Last November, Kevin and I sat down for our annual holiday card charette, a tradition we’ve kept since founding the firm. It’s something we always look forward to: an opportunity to create something memorable and share it with our friends, clients, and community. This year, one idea jumped out and stuck: *Lego*.
The moment we said it out loud, it just felt right.
For both of us, Lego holds something personal. As a kid, it was my favorite toy. I would spend hours sprawled on the floor, building rocket ships, cities, and other wild inventions. It taught me creativity, structure, patience, and maybe most importantly, the joy of making something with my hands. That joy never left me. In many ways, those early days with Lego laid the foundation for my lifelong love of architecture.
Now, I get to share that same joy with my son. We love to build together, lose track of time, and explore the same lessons I once learned.
When Kevin and I revisited the idea with fresh eyes, we realized it could be more than just a holiday card. It could be a gift—a miniature, tangible reflection of our work and values. We chose one of our recent projects: a modest backyard casita with clean lines and thoughtful details. The simple form made it an ideal subject, but translating it into Lego turned out to be more challenging than we expected.
We built the model over a few days, adding playful seasonal touches—a Christmas tree, holiday lights, and snow. Then came the real challenge: photographing it. Capturing miniature architecture is not an easy feat. We wrestled with lighting, scale, and angles until we found a composition that felt right. A little building that told a big story.
From there, the idea snowballed. I’d heard of people designing their own Lego kits and decided to dive in. I downloaded Bricklink Studio, Lego’s digital design platform, and, after some trial and error, recreated our model piece by piece. The software even let us generate an instruction manual and source bricks from various vendors. We packaged the pieces in a custom box, complete with the instruction booklet, and delivered it to our client, who was completely blown away.
In the end, what started as a holiday card became something much more meaningful. It was a creative challenge, a shared moment of joy, and a chance to reflect on why we do what we do. And just like we often discover in our architecture, it’s the small, thoughtful gestures that tend to leave the biggest impression.
Click here to access a .pdf of the instruction booklet.
Explore
Gulf Coast Beach House
Rockport, Texas
Residential
Set along the Gulf Coast shoreline, this beach house embraces coastal living with expansive decks, open interiors, and uninterrupted ocean views. Light-filled rooms flow seamlessly to generous outdoor spaces, inviting breezes and sunlight into daily life. A soft, natural palette and durable coastal materials create a relaxed yet refined retreat, perfect for both quiet mornings and lively gatherings by the water.
Advice Compilation
All
Culture and Community
Over the course of four seasons and twenty-eight episodes, Joe and Kevin have sat down with a diverse group of people from nearly every artistic arena; performers, artists, designers, builders, and beyond. A goal of the podcast from the outset has been to illuminate connections between architecture and other creative pursuits; to form bonds with others over process, philosophy, approach; to learn about ourselves by getting to know each other. So we hope that if you are creative, you find some inspiration in the advice that follows.
Immersive Tools
Kevin Barden
Writing
At a time when artificial intelligence and digital tools dominate discussions of architectural education, the practice of making large-scale physical models serves as an ever more important tool for the development of a student’s creative voice, sense of discovery, and long-term learning. Through an understanding of temporal and spatial kairotic environments and an iterative process these large-scale physical models possess the potential to embody experiential qualities in a meaningful manner.