhabited space.

Interim Office Of Architecture, also known as the collaborative IOOA, from 1984-98, was co-founded by Bruce Tomb with John Randolph, blurred the boundaries that traditionally separate art, design, and architecture. Perhaps best known for the Latrine project at the Headlands Center for the Arts and the installation Gnomon, at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, IOOA's award winning installations, architecture, and furniture design have been exhibited and published extensively.

Tomb established the current interdisciplinary practice, BRUCE TOMB, in 1998. Projects range from residential architectural work to furniture, site-specific installations and public art projects. With particular interest in the working prototype as a model for research, the practice is defined by the pursuit of work that is peripheral to conventional architectural practice and yet central to architectural thought.

Integral to the practice is the company, INFINITE FITTING, dedicated to the design and manufacture of hand finished sand-cast I F White Bronze, Silicon Bronze, Brass, Aluminum Basins and plumbing accessories. They are distributed throughout North America.