Sundberg, Olson: Kundig Allen Architects: Architecture, Art, and Craft

Experiential architecture

This is an experiential architecture, not a theoretical one. It is grounded in reality, not in abstract dogma, yet it seeks the transcendent, every bit as earnestly - perhaps even more so - then architecture that is built on pure theory. It is the way space, texture, light, materials actually feel that motivates these architects, and it is their skill at manipulating these elements that gives their work the rigor and strength it possesses.
This architecture is marked by a sense of a self-assured and sensual presence, shaped by light, texture, materiality and scale.

Architects actively seek to achieve the identity of a look

It should almost go without saying at this point that in an age in which most architects actively seek to achieve the identity of a "look," Olson Sundberg's work eschews simple similarities. Certain principles are evident from one building to another, as is the absence of direct historical replication, but consistency is not the same as a packageable style.

Easily identifiable style

Indeed, a single, easily identifiable style is something that these architects not only do not have but seem actively to discourage, as if its presence could be taken as a sign that their firm was not sufficiently cognizant of the widely varying demands that are inherent in different clients' programs, sites and esthetic preferences. They seem determined to prove that consistency of belief need not yield similarity of visual appearance – and that it is possible to produce a coherent body of work that does not look precisely the same.

Sundberg, Olson: Kundig Allen Architects

Publisher: Monacelli Press, 2003
ISBN: 1580930786

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