In an essay entitled The Hedgehog and the Fox, Isaiah Berlin quotes the Greek poet Archilochus, “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing” (Berlin 7). The essay was written as a commentary on Leo Tolstoy’s view of history, however, the text can offer an understanding for how one might practice architecture as well. For us, this understanding reveals itself in perceiving the environment as a fox and believing in it as a hedgehog.
Perceiving the environment as a fox requires “plenty of full light” (Albers) and a methodical rigor aimed at exploring forces and processes including climate, culture, economy, atmosphere, and material.
Believing in the environment as a hedgehog requires a confidence and trust that the projects we build and discussions we nurture “feel the pull of life” (Martin 159) and contribute positively to our clients and the world around us.
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Albers, Josef. Poems and Drawings. Ed. Nicholas Fox Weber. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006. Print.
Berlin, Isaiah. The Hedgehog and the Fox; an Essay on Tolstoy’s View of History. New York: Mentor Books, 1957. Print.
Martin, Agnes and Briony Fer. Agnes Martin. Ed. Frances Morris and Tiffany Bell. London: D. A. P./Tate, 2015. Print.
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Boulevard Oaks Addition
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Listening to the language of the existing historic home, this addition of a new Garage Quarters, Outdoor Living, Pool, and Gardens blends seamlessly with the property’s original character while enhancing its functionality.
Kevin Barden
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In this episode, our resident architect Joe Rivers sits down with our other resident architect Kevin Barden from Minnetonka, Minnesota. Kevin and Joe first met at the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, over a decade ago. Since then, Kevin's journey in architecture has taken him many places, including Chur, Switzerland where he studied and worked for two and half years, and Houston, Texas where Rivers Barden Architects laid its roots. Joe sat down with Kevin to discuss his beginning in architecture, his influences, and his mantra for living a fulfilled life.
Pallasmaa On The Sublime
Kevin Barden
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The emergence of digital and virtual technologies in the past decade has flourished exponentially giving academic environments and professional practices a newfound basis for collaboration between process and product. This essay proposes that we cannot lose sight of the underlying sources which drive a good process (whether digital, virtual, or manual) and lead to the opportunity for a great product. In his paper for the 101st Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, New Constellations New…