RKR ADU - Portland, OR

Our RKR project, seen here before move-in, is an adaptive reuse Accessory Dwelling Unit located in Portland’s West Hills. The ADU is nestled into the lowest level of a house originally designed by Architect Bill Church, on a steeply sloping site. The design works within a highly constrained space and takes careful advantage of natural light and views to the surrounding forest.

#metaamo #ADU #adaptivereuse #billchurch

Metaamo + World Bank take on Urban Resilience in the Pacific

We are thrilled to share that Metaamo has been selected by the World Bank to be the Urban Design Consultant for a new Urban Resilience project in the Pacific: Urban Design Analysis of the Delap-Uliga-Djarrit (DUD) area in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), which is part of the World Bank’s broader RMI Urban Resilience Project (RMIURP). This World Bank-executed technical assignment has the objective of supporting the Bank and the RMI Government in identifying potential Resilient Public Space investment options in Majuro, through the development of an Urban Design Analysis and Urban Profile of Majuro, an Urban Design Handbook for Resilient Public Space, while delivering a Capacity-Building Workshop to Government Stakeholders to enhance their capacity on Risk-informed Urban Design.

At the grass-roots level, Metaamo has been working, researching, and partnering with communities in the RMI for nearly a decade on issues dealing with Climate Change Adaptation, Urban Resilience, and Risk-Informed Community Planning, while foregrounding the preservation and celebration of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and cultural specificity. In addition to this World Bank project, Metaamo has also been developing a masterplan and design for a K-12 School, as well as designing a new model for resilient housing rooted in local material supply chains.

For more info and background on the RMIURP: World Bank: RMIURP Background

Matthew Bunza Appointed to MIT Faculty

We’re very happy to share that Matt has joined the MIT faculty again, and will be teaching an M.Arch Core II Architectural Design Studio. The studio project asks students to see the Library as Social Infrastructure, and culminates in the design of a new Branch of the Boston Public Library, centered around Boston’s Chinatown Neighborhood and its diverse community. The studio engages themes of cultural identity, community resilience, deep time, and the use of precedent as a central tool for design research. We will be involving numerous guests, including Aditi Mehta (U Toronto), Garnette Cadogan (MIT MLK Visiting Scholar), members of the Chinatown Community, and many more, and look forward to seeing the students’ work as it develops.

#metaamo #MIT #designstudio #chinatown #socialinfrastructure #librarydesign #USChina

Entry Courtyard / Daxing Villa

Glimpse of the entry courtyard of the Daxing Villa. Located on the rural outskirts of Beijing, the project was conceived as a collection of volumes that pinwheel around a central courtyard, where a daylight-filled internal garden gives focus and light to the inward living spaces.

SSR house starts construction

Subtraction begins. SSR house just starting construction in the PDX West Hills.

Upcoming MIT Alumni Lecture

We are excited to share that Metaamo will be part of an upcoming MIT Alumni event that spotlights recent architecture graduates (within the last ten years), and their unique approaches to shaping the profession and future. Please join us, as well as our colleagues and friends from around the world, in what should be a fun and lively discussion.

For more info: https://www.mitarcha.org/mitarcha-events/m10ers-shaping-future

Partial Elevation - Shanxi Adaptive Reuse Design Hotel

Shadow maker. Partial elevation of a design hotel we are working on in Shanxi, China. New custom window and shading systems within an existing masonry facade.

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#cavehouse #china #architecture #hospitalitydesign #hoteldesign #brickvault #shanxi #adaptivereuse #pdxdesigner #pdxarchitecture #woodwindows #vault #mitsap #mitarchitecture #pingyao #UNESCO #materiality

Metaamo / U Oregon - Eugene Lecture Tomorrow Night

Matt will be in Eugene tomorrow night, lecturing at University of Oregon with Alice Kimm (JFAK Architects, Los Angeles), and moderated by Prof. Cory Olsen of UO. Hope to see you there!

#metaamo

Recent Lecture @ AIA Iowa

Matt gave a recent lecture at the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Design Conference in Des Moines, Iowa. The lecture, entitled ‘Future Vernaculars: Dwelling Ecosystems for Pacific Atolls’, was in partnership with our friend and collaborator, Dr. James Miller of OCAD University, and dealt with our ongoing work and research with communities in the Pacific Islands.

Thanks to AIA Iowa, with extra special thanks going to Leah Rudolphi and Justin Burnham for making our trip a memorable one.

Recent Asia Lecture at WHUT

Matt was in China at the beginning of October, delivering a lecture on Metaamo’s design philosophy, methodologies, and recent work at Wuhan University of Technology (WHUT) in Hubei Province. Thanks to the faculty and students for the invitation and opportunity to share our work.

Scale Model - Columbia River Gorge House

Seen around the office: A scale model of the recently completed Columbia Gorge House made out of manila folders. #maquette

New Adaptive-Reuse Design Hotel in Shanxi, China

Somewhere over Shanxi, China… Metaamo is working on several hospitality projects, including an adaptive-reuse of this spectacular 350 year-old rammed earth residential fortress. 

Daxing Villa - Reading Room

We are very excited to share a glimpse of the Reading Room, in Metaamo’s newly constructed Daxing Villa, on the outskirts of Beijing. The villa is clad in massive, grey GFRC panels, with floor to ceiling windows that allow daylight and nature to envelop the space.

#metaamo #建微知筑 #china #architecture #villa #housedesign #interiors #sitevisit #construction #daylight #nature #volume #silence #uschina #wood #windows

Metaamo Awarded SSHRC Grant for Pacific Atolls Work in Micronesia

Very happy to announce that Metaamo has been awarded a significant SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

The award is in partnership with Metaamo and our friend & collaborator Dr. James Miller (OCAD University, Toronto), and will be used to launch a series of workshops on participatory, community-based disaster risk reduction planning that will lead-in to a new K-12 school project we're master planning and designing with communities on Majuro Atoll (RMI).

Congratulations and thanks to all our partner organizations who’ve helped on this important project: The Genuardi Family Foundation, Seventh Day Adventist School of Majuro, Living Islands 501(c)3 Non-Profit, WAM (Canoes of the Marshall Islands), OCAD University, College of the Marshall Islands, the SDA Guam Micronesia Mission, and the RMI local government, to name just the short list.

Onsen Resort Hotel in Kyushu, Japan

Metaamo is currently working on the masterplan and design of an Onsen Resort Hotel on a beautiful site in the mountains of Kyushu, Southern Japan.

The project is a collaboration with our friends at Kobayashi Maki Design Workshop in Tokyo.

#metaamo #Japan #Hotsprings #resortdesign #hoteldesign #bathdesign #onsen #traditionalbath

Of.By.For - São Paulo's XII Biennale by Metaamo & Unlisted Experiential

ARCHITECTURE of.by.for PEOPLE

Everyday, the curatorial proposal for the XII IABsp, shifts our focus from high-profile architecture to a world where most people don’t have the money, resources and power to control their physical surroundings. A world where everyday people use behavioral ingenuity to shape their experience of the built environment.

Architecture of.by.for People is an installation/game designed to give anyone the opportunity to tap into their inner architect. We’ve all met this inner architect. It’s the architect in a child that turns a yard into a fully designed imaginary world, in the person who moves his/her body into position for a perfect view of the sunset, in the skateboarder who turns mundane surfaces into a skate park, and the person who whispers or walks softly in order to control the acoustics of a space.

of.by.for is designed to give people control over architecture through action and play. Three toolkits distill architecture into themed “action books” dealing with Form, Materials and Function, each with its own instruction manual for behaviors that create architectural experiences. A collection of “Architecture hacks” that will live and grow after the XII IABsp in the form of a social media platform where everyday people post everyday stories about resource-free everyday architecture.

Pacific Atolls / Coconut Palms.

Metaamo is currently working on materials & supply chain research to put senile coconut palms back to work in the housing and construction industry in the Pacific.

#pdxdesign #publicinterest #community #architecture #designthinking #resilience #coconut #palms #atolls #sitevisit

Columbia Gorge House / Interiors

We’re happy to share another little glimpse of a project that’s just finishing up core and shell construction (landscape / interiors / furniture are all still in the works).  

The Columbia Gorge House is a new single-family residence, nestled into the slopes high above the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area.  The house’s ridgeline geometry torques to mediate between eastern views of nearby mountains, and the southern presence of Mt. Hood beyond / the Columbia River below.  Twin ‘fox-ear’ skylights facing southeast bring focus to the interior, while washing the public spaces with clerestory daylight. The house is clad in dark, composite shingles made of recycled material, and warm western red cedar.  

#metaamo #hainline #framework #daylighting #skylight #clerestory #light #naturallight #modernhome #columbiariver #washingtonstate #cedar #interior #interiors #wood #maple #dougfir #metalwork #PNW #PDXdesign #WIP #workinprogress #architecturaldesign

Metaamo Runs Summer Architecture + Urbanism Workshop in China

Happy to share the recent news that Matt, Sunny, and Melanie from Metaamo all participated in a Summer Architecture + Urbanism workshop in China this past July, which took place in the cities of Wuhan, Shanghai, and Hangzhou, and was graciously hosted by Wuhan University’s School of Urban Design.

The workshop involved nine universities, as well as distinguished faculty and students from around the world, including Wuhan University (WHU), Portland State University (PSU), University of Oregon (UO), City University of Hong Kong (CityU), National University of Singapore (NUS), National Cheng Kung University of Taiwan (NCKU), National Taipei Institute of Technology (NTUT), Taipei University of Science (TU), and Wuhan University of Technology (WHUT).

Its topics of focus dealt with the interface between campus and city, urban ecology, mobility, and the relationship between existing and new urban fabric, and asked student groups to propose speculative creative solutions around the WHU campus edge that fostered innovation and community.

More info to follow from what was a wonderfully fun and productive time with our friends, colleagues, and students…

#metaamo #workshop #academicteaching #china #urbanism #architecture #WHU #PSU #UO #NUS #CityU #HK #NCKU #WHUT #NTUT #TU #workshop #campusiunterface #urbandesign #uschina #crosscultural

New Work in Kyushu, Japan

Metaamo has started work on a very unique project in Southern Japan, in collaboration with our friends at Kobayashi Maki Design Workshop in Tokyo. More details to be released in the coming months…

#metaamo #KMDW #Japan #TopoUrbanism #architecture #countryside #nature