Walking into Italian architect Gaetano Pesce’s studio in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the first thing you notice is the smell: wet paint. “Sorry about that,” his studio assistant says. “We’re finishing the structure for this cabinet—Sole.” Just as quickly, your other senses kick in—music thumps and machines buzz.

Sun pours in through the windows, glistening atop shelves of candy-resin confections. (Pesce calls such synthetic materials “the testimony of our time.”) A giant red mold—Pesce’s own profile—is lying on the floor. Soon it will be filled with resin in one choreographed, near-continuous motion. It should take about 20 minutes.