It’s no secret that we love what we do at h+uo. Architecture is our passion and we strive to have that be seen in each and every project. Something many of our clients might not know is what got us in to this amazing field in the first place. Randall gives an inside look at his inspiration behind the firm:

As long as I can remember I loved to draw.  But it was my father that led me down the path of wanting to become an architect.  He was a pipe fitter for Steamfitters Local 420 out of Philadelphia; a blue collar guy who never went to college.  Perhaps my love of and talent for drawing came from him.  In his spare time, when not working in the yard (landscaping was another of his passions) or on the house, he would be drawing.  He spent hours and hours on drawings of houses and landscape ideas, very meticulously filling in walls or drawing deck boards and even coloring in the better ones with colored pencils.  I inherited a box of drawings, literally thousands of drawings, mostly plan drawings that show multiple versions of ideas, tested as a good architect is supposed to test ideas.  It is baffling to think how many hours worth of drawings are in that box but it may be upwards of a year or more.  And he drew these without a T-square or parallel straight edge.

Without a formal education, he knew it would be impossible to follow the steps to become an architect.  But that didn’t stop his love of drawing, designing and visualizing his ideas.  He did a lot of landscaping and building of decks that he designed.  He also did some home remodeling including tearing out walls to make the spaces more open plan.  Lots of projects, many that went unfinished.  But that allowed me to see things go from paper to being built.  It was inspiring to see that process.

He suggested I take a mechanical drawing class in high school, which I did, and loved it.  That was when I knew I really wanted to become an architect.  A 5-year Bachelor of Architecture degree later and 21 years in the business since college, I still love my job and what I do and I thank my father for the Inspiration to Become an Architect.

Earlier this week, Tom Hatch and Megan Matthews attended a two-day design charrette on the Living Building Challenge, co-hosted by Foundation Communities and the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems. The charrette sought to identify design and community strategies through collaboration that would create a living building, one which “operates as cleanly, beautifully and efficiently as nature’s architecture”, for two potential new community centers for Foundation Communities.  The Living Building Challenge takes the concept of green, sustainable architecture to the next level by asking buildings to not take from their environment, but instead to give back.

Broken down into two teams, the 20 or so attendees discussed and looked at the seven performance areas of Site, Water, Energy, Health, Materials, Equity, and Beauty through the lens of restorative and regenerative design.  By the end of the charrette on Tuesday, Tom and Megan left with a renewed appreciation for not only the services Foundation Communities provides to their residents here in Central Texas, but for the collaborative design atmosphere we had been selected to be a part of and ideas for moving forward.

About Foundation Communities

Foundation Communities provides first class, affordable homes and free onsite support services for thousands of working families with kids, as well as veterans, seniors, and individuals with disabilities. They offer an innovative, proven model that empowers their residents and neighbors to achieve educational success, financial stability, and healthier lifestyles. They own and operate 17 properties in Austin and North Texas.

About the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems

The Center designs and tests innovative programs that integrate air, water, food, energy, and material systems to build healthy and sustainable communities.

Through the creation of Protocols, Policies, and Prototypes, the Center inspires ecologically balanced environments, stewards natural resources, and elevates community resilience and economic vitality.

About the Living Building Challenge

The Living Building Challenge™ is a green building certification program that defines the most advanced measure of sustainability in the built environment possible today and acts to diminish the gap between current limits and ideal solutions.  Projects that achieve this level of performance can claim to be the ‘greenest’ anywhere, and will serve as role models for others that follow.

The Challenge is comprised of seven performance areas, or ‘Petals’: Site, Water, Energy, Health, Materials, Equity and Beauty. Petals are subdivided into a total of twenty Imperatives, each of which focuses on a specific sphere of influence. This compilation of Imperatives can be applied to almost every conceivable Typology, or project type, be it a building (both renovation of an existing structure, or new construction), infrastructure, landscape or community development.  Learn more about the Living Building Challenge by downloading the full Living Building Challenge Standard document found here: http://living-future.org/lbc.

h+uo architects has worked on countless projects over the years that have stuck out in their minds, all for different reasons, and for the most part, each as memorable as the others.

Though, when being asked what our favorite project was, one project in particular came to the minds of two of the partners: The Crossings, now  Travaasa Experiential Resort.

Partner Randall Owen said It was his most memorable project because he was on the site for over a year-and-a-half in his own job trailer observing construction and orchestrating the construction of the 15 building campus using two general contractors.

“This was an architect’s dream to get to call 200 plus acres of Texas Hill Country on the edge of the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve my office, while watching one of my projects get built.  I was so spoiled, not because I had in my trailer A/C, a mini-fridge, and a computer with internet access, but because I felt like a Master Builder, like an architect from many centuries ago, out in the natural environment, watching their man-made vision become a reality.  We created a village up on that hill.  I look forward to my next visit.”

Architecturally yours,

hatch + ulland owen architecture