Community
Like building physical structures, building community is a very collaborative and meaningful process. Below are a few examples of my community involvement.
ArchHive - Architect’s Beer Night went public (2023)
The ArchHive is a supportive peer community for architects with small businesses and sole proprietors, who tend to work in isolation and don’t have the resources of larger firms. Members regularly post questions about building and planning code interpretations and relationships with different building and planning departments, as well as requests for referrals for consultants of all kinds, including technical specialists, photographers, interior designers, landscape architects, engineers, general contractors, and more.
We share knowledge, expertise, and resources on everything from client communication, technical issues with construction, new materials and different uses of materials, business development, net-zero carbon, energy conservation, and a wide variety of issues.
I originally started this in 2009 as the architects’ monthly beer night at the Pub on Solano Ave. with five friends. Over the years we grew into a lively online forum with over 100 architects and designers. We still meet in person for social gatherings at irregular intervals, but every day when something comes up, we exchange about it on the forum online.
To join, please click the button below and enter your email address.
USF architecture studio TEACHING (2022)
I began teaching at the University of San Francisco’s Architecture program in the fall of 2022, and since then have been rediscovering what I love about architecture and its unique challenge of designing the 3-dimensional spaces we live in every day. As I watch students develop themselves and grow, I realize how broad the field is, how many different kinds of people find their way into it and how many different ways there are to work as an architect.
How we experience spaces as human beings has a tremendous impact on how we feel and on our overall well-being. What kind of quality might we create through the intentional design of space? How can we design the light in a space to serve a specific purpose?
Studio 2, taught in the Spring, is all about creating space and designing with light and movement in mind. In the Fall I teach Studio 3, which is concerned with Materials and Methods of construction.
HOME TOURS | SHELTER 2021
In August 2021, The AIA East Bay hosted a month-long series of events focused on housing trends, innovations and solutions. A great diversity of voices and perspectives have come together with a common goal of transformation through architecture and design. The need to reflect upon creative, thoughtful and beautiful solutions to the challenges of finding a peaceful place to rest our heads has never been greater. The programming showcased inspirational living environments that reflect the broad diversity of all the places we call home, including Single Family Homes, Tiny homes, Accessory Dwelling Units, Live-work spaces, Intentional Communities, Affordable Housing, and Houses for the Houseless.
To the right is a recording of one of Shelter’s virtual events, in which I speak about the project Nallie’s Nest. (The presentation of Nallie’s Nest starts at 15:30 min. and ends at 30:30 min.)
YSA TINY HOUSE VILLAGE (2020)
Over 800 volunteers are constructing the Youth Spirit Artworks Empowerment Tiny House Village in Oakland. The community is designed in collaboration with the young people who will live there. A volunteer team of people of all walks of life, including students, architects and contractors, developed the plans for the entire site, including the tiny houses themselves, landscaping, infrastructure, and shared kitchen, bathhouses, and laundry facilities.
San Francisco Chronicle - Oakland tiny home village for homeless youth nears completion
The Street Spirit - Artists from around the Bay bring Youth Spirit Artworks’ tiny house village to life
The Street Spirit - Youth Spirit Artworks’ Tiny House Village powers through pandemic
Learn more and support this project at www.youthspiritartworks.org
Collage CIRCLEs (2018/2019)
Circling Back Collage Circle (February 2019) A workshop to explore the concept of our "Common Wealth” at Machina Loci*. (Patty Glikbarg, Kerstin Hellmann & friends)
Circling Back Collage Circle, offered to complement an installation by Nicole Vinokur titled Common Wealth, this collage circle invited participants to consider: What does it mean to circle back to the garden as a place, an idea, or an ideal again and again? And also, How can we cultivate our garden our common heritage together? This creative exploration is a powerful way to address shared concerns and to experience ourselves as part of a complex, dynamic whole. Collage circles invite participants to explore community issues through an intuitive process of choosing, assembling, thinking, and speaking through images.
*Machina Loci’s Window Project is a series of commissioned artworks that contribute to the local public conversation by working with shop front windows as an interface that begins to dissolve the boundary between public and private.
Metaphor/Meaning/Mystery (September 2018)
A one-time group showing of collaged works at Milano Arts Gallery in Crockett, CA
(Catherine Williams, Rachel McMullin, Patty Glikbarg, Kerstin Hellmann, Grant Foerster)
“The Possible” exhibition (2014)
Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive
“The Possible” program invited members of the community into the Berkeley Art Museum’s exhibit floors to explore creative projects together. Many arts and crafts disciplines as well as performance art, and a multitude of mediums and approaches were applied to shared themes. I participated in “minimum dwelling" and asked myself: What is the smallest possible shelter I can envision? The objective of “minimum dwelling” was to transform artefacts that participants had owned for a long time, and that had significant meaning for them, into something new. I chose a laundry basket, an item I purchased at the Ashby flea market when I first came to live in the United States. I discovered that I could physically fit myself inside the basket, that it could “shelter” me. What came of this exploration was the transformation of a container into an open, transparent and malleable structure.
Berkeleyside - Discovering “The Possible” at Berkeley Art Museum
Daily Californian - Art Museum Refines the “Possible”
