knitted 2.0

Architecture at its very best strengthens the inherent qualities of the landscape. It finds value in what is available and brings seemingly disparate elements together into a cohesive whole.  Architecture is a clarifying agent and affirms a sense of place in this world.  

We are Architects who listen, solve problems, encourage others, and are inspired by the deep aspirations of community.  

We craft site-specific buildings that are timeless, materially honest, emotive, and confident.

We Aim for an architecture of evolutionary beauty - one that celebrates the passage of time.

Architectural solutions are always unique.  The team who makes that possible must also be a unique and thoughtfully specific assembly of people.

Our work, spanning 16 years, has included private houses, multi-family and complex mixed uses, sacred spaces, healing spaces,  museums, public libraries, academic institutions, urban master planning, nonprofit foundations, and civic buildings - all striving to create places of authenticity, beauty, and lasting value.

knitted 1.0

This is an attempt to write succinctly about convoluted thoughts.  Not to make sense of them - at least immediately - but to record them somewhere.  Maybe in time a collection will form and something articulate will take shape.  There are two things that seem to have influenced me the most: Space and religion.  Really I’m thinking about spatial issues and the Christian Church.  Outside of Christianity I have very little interest in religion.  Spatial issues are the more tangible things that interest me.  The spaces we inhabit, or may inhabit with others represent the things that often give me an enthusiasm for being alive that has never come naturally.  This is rooted in a desire for communal interaction with those around me.  That communal desire is what correlates my spatial interests to my ties with the Church.   So then there is architecture.  Architecture is the literal means by which we make spaces people inhabit.  It’s really a dumb thought but this (architecture) matters because it creates the spaces that people inhabit which impact what will happen communally in those places.  When buildings happen without a sense for the way community will interact with it, you end up with buildings that do not have a sense or predilection for fostering community in any way.  Community is something that flows – it happens over time.  There are processes that make Architecture and there are processes that prevent it.  Just because something is built and occupied doesn't make it architecture.  It would seem that architecture is inherently interested in community.  If it isn’t, then I don’t think it can be a piece of architecture.  So that’s what defines architecture to me.  It has nothing to do with style.  It has everything to do with people, and the way it influences behavior and interaction.  Architecture is something higher and more important than simply building.  Community requires Meaningful space.  The idea of Religion certainly complicates things because it’s usually a topic involving salvation from human depravity.  If all we’re trying to do is get to heaven (or stay out of hell) and we can’t do anything on our own to get there (ie: Christianity) then why does community and space matter here on earth?.  All things are spatial.   The spatial can help to explain the unseen.  One good idea should anchor many.  Make one good idea work then others will fall into place.  Everything will not, but some things will.  The ability to filter out those that do not leads to Trust and better design.  Maybe the most important thing.  Don't underestimate the trust of those who need you right now.  What leads to the best Work?.  Work being both process and product alike.  Is it Desire?.  Work and desire: The two will probably never find harmony.  I think perhaps I want to try to get as close to harmony as possible though.  The greatest gains require the ability To take what has little value and give it a reason to become something worth maintaining.  The opposite of a flip.  People are Driftwood found.  For driftwood to achieve an elevated status, one that is highly prized it must be displayed so that it is clear that its unique beauty is valued.  It's a difficult thing to tell someone that the space they value - as it is - could be something more.  Perhaps it's arrogant to tell them that it - should - be something more.  It's just that most people respond in a very simplistic way to what they know and nothing more.  So when it comes to spatial things, it's virtually impossible to discuss a truly new idea.  Even with a good picture.  People just don't get it until it is a physical thing.   The problem is that most with the power to make physical things are not interested in spatial consequences – over time.  I think it's my job to make it happen.  With my money.  Materials and cost versus materials and value.  The critical relationship between materiality and a concept is maybe the most easily overlooked.  Be as analytical as possible until you start to see patterns.  The difficult part is visualizing patterns.  It's not their vision which is why they don't get it.  That's ok.  They're only frustrated when you don't lead them and work to discern and articulate.  I'm actually grateful.  Grateful that time didn't move quite as fast as it seemed like it had.  Maybe just once.  Time is often an enemy to great work.  It’s critical to Dial in to what can be done, then finish.  Unless circumstances are ideal this usually looks like An assembly of many disparate elements working together only because they are woven together.  Hard work to make it work, to find a certain harmony among things that may not have been intended to harmonize.  There is a clear freedom to creating music - when that freedom exists of course.  It only exists when there isn't an end goal in mind.  The individual elements must dictate what they become when joined together.  The joining is of course the great challenge.  No one knows how to make architecture anymore.  If architecture is important then we have to circumvent those in power because they already know what they are making and that is frightening.  I don't know that I've ever seen architecture as a political act - like really - until now.  Architecture should exist within The built environment against societal trends.  Architecture cannot be reactionary.  The City is inherently communal and Urban Architecture has the greatest potential to engage community and Knit disparate elements into a new cohesive whole.  At what point did I/We reject my/our education where these ideas mattered most?  Surely there was something worth holding onto.  Everything breaks down the moment I begin saving for retirement.

"ORNAMENT IS CRIME IS CRIME

Date TBA

We are conditioned to believe that ornament is crime, that less is more. In fact this so-called wisdom stems not from deep human insights nor profound spiritual truths, but from age-old middle-class snobbery. It’s time to abolish the lies around ‘refinement’ and material lust. Within the constraints of contemporary practice, restrained ‘truth to materials’ only works for the wealthy - the normal-person's version is horrendous and depressing casting class divides in concrete. We must abolish this crude consensus before it irreparably wrecks the experiential and social richness of our environment."

The first (and maybe last quote because it interrupts a certain flow of consciousness).  Here:

http://www.turncoats.uk/

Wow.  really good.  really interesting.  Knit that shit.

The blatant unwillingness to share might be the greatest hindrance to community the world has ever known.  What if there is actually enough to go around?  There is but it requires compromise and a willingness to accept certain things are not predictable.  What is the spontaneous construction of the masses?  It is certainly centered on joy in gathering.  It might break even.  A vision can’t consist of one picture. There should be many and they must be adaptable.  There has to be confidence in a bigger idea and the only way to see that bigger idea through to completion is to Stop being reactionary.  What is a reactionary song?  I suppose it would be popular music for the masses.  A song already written and repurposed again and again because it fits within a particular formula.  What if architecture was more like music?  Not popular music, but sound created for a particular place in a particular time.  Like you just write it, or play it or both and keep doing so until it works, and makes sense, and is beautiful in its own unique way.  To write a song, or play it might be synonymous with drawing a building and constructing it.  The best songs are probably not understood by the masses.  Architecture gives unique voices within the masses and it makes Cohesiveness a possibility.  To be comprehensive.  To start, and to finish.  This is the most elusive.