KieranTimberlake Associates. Loblolly House. Photo: © Peter Aaron/Esto. All images © KieranTimberlake Associates.

New high-profile edifices designed by architects whose firms are becoming household names are everywhere these days. These towering, monumental sculptures frequently stand among, yet separate from, the buildings around them. Concurrently, if less visible, is another movement working to change the way we think about architecture. Instead of a building’s outward image, the focus is its entire lifecycle: its manufacture, its sustainability, even its demise. Architecture from the inside out, if you will.

Steven Kieran and James Timberlake have been busy lately. Their 24-year-old firm, KieranTimberlake Associates, has just completed a number of major commissions, including the new Sculpture Building and Gallery at Yale University and the Loblolly House on Taylor’s Island, Maryland. Besides the firm’s obsessive attention to detail, these projects are among the most environmentally sustainable buildings in America. And they are not just very green; they also push forward precision off-site-assembly technologies, reformulating the definition of prefab in the process.

Their peers have noticed. Along with two dozen architecture awards last year alone they also received the prestigious American Institute of Architects 2008 Architecture Firm Award. This month their Cellophane House, a four-story, off-site-assembly model home, will be installed on 53rd Street in New York as part of MoMA’s Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling.

I’ve had the pleasure of knowing James Timberlake since 1992, and recently had a chance to sit down with him and talk about his firm’s vision: past, present, and future.

This article is not yet available online. To check on availabilty and buy this issue, select the "BUY THIS ISSUE" link below. For the current issue, please use the "SUBSCRIBE NOW" link below.

SUBSCRIBE NOW BUY THIS ISSUE
Issue 104 Summer 2008