You established the Stonorov Workshop in 2006. What led you and your husband Otto to that point? Going back a long ways, we both grew up around the same, Philadeplphia-based, family architectural heritage: our respective grandfathers worked on large social planning and design issues together; and our parents, independently, work(ed) in the fields of development and building.  We met when we were 3 and 4, narrowly missed each other for a little over 20 years, and re-met again a year prior to attending graduate school together.

Above: Entryway to the new 1450 square foot home the Stonorov’s have designed and built in Homer, Alaska. They are several miles from town on a wooded acre.

We later worked at different dynamic San Francisco bay area firms, but knew that we eventually wanted to work together.  We both craved to combine design, building and furniture making and to have a hands-on relation to projects from beginning to end.  Starting Stonorov Workshop gave us an avenue through which we could begin this work.  Though it is often a challenge to balance time between design and building, being able to do both, we believe, makes the other stronger and more valid.

Above: The home’s south facade. They chose local spruce for the siding and custom cedar doors and a cedar slat screen entry.

You recently moved to Alaska and are building a new home. Can you tell us what drove that decision and why you chose Alaska? We like the balance of city and country.  It is too easy to get caught up in the considerations specific to a place, and to start thinking and planning relative to those ideas only.  If you can get away, you have both the opportunity to reflect and to be immersed in something different and equally real.  Because we have family in Homer, Alaska, it is our country place by default.  Which is not too bad of an arrangement, if we could just stop working on our current project to enjoy it before we try to balance ourselves out by heading to the city…

Above: The view from the soon-to-be finished studio and guest house.

Describe your work method. As a husband and wife team do you find your work spilling over into the rest of your life? We don’t necessarily have a fixed method.  Although we do have, as a typical goal, a cohesive and unified formal expression that we work towards (given a particular projects constraints).  It takes a lot of labor and information to get to a well considered and humble end, so – to our detriment, our workday rarely has a finite beginning or end.  We tend to eat and drink with our projects.  Luckily we have our son and dog who remind us to occasionally let work go and head for the beach or build a marble roller coaster maze.

Above: An example of an “edge condition” that inspires the designers.  This particular dock is at a lake in the Adirondack’s, where their next project is located.

Above: View of the bay and glaciers through the cedar slat entry in the Alaska house.

There is a clean-lined aesthetic that runs through all your projects. What drives your design decisions? Our general belief is that everything in design should be purposeful and that making and design are intrinsic to each other.  The result of this thinking are projects that have very handmade sensibilities and straight forward intentions.

Above: The steel staircase was fabricated by a local boat builder, Bay Welding. The walls are paneled in mahogany and the designers used an acid on the concrete floor.

They are refined to a point. Assembly and method are always apparent.  There is not a question of how things were done to detract from the experience of why they were done.

To this end, where possible, our work is stripped down to the essentials:  raw steel, exposed fasteners, board form concrete: raw and industrial paired with warm and refined.

Spatially we lean towards conceptually similar organizations: small, more confined areas juxtaposed with open airy areas.  The marked difference enlivens and creates awareness between the two.

Above:  Kitchen island:  solid ash counter with board form concrete ends and fir slat back.

What inspires you in your work? We are often inspired by materials that show age and by buildings that are purpose built, like barns or airplane hangers, that have a scale and proportion that appropriately fit their use.  We like the simple assembly of a barn from the 1800’s, a stone house built into a hillside, the narrow pedestrian streets of Rome.

Above: Inspirational project by Oskar Stonorov and Ed Bacon, for the Bacon family. (Otto and Tolya’s respective grandfathers.)

We gain inspiration through understanding why things are made, and by whom.  We also like edge conditions and the structures, like docks and bridges, that are found there.  (Homer, AK is actually known as ‘where the land meets the sea‘.)  We are currently working on an Adirondak lake camp, which is a really fitting project for us in that we can draw on a vernacular with a fairly well documented history that actaully has a good mix of utility buildings (boat house, ice house etc..) mixed in.  There are also, of course, our favorite architects, Peter Zumthor (below), Herzog and De Meuron, Jean Nouvel, Olson Kundig.

Above: Mark Jensesn at work. Photo: Jensen Architects

You are the principal architect of an 18-person firm that was established in 1990. Can you tell us about what drew you to architecture? Two things: first, my German grandfather hand-crafted a collection of solid maple building blocks for his grandson (thankfully, he didn’t have the tools in his garage-shop to make “blobs”). Second, my high school geometry teacher (a “recovering” architect himself) took one look at my hyper-organized class binder and said to me: “Mark, you are going to be an architect.”

Above: The Kokoris residence. Photos: Cesar Rubio.

Your residential work is strongly contemporary and very finely detailed. The Kokoris Residence, for example, features almost hidden tile work near the entrance and the Twin Peaks Residence in San Francisco has a system of rounds built into the concrete at the front door that let light into the floor below. Are you inspired in these details by the site? What drives you in your design decisions? In music, there are some songs that grab you the first time you hear them… but you may quickly tire of them. Other songs only bring you in after multiple listenings. In my architecture, I aspire to the latter. Standing up to multiple listenings means getting the details right.

Above: Twin Peaks residence. Photos: Jensen Architects

Tell us about some of the work spaces you’ve designed in client’s homes. Do you find people are asking for more flexible work spaces? Is a dedicated home office a think of the past as more and more we find ourselves liberated by wireless internet to roam the house? There is an ongoing discussion about the “third place”: neither home nor office but rather a coffee house or a train station. This is an interesting conversation but I think we are quickly moving past it where we can be connected anywhere at any time. The new home office is the sofa or the pool.

Herman Miller is committed to sustainable practice in everything we do. In 2005 you collaborated with a number of design firms to create the Scrap House – can you tell us about that project? The Scrap House was an interesting experiment in how one could build a single family home with found objects and reclaimed materials. What is more pressing now is to consider how we could shift the construction culture of single family homes toward a variety of alternatives: smaller floor plans, built closer together, pre-manufactured, and requiring no energy input.

Above: The Scrap House. Photos: Cesar Rubio

It seems so often these days that work spills out of the office and into the home. How do you strike a balance between your work and the rest of your life? Since I love what I do, I am not so troubled by striking this balance. But to answer your question: “Less Internet, More Cabernet.” (It sounds better in Italian.)

Above: Interior of the three-wing conference room for advertising agency Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners West. Photo: Richard Barnes.

Your design studio – Standard – is based in Los Angeles and in your work your European roots seemed to have merged with a particularly modern Californian aesthetic giving both a warmth and a rigor that is really striking. Can you give us a bit of background – you both studied architecture in Germany. How do you think that has influenced your work in California? We met in Germany, and while we went to different schools there, it was like an intersection in our studies.  We both went to architecture school in the US as well, but on opposite coasts.  In American schools the emphasis is on process and forms but in Germany the modernist project continues to be an influence; our work reflects some of that idealism.  When we started to work together in Los Angeles, the dominant trend was to create new form.  We were more interested in creating space, and in LA’s modern history.  Early in our practice, we had the opportunity to work on a couple of projects that were interiors combined with landscapes, so we designed from the inside out.  We worked with materials, openings in walls, views, and light; and less with the outward appearance of the building.

Your own home, aptly dubbed “The Tree House” is perched on a steep hill on the east side of Los Angeles. How did that site influence your design? We had lived on the site for about seven years before we started the project, so we understood the site well and we knew how we wanted to live there.

Under the tree there is a microclimate that’s usually about 10 degrees cooler than down at the street.

We wanted the house to be under the tree’s canopy, and to create the living space there.  The south orientation and expansive views led us to open the house up on that side, and to keep the back more solid.

The material palette is very restrained – concrete, redwood and white cabinetry with marble in the bathrooms. How do you go about making those choices? We wanted to balance the materials and create contrast.   In the main living space we defined the perimeter with white walls and cabinets, so the wood in the center of the room looks more like built-in furniture.  It is a small house and the approach to materials and the glass help make it feel more expansive.

The home includes a desk/work area in the master bedroom. Do you find your work life spills over into your home life? Our work spills into our home life probably a little too much, and thankfully, this desk is rarely used for work.

Currently our office is very close to the house, so we try not to bring work home.

What inspires you in your work? Silvia:  New York, aged finishes, vast (higher altitude) landscapes, Rick Owen’s fashion, Edith Heath’s ceramics (below).

Le Courbusier’s concrete (and glass) architecture, Japanese architect Kazuyo Sejima’s material-less seeming architecture (below Sejima’s New Museum in New York City. Image via StarMedia).

Jeff: Furniture design: Charlotte Perriand, Joe Colombo, Jean Royere.  Automotive design:  Alfa Sprint Speciale, classic Bertone designs.  The architecture of Jose Antonio Coderch (below Coderch’s Casa Ulgade, Barcelona 1953) , Mies van der Rohe’s early work.

Photos: Shots of Silvia and Jeff’s home by Benny Chan/fotoworks.

1. Grist An interesting take on environmental news. Where to start: Tips on dealing with the summer heat when you work from home.

2. Color Collective You’ve got to love a simple idea that’s been beautifully executed. Here Portland-based artist Lauren Willhite takes photographs and art as inspiration and breaks each image down into 5 essential colors. Where to start: Go straight to the interiors category for some home office inspiration.

3. Ill Seen, Ill Said Jane Flanagan is an Irish woman living in Toronto with a wonderful eye for design and a very nice turn of phrase. Where to start: The post on following your heart when it comes to designing your home..

4. Mid Century Modernist A recent redesign has improved this site beyond belief. If you have even the faintest interest in mid century design head straight to this site – immediately! Where to start: Our very own Lifework contributor (and editor of Grain Edit) Dave Cuzner’s house tour.

5. Houzz An excellent picture-driven architecture site filled to the brim with interesting houses. Where to start: Type home office into the search box and you’ll find yourself wading through over 4000 images of compelling spaces.

Portland, Oregon is host to some very interesting residential architecture and on April 17 a modern house tour, aptly named Street of Eames, will highlight some of the best. All the money raised goes to after school programs for homeless children at two Portland schools. It was the demise of one of these programs in 2005 that spurred the first tour on. Last year’s tour raised $123,000. And this year’s tour is set to be just as successful with more than 8 stops including Path Architecture (above) and Robert Rummer’s 1969 residence (below).