Archinect - Features

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.

Porch, Atrium, Terrace: A Deeper Look At Lake | Flato's Austin Central Library

2020-01-08T09:00:00-05:00

In recent years, public libraries have taken on a renewed prominence in American cities as vital community spaces that provide access to a growing array of necessary amenities and services, including internet and other technologies, air conditioning, continuing education opportunities and so much more. Increasingly, despite—or perhaps, because—of the fact that our day-to-day lives are becoming ever-more digitized, libraries are reasserting and expanding upon their fundamentally social and public character, a tendency that is being reflected more and more via the architecture of these facilities. The Austin Central Library, completed in 2017 and designed via a joint partnership between Lake | Flato and Shepley Bulfinch, represents an example of this emerging library-as-social-condenser model. The library, anchored by a collection of generous public spaces that include a six-level central atrium, roof top terraces, and reading porches, acts as a new node for Austin's growing downtown ...

In Focus: Chase Daniel On Oscillating Between Designing and Photographing Buildings

2019-12-12T09:00:00-05:00

In Focus is Archinect's recurring series dedicated to profiling the photographers who help capture architecture and make the work of architects look that much better. In this series, we ask: What is their relationship to architecture? How do they work? What are their goals when capturing buildings?

For this installment, Archinect chats with Austin, Texas-based photographer and designer Chase Daniel. Daniel's work is highlighted in our previously featured Studio Snapshots for North Arrow Studio and Michael Hsu Office of Architecture.

As someone who graduated from architecture school and works at design firms himself, Daniel values his experience on both the producing and the documenting end of the built environment.

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...

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.

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.