As
A child I knew I wanted to be an architect, but I didn't just play with Legos and build Matchbox cities
I was the kid who bought plan books with my lawn-mowing money, and I'd redesign the floor plans
To my eight-year-old self this was being an architect drawing and cutting paper building models
There were miniature versions of big things I could hold them in my hands. I was making
Then I went to architecture school and realized there was so much more: history,
theory, materials, engineering, and construction details, and I devoured all of it
There was so much to learn to take in and I loved it school inspired and fed my interests
but the reality of practice only diminished them as
An intern I sat at a CAD workstation for 12 hours stretches drafting the most mundane elements of buildings
All the things that led me to architecture they were missing in practice
When I passed my licensing exams I convinced myself
Professional life would be different
For a time it was as I went to work for a small residential firm there were interesting clients and projects
Beautiful locations and larger budgets to work with and importantly I was making I
Was working on house plans as if I were eight again playing architect
but soon these partners were forced by recession to focus on making ends meet
and when I was making
The credit for award-winning work went only to the namesakes on the door
I was commuting 72 miles each day. I felt like a cog in someone else's vision of an architecture practice
This wasn't my childhood vision of architecture of a creative life
I'd always been trained that there was one way to practice architecture: a client equals a project and so you find clients and serve them
Finish this job search for another client time worked is fee earned, but when I started out on my own
I had this realization
That time is a fixed asset
The ultimate constraint which means that whatever we do that's linked to time is limited in the same way
When I was young I didn't think about this as much
But as I got older I started to feel this press of time
And so I experimented with as many things as I could to subvert this relationship
I wrote I designed on spec
I developed products and accepted every project that came my way with each new experiment
I was finding this awakened and rekindled creative drive. I
Catalogued the results. What worked what didn't and the catalogue became a sort of Handbook a field guide at
first it was just for me, but the more I learned the more I wanted to share it and
There were others in fact many others experiencing the same
Dissatisfaction that I'd experienced in my early career
they too had followed all the rules and were highly trained for a profession where the luxury and the
rewards of creativity were only available to an elite view and the rest just
Trading time for dollars. This field guide I was writing was for them and
it became my first product I
Packaged it up as a book and sold it online and then in print I
Followed it up with the second volume describing my attempts some successful some not to reinvent the traditional practice of architecture
Each new product became a small revenue stream and with each new stream I earned a little more freedom
Soon I didn't have to accept every commission. I could be more selective
I had the freedom to pursue interests like filmmaking and video editing and to use these new skills
To create more products I developed short courses and taught on my YouTube channel
The videos began to earn ad revenue above all making became a part of my life again
When I decided to build the studio it was simply a place for me to make and manage that was separate from Domestic life
But like any creative work in the design process it became much more it became the avatar for the life
I was designing the one I was trying to figure out I needed it to validate the choices
I made to prove that I could support my family doing something creative
Doing what I loved: making.
So I set out to construct a simple monument to my design philosophies and aesthetics I
envisioned the project as I had everything else a
series of experiments new construction techniques the use of humble materials a place to test new details
It had to be small so an experiment and changeable and multi-use space
More than just a work of architecture
I wanted it to serve as an educational tool for clients to understand and experience my work
But also for students and viewers online it became a workshop for sharing the process behind the making
drawing inspiration from
simple farm buildings its form is an archetypal barn which historically served many functions and
created a large sheltering space with little money
in
A barn everything has a purpose and its means of construction the way it's put together the hand of the maker is
present plain to see
The materials were chosen for durability, but also to show how humble
Inexpensive resources can feel tailored and precious the large glazed areas are for sketching on with chalkboard pens
The wood storage area facing our home is the seasonal revolving calendar of Sorts filling up in the winter and emptying towards spring
There's a quote by the author Annie Dillard that stuck with me
she says, "How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives."
Every day I walk 17 paces to my studio and I make things
In the morning, it's writing, video scripting, recording, drawing, sketching.
There's no email no text no client meetings. That's followed by an hour or two away from the studio where I get outside
Usually a hike or a bike ride helps me to recalibrate
This ritual is as much a part of my creative process as drawing or model making this time away from the studio helps incubate thoughts
There's a point where the ideas coalesce where the right wires find each other
And there's this clarity I never know when it will happen or even how this works
But it does and I rely on I use this time as a transition to managing my afternoon is then given over to email
Texts all the urgent demands of the business that can't be ignored placing the making ahead of the managing was intentional
And people ask me about the practicality the rigor of this like it's impossible to ignore email
but the funny thing is once I started this routine
It didn't take very long for the people I work with to
Accept and respect the idea that this is a calculated part of my creative process
Each day I return here each week a new experiment in making made me feel more alive and more purposeful
What keeps me interested, is the idea that I don't have it all figured out
The studio is like a creative cage I keep myself in after a 17 pace commute each morning
My schedule for making is designed to keep me focused on the work that makes me most happy
The studio is a container for an ever evolving creative life
One where I can decide what I work on each week
Not the one thing I was told I should be doing but the many I choose to do