Mutuo partners Jose Herrasti and Fernanda Oppermann, photo by Caca Santoro

Mutuo is an LA-based practiced founded by Jose Herrasti, originally from Mexico City, and Fernanda Oppermann, originally from Brazil. After a few years working at architecture offices in the US, with some time together at Eric Owen Moss Architects, the two decided to start their own practice 5 years ago. By connecting their own personal experience, they settled on LA due to it's welcoming environment and cultural diversity.

The duo describe Mutuo as versatile. They actively pursue, design and build single-family & multi-family housing, adaptive reuse, cultural and urban-scale masterplans, often working with other architects on non-profit and pro-bono projects.

In this week's Small Studio Snapshot we chat with Jose and Fernanda to learn more the practice's origins and goals. 

How many people are in your practice?

We fluctuate between 4 and 6 depending on workload.

Why were you originally motivated to start your own practice?

We were interested in being a participant addressing Los Angeles’ challenges through design, in exploring our personal interests in Architecture, and bringing our cultural experience and viewpoint into design.

So, having our own practice was always one of our goals. At some point we had the opportunity of developing three single family residences in Los Angeles and it felt like it was the right time to start Mutuo.

You're both from different countries. Why did you decide to set up shop in LA? Do you feel like it's a welcoming city?

We both obtained master degrees in the US. Jose at Columbia University, and Fernanda at USC. We met in LA working at Eric Owen Moss Architects, and by the time we opened our studio we had lived in Los Angeles for some years. 

Perhaps the main reason for staying in LA is that LA is a very welcoming city. We felt at home and drawn to its cultural diversity. We also felt drawn to its culture of innovation in all fields, including architecture. 

How would you describe the focus of your projects and your practice?

At this juncture we are pursuing projects for social impact, adaptable re-use/commercial, multi-family residential, and cultural projects.
Part of having a studio is deciding what types of projects to get involved with, what types of projects not to get involved with, how to approach design problems, and how to present our studio. It has been a process understanding our interests and focus.

These past couple years we have focused a big part of our efforts in projects for social impact. We have been exploring what kind of impact we can achieve through architecture. For example, we have been working with a local LA developer to create a new building typology for micro-units using prefabricated concrete box culverts (currently used for infrastructure projects). To start we will build an ADU (accessory dwelling unit) pilot plan using the system of prefabricated boxes. Next will be a 5-unit residential building using the same system, which is currently in entitlement phase. We are interested in finding ways to build affordable housing through design.

We have also partnered with P-a-t-t-e-r-n-s on an adaptive reuse project for a medical campus. And we have been developing our own single family residential hillside lots. 

What have been some of the biggest challenges in running your own firm?

On a day-to-day basis, changing hats frequently has been very challenging, as we need to make sure accounting, marketing, all of these peripheral tasks are done as well as our most important tasks: design, client relations, production of drawings…

On a bigger scale it has been challenging not to specialize. We have gained experience in different types of projects, and we have resisted being known as a studio that specializes on a type of project. We see specialization as limiting. We like learning and experimenting. This has been proven to be challenging since the industry usually hires firms that have extensive knowledge on a certain type of project.

And finally, we have been lucky to connect with great clients. It is not easy to find clients with similar design mindset, who see design as a valuable strategy to accomplish their goals. An important part of our work is to search for those people that can be great collaborators.

Is scaling up a goal or would you like to maintain the size of your practice?

It is our goal to scale up. We want to grow steadily to make sure we have a solid practice. We would like to stay at a size where we can continue to be very involved on our projects and where we can maintain the quality of design.

What are the benefits of having your own practice? And staying small?

It is stimulating to determine the path our studio takes, choose projects that can fulfill our mission, be involved in all decisions. As a small firm we have more opportunities to get everyone involved in debating ideas, brainstorming about design and our next projects. In a way we also create demand for our architecture as we develop our own real estate residential projects. Our first development projects are trying to prove the concept that there is demand for (what the real estate industry calls) ‘architectural homes’ and that there is a premium value for it. Next we will focus on multi-family housing affordable by design.