After designing a home for his parents while taking some time away from architecture school, D'Arcy Jones knew he was eager to one day start his own practice. Eventually founded in 2005, his Vancouver based firm has grown into a 9 person studio producing distinguished architecture that is consistently recognized as some of Canada's best—in 2017, the firm had the high honor of receiving the AIBC Emerging Firm Award as well as being named RAIC's Emerging Architecture Practice.
DJA's portfolio is comprised mostly of residential projects that are efficient and thoughtful but the team has recently expanded this approach to tackle commercial spaces, art galleries, and larger multi-family housing projects. In the latest Small Studio Snapshot, Jones discusses this growth and what he sees as a "natural evolution" for the studio.
How many people are in your practice?
We are a 9 person studio. Plus at least 2 dogs on most days.
Why were you originally motivated to start your own practice?
I knew I wanted to have my own office after I had been in architecture school for a few years. I took a year off to design a house for my parents, and fell in love with the practical and technical aspects of architecture that design school could not teach. I knew that I needed to get university over and done with, fast!
What hurdles have you come across?
A challenge we continue to have is getting our highly detailed work built for a reasonable price, at a high quality. We embrace standard ways of building and the messy realities of construction into our details, so we get unique designs that can be built by a large cross section of the construction industry. We avoid precious and imported materials that need to be treated in a fussy way, and prefer to be inventive with the sculptural and spatial qualities of architecture.
How do you integrate sustainability into your work? Is there a project(s) of yours that you think is exemplary of sustainable, high performance design?
We are very concerned with the deeper aspects of sustainability, so we try to build high quality projects that will endure, that will be loved and appreciated by future users. We obsess about cross breezes and passive cooling to save energy, but mostly to make our projects comfortable to live with. We make very site specific designs, and work with the contours of the land or the established context of the city, to be materially efficient and to reduce waste. We specialize in modern renovations and restorations, since the greenest building is the one already built.
We like to be super energy efficient, but don’t think these technical aspects of a project should determine their aesthetic. Our Friesen Wong House has walls that exceed minimum insulation requirements by 250%, which we turned into sculptural chunky walls that create an appealing sense of permanence.
You have mainly been focused on residential work up until recently. What motivated the expansion into non-residential? Has it changed how the firm operates?
We are now working on art galleries, commercial spaces and lots of different multi-family projects. We work for artists or people who love art a lot, so working on galleries is a natural evolution. Many years of single family residential projects gave us good working habits and a sensitivity to domestic life, that allows us to work on housing projects with confidence and enthusiasm. We would like to continue to grow our project sizes and types, as long as design excellence is the driving goal. So far, we find these new project types very rewarding. Housing makes a deep impact on the growth and shape of any city, so it is exciting to be part of.
Everyone in the whole world goes home at night to some kind of domestic space. But everyone might not go to a gym, go to a library, go to a theatre, shop in store or eat at a restaurant every day. So housing is the most basic and essential kind of architecture there is.
Is scaling up a goal or would you like to maintain the size of your practice? What's next for the firm?
We are a well-oiled and diligent studio practice that works particularly well together. I think staying small lets design always be the focus. Based on how our studio works, we can grow a bit larger to about 12-15 people. After that, I think I wouldn’t be able to intimately know every detail of all our projects, so it wouldn’t be fun for me anymore.
What are the benefits of having your own practice? And staying small?
The benefits of having your own practice are autonomy and the chance to handpick a team of skilled people to work with, and spend your day with.
1 Comment
D'Arcy Jones' work looks clean, contemporary and well detailed. Every house or cabin always comes with a unique and interesting staircase too. Thumbs up.
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