Creating abundance through design
I have been exploring abundance. The thing about this is that the more it is focused on specificity, the more it expands. Say you focus on abundant health, as you pinpoint your body in health a curious thing happens, energy starts pouring in; energy that has no bounds. Try it. The key is that abundance has no limits. Sounds about right, yea? So it is with the snug where light and earth are focused. Step inside with the intent to just Be and be surprised at what you receive.
There has been a convergence in the architecture world between design and computing. I have been posting a series of ‘parametrically’ designed Poche structures to illustrate the power of parametric data to surround with presence, especially when applied to the malleable truss structure that is Poche.
Walk with me here as I lay this out: say an architect uses parametric design, which is when designers input variables—like dimensions, climate data, or component limitations into computational software, where an algorithm generates optimized shapes, visually, think Zaha Hadid. You will get a deeply informed building shape that is deterministically correct but it may or may not become architecture. This is where the interface between AI and the designer takes on critical importance. The input that was provided at the beginning, the prompt if you will, can be sourced from deep knowledge or simply from data. Like anything in our digital world, you can get involved from intelligence or by skimming. If you own the input, then the output will resonate with your talent. Master architect input, architecture output.
When conventional can no longer meet the needs of a rapidly changing world, you can jump ship or you can see the possibility hidden in plain sight. I have been considering the tenure of House alongside our capacity to dwell. I think that House is a convention that might no longer meet the needs of humanity in our rapidly changing world. Wait – humans have sought shelter since the beginning. In America we take House to mean x# bedrooms and bathrooms, the kitchen and living rooms, with a basement or attic for storage, and a garage. These expectations are being eroded in the rental market yet folks living there still aspire for the House. How do you jump ship? Self-built tiny houses, Airbnbs for nomads, and campervans are some who have jumped off the House ship. I choose to look deeply at what is here because I believe that our next move is in plain sight and I think it is tangled up in the essence of dwelling.
If you have ever perused the studios of artists you admire, you will likely find 3 things in common: volume (depending on the medium), abundant natural light, and mess. We all know that play is messy, in the throw of creation, a frenzy of activity and materiality are released. It is unavoidable. But it is also true that mess in a creative’s place is cultivated. Carefully curated bits of material or slips of paper, pages taken from magazines, books marked on certain pages. All are triggers to step into the creating flow. Necessary. Plan for this.
To Be
My career has primarily been houses, accessory dwelling units currently. But here is the thing I have been staring at, even with small dwellings, it seems that the thing we are tasked with is housing the stuff. The word change from house to dwelling has not been materialized. I mean to decipher this, beginning with the smallest unit. This week I introduce the Snug.
House: a verb meaning to provide with shelter, to serve as a container. Dwell: a verb meaning to live as a resident, to keep the attention directed.
I don’t need a place where I do nothing… do I? Snug: In the space between wake and sleep, we dream. At first you may find that nothing happens in your snug. But once you build it and use it, something will happen. The Lost Art of Doing Nothing . The Brain at Rest . Do Nothing . Niksen . you really don’t need to hear that doing nothing is where creativity rises, but perhaps what you might need to hear is that if you create a space for yourself and then develop a pattern of settling into that space, you might just find that remarkable things begin to happen. Lots of folks and lots of science dive into this. But sometimes it’s the poets that speak most clearly: What we dream becomes where we stand (TT Williams, from The Glorians). I have pulled away from learned places and distilled architecture to the essential molecules of place: light and earth. I call it Snug.
Shifting from a familiar structure we all know as iconic to our houses in America and blurring right past the decades of customizing the workshop with fancy benches and shelving and lighting, bumping over the grunge bands that grew up there and the inventors that found solitude ‘out in the garage’, and landing right..splat..in 2026 where we just passed codes removing the requirement to store an automobile on your property. And just like that – the end of the mandated garage. There is a crack in the solid foundation of what we think of as house. A house has a garage because you need to store a (or many) car(s). Perhaps the time has come to rethink what we are storing.
Unique shapes are hard and expensive to build…says who?
Recently, my meditation landed the following on my lap: “Don’t get into street fights.” I tend to be a coward anyway, so this did not frighten me. It wasn’t until I recalled a moment in a game with friends where, as the tension built toward the end of the game, one of the players pointed a finger and disclosed something that instantly put me at a disadvantage. I cringed and protested. In the height of the emotion that thickly spread over me, I completely missed the opportunity that had also presented itself. Completely missed it. Sometimes things do not look like what they truly are. Poche is a simple manufactured truss AND all trusses are custom.
A week ago I posted the one with me at the summit of Kilimanjaro. What I didn’t do, was look today’s moment directly in the eye. I am championing the creation of a Collective to put intelligent small house options into housing for the people. What? Grab a cup of tea, sit down and see how this fits: Poche 2026: a collective
It was 10:15am on the 25th of September, 2002 when we stepped onto Uhuru Peak. The energy on that peak far exceeded any expectation and furthermore, it left me with a very powerful intent. Recognizing the momentous lineage of humanity that allowed me to be here, I vowed to do my part to evolve us.
I climbed mountains for over a decade, managing to summit 34 of Colorado’s 14ers and summited the tallest point in the continental US, Mt Whitney. The tip about mountain climbing is to train as best you can to get as strong as you can, then go climb ze mountain. In architecture, I have trained for over 4 decades and built capacity that only arrives by having done it, again and again. I am now climbing the mountain with everything I have. Join me: Poche Introduction 2026
I have waxed poetic in many past posts on this project and my work in general, at the end of the day we must move on. The house belongs to the owner. Our job is done.
It did take a while.
We hit some snafus.
What work does not?
Here is what we did accomplish:
8 hours to frame. Versus 60+ to frame conventionally.
Custom shape. No upcharge.
Sheds snow and rain. Without gutters.
Shades summer sun. No extra overhang.
No drywall.
Low embodied carbon.
Linoleum floor.
Low embodied carbon.
Air Change per Hour: 1.6 (code 3.0, Passive House 0.6)
HERS Index Score 46 (code sets a max of 60)
We also made a beautiful dwelling that should be a pleasure to live in, Watch our video: Brooks ADU
We know it will happen.
Architects do.
The poetry and transcendence.
After months and years
the thing we aimed for
the thing we willed
the thing we trusted to happen
…has begun.
The building is waking up.
