Over the past few years, the field has received a growing amount of attention that has highlighted long standing labor issues within the architecture industry, ranging from unsustainable pay models to unwelcoming work environments. Looking for an alternative, the Architecture Lobby created the Just Design Initiative, which recognizes fair labor practices in architecture. Beginning with nominations submitted by employees, and followed by an evaluation process, the team looked at practices that can serve as models of a new status quo within the profession. Archinect has teamed up with the Just Design crew to profile firms across the country that meet the initiative’s standards. Whether it is a family-friendly work schedule or a health coverage plan that goes above and beyond, the series spotlights practices that honor the basic rights of their employees and can serve as exemplary models of what should become standard for the field.

The husband-and-wife duo behind the Cambridge-based Aamodt/Plumb Architects say they “design slow spaces for busy lives.” This sensible and laid-back approach is not only reflected in their modern, Scandinavian-inspired residential designs, but also in how the two run their firm, which currently has seven employees. From maintaining short working hours to honoring employee agency, the firm strives for a work environment centered on well-being and balance in an otherwise stress-fueled industry.

To begin, the office is structured around a 35 hour week rather than a typical 40 hour one. Workers also enjoy flex time and a number of employees are part-time. Founders Mette Aamodt and Andrew Plumb arrive at 9 o’clock and leave at 5 o’clock everyday, encouraging their workers to do so as well. “We are pretty rigorous about everybody leave at 5, go have a life, and we try to have an office culture where everyone is productive,” says Aamodt.

Diagnosed with MS in 2002, Aamodt—who also runs the blog slowspace.org to help usher the Slow Movement into architecture—says her experience encouraged her and Plumb to build their business around creating a healthy work environment. For them, bringing this holistic life view into the office is very important.

“We have our own design philosophy that we call slow space, like slow food, but with the built environment. It’s very much like stepping out of the rat race and being very present and very thoughtful, careful, considerate with what you’re doing with your time, design work, everything” she says. Part of this has to do with creating work-life balance, while the other aspects are centered on the building side, such as the materials used on projects and trying to ensure the use of fair labor and fair trade building materials on their projects. On their philosophy, Aamodt adds “we are trying to create a movement, a slow architecture movement of good, clean, and fair buildings for all.”

Read the full article, “How Aamodt/Plumb Architects is Bringing the Slow Movement to Architecture”.

The post Aamodt / Plumb Recognized For Fair Labor Practices appeared first on Aamodt / Plumb.

As a Design Critic, Andrew will be calling upon the principles of Slow Space, a movement he co-founded with partner Mette Aamodt that advocates Good, Clean and Fair buildings. Since ninety percent of our time is spent inside a building, the spaces where we live, work and visit have a huge impact on our wellness. Too often our buildings are made of poor quality materials filled with chemicals. These buildings are built fast, without thoughtful design, and are depressing to be in. This class will take the long view regarding design and construction, advocating that buildings should last hundreds of years and benefit the common good.

Andrew will guide students in researching and experimenting with wood, masonry and concrete in a series of design-build projects. In each project, they will learn about how this affects architectural experience. The projects will be supported with weekly lectures on topics such as material properties and fabrication, scalar transformations, modular construction and joinery and assembly. In addition, the students will document their project developments through drawing, photography and video. At the end of the term, the students will have created a comprehensive portfolio.

Harvard GSD is where Andrew and Mette’s lives first crossed paths and where Andrew received his Master of Architecture.

The post Andrew Plumb Teaching at Harvard GSD appeared first on Aamodt / Plumb.

I was also pleased to see that it had been loved and cared for over the last 20 years since we sold it. Besides some landscaping upgrades, the house itself was well maintained but otherwise the same. And that is because it is a great house, designed by a great architect (unknown) and appreciated for its design by architect after architect who lived there.

My father, as you may know, is an architect and my parents bought the house right after we moved there from Norway when I was 4. I remember them telling me about the unique V-shaped design that orientated all the rooms away from the neighbors so there would be privacy without a need for curtains. I sketched out the plan above from my memory to show you.

At the bottom of the V was the dining room with full window walls on two sides overlooking the backyard and marsh land to the south. We LIVED in that room. With no shades and no visible neighbors we basked in the sunlight from morning ‘til night. My bedroom was directly above the dining room so even when I was alone I had the light.

We sadly sold the house when I went off to college and my parents divorced. But the couple who bought it were an architect and a business person, just like my parents, and had young kids who would grow up there just like me. I wonder which lucky duck got my room?

The post Mette’s Childhood Home appeared first on Aamodt / Plumb.

To be honest Audis have never been on my radar. I have been partial to BMWs since my dad drove a 3-series in the early 90’s and I always thought that would be my grown-up car. But our friend Bryan, who is our go-to car-guy, said that was BMW’s classic period and that since then the styling has gotten more aggressive. Today Audi is more classic. It has a clean design aesthetic that is understated and unpretentious, while just as luxurious as its competitors.

After collecting some more anecdotal evidence, a quick Google search lead me to an interview with Audi’s head designer in Wallpaper* Magazine in which he defined Audi’s brand as being sporty, progressive, and sophisticated. I also noticed Audi was sponsoring a fundraising gala at the Institute of Contemporary Art / Boston. Then the final piece of the puzzle fell into place – a press release from Audi stating it has been the only automotive brand present at the internationally renowned art show Design Miami / Basel since 2006.

“Design Miami / Basel is one of the highlights on the international design show calendar, and it is the most significant forum for design lovers… The brand’s passion for design has taken the form of various projects with international designers and architects….”

Aha! It was deliberate. Audi has positioned itself as the design lover’s car. Well played Audi! Your clean lines and single-frame grill snuck up on me. You didn’t shout or honk or even grrr as you surrounded me but now design lovers  is all I see.

The post Design Lovers Drive Audis appeared first on Aamodt / Plumb.

We are passionate about life, not in a bungee jumping kind of way, but in a ‘la dolce vita’ kind of way. We enjoy long walks in the woods, sitting in cafes sipping espresso and listening to the fire crackle. We like to savour life and enjoy all of its wonderful sensual pleasures. We are passionate about life because one day everything changed.

Mette and Andrew are partners in life and work.

Mette was introduced to architecture at a young age spending time in her father’s architecture office after school. Andrew found architecture on his own. As a freshman at MIT, he chose to live in a curvy brick dormitory because it just felt good to him to be there. That building turned out to be Baker Hall which was designed by Alvar Aalto – the great Finnish architect and one of the giants of 20th century modern design.

By the time they met, Mette had travelled widely, lived and worked abroad and was fluent in three languages. Andrew’s international travels had consisted of a one way flight from Panama to Miami and he had managed to learn exactly one language.

Mette and Andrew first crossed paths at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design in 1998. It turns out they had many of the same down-to-earth values, based in part, on their shared Scandinavian heritage. Mette was born in Norway and her father is Norwegian and Andrew’s family has its roots in Finland and Sweden.

In school, they collaborated on many projects. Then suddenly, one week before Mette’s thesis review, she went blind in her right eye. She chalked it up to stress and Andrew helped her finish her final project. After graduation she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.

It was a terrible blow to both of them as they were just starting their careers in a profession notorious for its long hours. In order for Mette to be healthy they had to slow down and find balance without sacrificing the work they wanted to do.

Mette and Andrew at Architizer A+ Awards

They started their own firm in 2007, when a potential client asked them to create an ambitious modern beach house in East Quogue, in the Hamptons. With their own business, they were able to create their own philosophy – designing lives for long term health and happiness. They believe that architecture has the ability to help people live better, feel better and be better. Ten years later, this venture has matured into an award-winning firm focused on creating beautiful modern homes for a nationwide list of clientele who share these same values.

The post Mette and Andrew: Partners in Life and Work appeared first on Aamodt / Plumb.

They say that 50% of firms fold after the first 5 years and another 25% after the next 5 years. So we are happy to have made it this far and are planning on sticking around for a lot longer.

So much thanks goes to our clients, our collaborators and our former and current employees. Without all of you this would not have been possible.

Please join us in celebrating at our Cambridge office on June 8, 2017 from 6-8pm. Rsvp to mette@aamodtplumb.com. Or follow along on Facebook Live if you can’t make it.

Here’s to another 10!

The post Celebrating 10 Years at Aamodt / Plumb appeared first on Aamodt / Plumb.

Cambridge Architecture Firm Aamodt Plumb is Radically Holistic in Life and Work

Husband and wife team Mette Aamodt and Andrew Plumb, who met while students at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, got their first break in 2007, when a potential client asked them to create an ambitious beach house in East Quogue, in the Hamptons. They worried that they had “bit off much more than [they] could chew,” as Plumb puts it.

“The inclination could have been to play it safe and do what we’re comfortable with,” which meant to pass and continue working at their respective firms. “But we really tried to push ourselves. That’s carried through in all our jobs,” notes Plumb. They went ahead, and simultaneously launched their firm, Aamodt Plumb.

Aamodt, 41, and Plumb, 40, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, have since created a handsome body of work that mixes tradition and modernity, clean lines with time-tested techniques and materials. The result is no-nonsense, comfortable, approachable, and accessible— much like the architects themselves. They strive for transparency and make a conscious effort to have a healthy live/work balance.

Work Life Balance

Employees at Aamodt Plumb work 40-hour weeks, enjoy flex time, and receive retirement benefits. “We can really design our lives and design it for the way we want to live,” says Aamodt. “It’s really not groundbreaking, but in this industry it kind of is.” This attention to live/work balance was solidified when Aamodt was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 2002. “We realized what was important,” said Aamodt. “I was not going to be able to keep up the pace and stay healthy.”

The firm’s holistic approach extend to clients as well. On their website they distribute a free guide, How to Hire an Architect, which demystifies the “complex” and “frightening” process through nine key points, including searching for an architect, understanding their process, and figuring out fees.

“Very few people understand what we do and what value it has,” notes Aamodt. “There is a huge lack of information and a lot of mis-information.”

Scandinavian Influence

This kind of rich simplicity reflects the couple’s Scandinavian ancestry, which they say helps ground and inspire them. The two-level Hamptons house consists of overlapping concrete rectangles, carved out with living spaces and framing views of the ocean. It’s not clad; just left as-is, a minimalist reflection of the environment, especially because much of the sand used in the concrete was locally sourced. Along the building’s flanks, the duo created variety with ornamental steel screens that lend privacy as well as protection from storms. Their intricate delicacy offsets the heaviness of the concrete.

The Scandinavian influence shows again in projects like their renovation of three modernist barns in Lincoln, Massachusetts. Adapted into homes in the 1950’s, the structures had been cluttered with an eclectic renovation in the ’90s. The couple pared back that job, inserting warm wood screens, ash floors, and an open kitchen, and “scraping away the additions to clarify its soul,” Plumb says.

A prefab home in Austin consists of a single story living space in front and a two-story bar-shaped structure for bedrooms in back. (To build the structure, they poured the foundations at the same time as the envelope was being built offsite, keeping total construction time down to one year.) Spatial intrigue comes in the interplay between volumes and the use of simple, warm materials. One of them, charred wood, is an example of the firm’s initiatives to use old techniques in a contemporary way.

“We see too many materials that are ten years old that seem great until they’re awful. There’s a reason these older things have been around for so long,” says Aamodt.

Materiality

For their competition-winning temporary warming hut in Winnipeg, Canada, the firm created a tactile, “primitive experience,” with charred wood cladding and a fire pit surrounded by felt lining inside. A guesthouse in Texas utilizes limestone in several ways, from monolithic blocks to tapered veneer, as if it were woven like fabric. A steel trellis behind a Victorian House in Cambridge—modeled after the form of a carport— provides a structure for creeping vines and encloses an outdoor space.

“It’s a way of using a material as a launching point and seeing what we can do with it,” says Plumb, of these investigations.

Moving forward the firm is working on creative office and university work in Cambridge, and an ad agency inside a former mill in Manchester, New Hampshire. They only take on work that has meaning for them.

“We have to think about how we make use of our energy and time,” says Aamodt.

The post Aamodt Plumb is Radically Holistic in Life and Work appeared first on Aamodt / Plumb.