From a House for a Mother & Daughter featuring a gable roof to allegorical works of architecture exploring themes of memory and loss, Robert Hutchison Architecture has emerged as a recognizable and unique voice. Designing contemporary works of various types and sizes, the Seattle-based firm fuses pragmatic solutions with poetic sensibilities earning them wide recognition for their many evocative projects.

For this week's Small Studio Snapshot, we talk with Hutchison about his research as a Rome Prize fellow, the firm's studio culture, and their bi-monthly event ‘rhaRIFFS'.

How many people are in your practice?

RHA consists of myself and four full-time staff: Scott Claassen, Jackie Hensy, Sean Morgan and Xiaoxi Jiao.

Why were you originally motivated to start your own practice?

From 2001 to 2013 I was in a partnership with a friend. We had fun and were recognized regionally and nationally for our work. But, by 2013, we both had realized we were interested in different directions. For myself, that was looking for a way to cohesively combine architecture, art, teaching and travel into a single practice. In 2013, I started RHA with this goal in mind. Since then, we have developed architectural projects in tandem with installations and conceptual work, and I teach regularly. In 2016-17 I was honored to be awarded a Rome Prize through the American Academy in Rome, which gave me the time and space to further develop our ‘Memory Houses’ project, which then became a solo exhibition of work in Seattle in May 2018. I continue to teach the University of Washington Architecture in Mexico program that I first developed in 2010, and this has resulted in architectural and installation works in and around Mexico City.

Can you talk more about your work as a Rome Prize Fellow?

Inherent within these diverse structures are the narratives shared with the friends and family

My proposal for the Rome Prize was to “… identify a matrix of liminal spaces, such as disused cinemas, factories, or train stations that will serve as settings for site-specific drawing installations.” The idea was to build upon my previous installation projects, including ‘Lineamientos’ (Mexico City), ‘Hole Houses’ (Seattle), and ‘Seven’ (Astoria OR). Early on in my Rome fellowship, I created an installation (‘Decorated Shed’) in collaboration with fellow architect Yasmin Vobis of Ultramoderne, which wrapped the academy’s security shed in several kilometers of vibrant colored thread. But because of bureaucratic barriers, I quickly became frustrated with finding feasible installation sites in Rome. During my second month into my fellowship, we were notified that we were selected for a one-month solo exhibition at Seattle’s downtown Gallery4Culture, for our conceptual project ‘Memory Houses’ that we had been working on since 2015. I decided to abandon my original proposal for installation projects, and instead devoted my remaining four months in Rome towards the development of the project in anticipation of the upcoming exhibition.

‘Memory Houses’ started in early 2015 when I realized how quickly dementia was taking over my father’s mind. Since then, before and after his death in February 2016, I found myself regularly thinking about and researching the topic of memory, bringing it into my practice as an architect and artist. We developed a conceptual project that investigates the relationship between architecture and memory, on a site in eastern shore Maryland that my parents used to reside on. The project involves the design and construction (through drawings and models) of nine allegorical works of architecture. Distant as well as more recent architectural memories make cameo appearances in the Memory Houses: the stave churches of Norway and the Great Mosque of Córdoba I experienced as a child; the lighthouses of the Chesapeake Bay; the timber grain elevators of the Palouse; the Colosseum and the Santo Stefano Rotondo in Rome. Inherent within these diverse structures are the narratives shared with the friends and family who accompanied me.

What is the company culture?

The five of us work out of a tiny 430 sf two-story studio behind my family’s 1912 farmhouse in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle, and my wife Mary has her graphic design firm in the lower floor of our residence across the courtyard from my studio. While it would be probably better for my staff to describe our ‘company culture’, it’s my own intention that we combine a serious work ethic with a relaxed and informal work environment. A requirement for working in our studio is a sense of humor and the ability to process sarcasm. We have a studio mandate that there is always beer in the fridge, and our favorite after-work destination is the Pacific Inn five blocks down the street. We are very interested in what other people are doing, particularly outside of our own discipline of architecture, which led to the development of our bi-monthly event ‘rhaRIFFS’.

What are rhaRIFFS?

Our intention is to provide a setting for an intimate, lively, and fun discussion about interesting work

Being a small group of architects working out of a very small studio, at times we wish there was a way to meet and talk with more individuals within our architectural field, as well as other creative disciplines. We decided to start a bi-monthly event (rhaRIFFS) at our studio with the intention of providing a venue for interesting people to talk about their work or issues that are important to them, and to have an informal discussion about the work amongst a small group of people. Five individuals give six-minute and forty-second presentations (RIFFS) inspired by a selected one-word theme or topic that we provide in advance. The presentations are delivered using the Pecha Kucha rules, with twenty slides presented for twenty seconds each. Three to four panelists are also invited to assist in encouraging a conversation following the presentations. Our intention is to provide a setting for an intimate, lively, and fun discussion about interesting work.

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

I’m never one to say that the future does not hold new opportunities, so I can’t say we might be a different firm in five years. But I’m very happy with our current size of five people in the studio. While we are large enough to take on several projects at a time at various scales, we’re still very much a small firm that allows for all of us to remain up to date on all that is happening in the studio. And besides, there’s no more room for more people in our studio, so I suppose that is a way to control growth! And I love having a diverse group of employees who all share my interest in exploring what it means to practice architecture beyond the design and construction of buildings. I think that will remain a guiding principle … to continually seek out ways of practicing architecture beyond the conventional.

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

The benefit of having my own practice is being able to cater work with life. Often I read about people wanting to separate their work from their personal life. I suppose I’m more interested in dissolving that separation. Staying small allows me to do this.