Collaborative Space Making

Founded in 2018, Space Open Studio is a Bay Area landscape architecture firm specializing in an ecologically sensitive and site specific approach.

Bobby Glass founded Space Open following a decade of professional practice as a landscape architect, water systems designer, project manager, construction manager, and artist. He previously worked at Hyphae Design Lab as a design lead on projects ranging from ecologically minded resorts, water conscious private residences, and innovative institutional spaces. Bobby holds a BLA from Clemson University and an MLA from UC Berkeley. He has taught multiple undergraduate design studios at UC Berkeley, UC Davis and USF.

Yu-Chung Li is a Design Partner at Space Open and resides in Berkeley. His diverse background in civil engineering, urbanism, and landscape architecture allows him to explore the complex relationships among humans and nature, science and art, and logic and intuition across various scales. With a focus on people, he believes that quality outdoor spaces are fundamental to supporting everyday life. Landscapes, in his view, are not merely beautiful backdrops for human activity but crucial drivers of transformative economic and social improvements. Yu-Chung studied Urbanism at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and holds an MLA degree from UC Berkeley. He has also taught design studios at the University of San Francisco.

Erica Vacca joined Space Open as a Junior Designer in the summer of 2024 after earning her bachelor's degree in Architecture with a minor in Fine Arts from the University of San Francisco. A Bay Area native, Erica grew up exploring San Francisco, where she developed a deep appreciation for the city's rich and varied architectural landscape. Her early passion for sketching urban environments naturally evolved into a pursuit of architecture, a field that allows her to blend creative expression with technical design. Throughout her studies, she remained committed to working by hand—using pen and paper—as a counterbalance to the increasingly digital nature of architectural practice.