Nothing natural obscures, is intangible, nor occurs in the mind of man. Nothing that is discordant is holy. My design philosophy arises from a desire to create architecture that reflects and respects its site. The built environment must integrate with the existing environment and new forms must be architectural counterpoint. I listen to the site and determine what the building wants to be in order to enhance its surroundings.

 

A material with memory that transcends the hominid epoch has a greater connexion to place than anything man creates. A building that utilizes materials that destroy or do not decompose is not respectful. A building must sit in nature without mimicking forms. It can not have the audacity to mock or abstract nature, but must be universally arbitrary and respectful of site, culture, and history. I balance all these characteristics of a building as I design, not at the end of the process. No building is ugly; a building can be harmonious or inharmonious.

 

I look to the works of the masters before me as inspiration and precedent on which to build. I learn from their pieces and try to build on their ideas as I develop my own. Architects design buildings in two ways, either from the inside out or from the outside in. I try to find a third way: I design a motif and simultaneously fill in and clothe it.

 

I want to hear more perspectives on design, and develop a contemporary architecture not bound by corporate desires or æsthetic kitsch. The theories developed after Modernism required that period to further the discipline, and contemporary theories are building on those Post-Modern writings. Designers should be seeking a new system of creation, not entrapped by the past, but learning from it. After I graduate I will return to Alaska to practice the art.