Archinect - Features

LowDO on Building Societal Equity Through 'Low Design'

2021-04-19T12:15:00-04:00

Featured in our latest Studio Snapshot is Low Design Office, a small, integrated, and highly collaborative architecture studio based in Austin, Texas and Tema, Ghana. Founded by Ryan Bollom and DK Osseo-Asare during their grad school years at Harvard GSD, the firm's work on both continents is driven by a compelling ethos of resourcefulness, practiced sustainability, and equity building through design.

The team was recently honored for its accomplishments by The Architectural League of New York with one of this year's coveted Emerging Voices Awards.

Runa Workshop on Applying Austin's Startup Culture to Architectural Practice

2020-02-06T10:00:00-05:00

Runa Workshop is an Austin-based architectural and interior design practice with a rapidly growing roster of completed projects in the city's hospitality, retail, commercial, and institutional sectors. After gaining experience at a large architecture firm, founding principals Jean Pierre Trou and Aaron Vollmer longed for a different, more collaborative design process based on compact, nimble teams and decided to branch out on their own in 2009.

Since then, Runa Workshop has grown into a studio of seven architects and interior designers, with a strong emphasis on healthy work-live balance, and, as Vollmer and Trou told Archinect in this week's Studio Snapshot, they're ready to take it to the next level.

Austin Architect Michael Hsu On Balancing Roughness With Sophistication

2019-12-11T11:00:00-05:00

What is Texas vernacular? Beyond the beautiful landscapes and historical roots, its architectural history can be traced through centuries of colonization and hybridization, modernization and assimilation, technological and cultural advancements. Yet, according to Texas-native Michael Hsu, Texas vernacular is also represented "by roughness set against sophistication."

After moving to Austin in 1988 to study at the University of Texas at Austin, Hsu has created a practice, Michael Hsu Office of Architecture, that is very much engrained in Austin's gritty yet charming artisanal community. Establishing his practice as one of the firms transforming Austin architecture, Hsu emphasizes that the firm focuses on more than just aesthetics. From large commercial projects to residential and restaurant endeavors, Hsu has built his practice to emphasize design as a catalyst for storytelling and community experience.

This week Archinect chats with Hsu as he shares his experience in starting a pra...

Interested in Public Interest Design? bcWORKSHOP, a Non-Profit Architecture Firm, Shares Tips on Breaking into the Emerging Field

2018-02-01T09:00:00-05:00

Looking for a new job? You've probably gotten used to hearing the same old advice about tailoring your portfolio, doing your homework, leveraging your network, and so on. By now, whether you recently lost your job or are ready to jump ship from your current one, the traditional advice may seem a bit tired. That's because job seeking is as unique and creative as an individual and no two firms are alike. Helping to sort out the field, Archinect's “How To Get A Job” series asks architecture firms how candidates can be sure to stand out from the crowd.

Austin-Based North Arrow Studio Treat Their Business as a Creative Project

2017-10-02T13:14:00-04:00

North Arrow Studio, the architectural practice based in Austin, Texas, specializes in modern residential and commercial design that is refined and refreshingly uncomplicated. In this Small Studio Snapshot, we share our conversation with Principal Architect, Francisco Arredondo, and colleagues Blake and Bobbie about running and working at the studio.

Michelle Addington discusses her new deanship at UT Austin and the educational opportunities arising from the political hotbed that is Texas

2017-03-28T11:44:00-04:00

This coming July, the University of Texas at Austin will be getting a new dean of the School of Architecture. Michelle Addington, who has spent the last eleven years teaching at Yale, will be leaving her post as the Hines Professor of Sustainable Design and taking over for Elizabeth Danze, who has been serving as interim dean at UT Austin since July 2016.

Coy Howard, interviewed by SCI-Arc students: part 1 of 3

2016-03-14T08:31:00-04:00

Last fall, students in John Southern's “Architectural Media and Publishing” Cultural Studies seminar at SCI-Arc, democratically voted to interview Coy Howard, together, as part of the course. Their reasoning, according to Southern, is that while Howard has long been a fixture at SCI-Arc, he still runs a low-profile, foregoing final reviews in his studio and producing a fair amount of handmade work. The following is a transcript of that interview, slightly edited for length and clarity, presented in three parts.

The Deans List: Sarah Whiting of Rice University

2014-01-03T15:20:00-05:00

The Deans List is an interview series with the leaders of architecture schools, worldwide. The series profiles the school’s programming, as defined by the head honcho – giving an invaluable perspective into the institution’s unique curriculum, faculty and academic environment.

For this issue, we spoke with Sarah Whiting, Dean of the Rice School of Architecture in Houston, Texas.