Photo © Cristobal Palma

 

In April 2006, the Onion nailed architects with an article titled “Beaver Overthinking Dam.” The article explained how an Ontario beaver named Dennis Messner was “spending an inordinate amount of time and effort in the planning and construction phases of building his dam.” The satirical newspaper quoted the buck-toothed mammal as saying, “’I just want everything to be perfect.’” As a result, Messner’s neighbors predicted he would fail and end up “burrowing a hole in the muddy ground where he will spend the rest of the season, as he has done the past three years.” All architects who read the article understood it was talking about them.

When designing their own dams or lodges, architects know the project must serve as both a home and a calling card. It must represent their approach to architecture and manifest everything they’ve learned in school and practice. Gulp. And it must be done on a shoestring because most architects can’t afford anything more.

The problem becomes even harder when architects design their own live-work places.

While most architects want their work to evolve over time, building their own homes/offices means pinning down their ideas. What will clients and colleagues think of your design skills when your place is 10 years old? Will it look dated and stale? Frank Lloyd Wright solved the problem by ripping up and reworking each of his own houses on a regular basis. Not surprisingly, he was constantly in debt and went through three wives and a number of mistresses.

Designing your own house-and-office means playing the role of client as well as architect. Doing this can be more difficult than it sounds, in part because good clients engage their architects in an intellectual and pragmatic back-and-forth that can push projects in new and (sometimes) better directions. Louis Kahn always credited Jonas Salk with making the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, a better design. Would the building have become such a landmark if Kahn were the client as well as the architect?

This article examines three examples of architects designing their own live-and-work places: two involving husband-and-wife architects and one an architect and his wife who photographs architecture. So the dangers of intellectual inbreeding are present in all of these projects. Freed to explore (or is that indulge?) their own notions of design, these architects created buildings that reveal a great deal about themselves and show how to overcome the challenges of designing for the toughest client.

 

—Clifford A. Pearson

	Cien House Pezo Von Ellrichshausen Architects Photo © Cristobal Palma
	Cedar Street Residence Colab Studio Photo © Bill Timmerman
	Admiral Live-Work Zimmerray Studios Photo © Lara Swimmer