I was recently asked to feature my desk in a photograph that depicts the tools of my trade. As a multi-platform designer who finds herself designing experiences from apps to websites, exhibits, residences, and museums, the range of tools and paraphernalia that inhabit my desk varies a great deal. While I am committed to and grounded by the practice of architecture, many commissions these days require architectural thinking fused with interaction design sensibilities to create the best possible user or visitor experience.
Accompanying this photograph were a series of direct questions, for which are both direct and open-ended answers. I enjoyed the opportunity to share some of my inspirations, and so I hope you enjoy reading this too.
What is your Profession?
Architecture and Interaction Design
Where do you work?
Tangible Places. I founded this company in New York, and am currently working in the River North neighborhood of Chicago.
What inspired you to start?
I was inspired by the renovation of my family’s home when I was about four years old. The world that I thought I knew as comforting and complete was expanded into something large and magical by the use of some architectural drawings by thoughtful people, the use of lumber, paint, some other basic materials, and a kindhearted carpenter, and his crew. Let’s fast-forward to the present, a few decades later. After being involved with some large and significant museum exhibitions, I decided I really wanted to start my own practice. No matter how modest the project, I enjoy working directly with clients in my community, and perhaps further afield, to simply create delightful places utilizing dedicated communication and creative uses of comfortable materials.
What’s inspiring these days?
I am inspired by many things, in scales great and small. Recurring themes of inspiration range from the inanimate edifices of hydrological infrastructure and geologic formations to the living world of biological systems and structures.
If I were to adapt a song based on the “These are a few of my favorite things” from The
Sound of Music, it might include some of these details:
-
- surface tension
- current
- volcanism
- erosion
- lichen
- patina
- vernal sunrises over the great lakes
- animals who use interactive technology
- extremophile bacteria
- the circulation systems of vegetables
- avian fossils
- bower birds
- the smell of recently trimmed reclaimed timber beams and hardwood flooring.
- prehistoric ceramics
- craft wine and whiskey labels
- lumber and grist mills
- conservatories
- concert halls that are inherently well-designed for acoustics
- amateur roadside museums
- calligraphy
- comparative linguistics
- everything about the year 1997
- library furniture
- late 19th and early 20th Century art, architecture, and design (1891-1926)
- specifically: fin de siècle, the international style of early modernism, the American prairie craft movement, as well as the situationist movement of 1960s Paris
- almost any Italian, French, and British graphic design, cinema, and music from 1919 to 1929, and 1961 to 1968.
- shipping containers
- 3D printed concrete modules
10 words about your photograph
memory, imagination, scale, mobility, place-making, privacy, collaboration, precision, materiality, delight
Tell us about your sketches
I am in the process of designing a mobile guide for roadside museums and other cultural attractions. The desire to preserve local memories and artifacts and showcase the narratives of a place should be celebrated. With the Roadside Museums app, travelers can diverge from the beaten path for a moment to reflect on the stories that exist between their origin and their destination. I am especially interested in designing a mobile experience that allows smaller attractions— which might not have lavish advertising budgets— to reach larger audiences. I hope to drive more visitors to the quirky and obscure micro-museums that are works of passion for small communities by creating a mobile app. Road-trippers can leverage the best location data available to allow users to prepare for their visit, learn about the stories off the well-worn and congested paths, and ensure key takeaways from their visit. I intend to help these museums grow into thriving local cultural institutions.