

mbaran7
- May 15, 2017
- 3 min
Provacative and Unprofessional
While it’s useful to rely on consistency and standardization when it comes to making buildings, it doesn’t typically inspire creativity....
37 views0 comments


hello26970
- Sep 21, 2016
- 4 min
Copy Right
In defense, in celebration, of replication. Why does architecture, both in current design trends and the big picture urban environment,...
3 views0 comments


mbaran7
- Sep 19, 2016
- 3 min
Architectural Glitches
The process of making is not typically linear. Direction can be reversed and lateral moves made as various directions fail to prove...
6 views0 comments


mbaran7
- Jul 5, 2016
- 4 min
Architecture and Obedience
We generally think and do as we are told by authority, or by mass momentum (which comes first, or if they’re interchangeable, I’m not...
46 views0 comments
hello26970
- May 25, 2016
- 2 min
Not a Manifesto
In light of my recent ‘Design Manifesto’ interview with Modelo, I’ve returned to the manifestos I studied as a college student, and I...
6 views0 comments


mbaran7
- Dec 31, 2015
- 4 min
Don’t be afraid of Modernism. It’s dead.
When I’m told “this modernism thing isn’t going to last” I feel like I just emerged from a time machine in 1905. Modernism was not a...
4 views0 comments


mbaran7
- May 4, 2015
- 1 min
The Perfection of Imperfection
Decay and disintegration are simply factors of time. Nothing lasts, change is constant. The natural process of dematerialization is...
10 views0 comments


mbaran7
- Mar 29, 2015
- 5 min
Architecture is Dead. Long Live Architecture.
In the beginning of 2015, there was a great deal of talk about architecture in ‘crisis’, and I found it simultaneously fascinating and...
82 views0 comments


mbaran7
- Feb 21, 2015
- 4 min
Improvised Architecture: Who We Are Is What We Do
The foundation of adaptable characteristics are present in most people at a young age. For a child it is difficult to understand that it...
6 views0 comments


mbaran7
- Jan 25, 2015
- 4 min
Living is a Machine for Architecture
Cyborgs might be the stuff of science fiction horror films, but I for one am looking forward to continued opportunities to augment myself...
34 views0 comments


mbaran7
- Jan 11, 2015
- 4 min
Against Style: Architecture and Process
Style in architecture is useless as a design tool. It is a formula usually derived from a kit of parts which are applied (like make-up,...
7 views0 comments


mbaran7
- Dec 26, 2014
- 4 min
Box Love
Perhaps we should start with a definition of box: Box. bäks/ noun 1. a container with a flat base and sides, typically square or...
7 views0 comments


mbaran7
- Dec 17, 2014
- 3 min
Conflict, Architecture, and an Ugly Messy Grayscale Tapestry
Conflict and its relationship to architecture may involve something as catastrophic as a border skirmish, or as mundane as a disagreement...
4 views0 comments


mbaran7
- Dec 1, 2014
- 3 min
Loss, Impermanence, and the Trace in Design
Parallels between architecture and psychology fascinate me. Not in the sense of environmental psychology, or the psychological effects of...
28 views0 comments


mbaran7
- Nov 23, 2014
- 3 min
Creativity, Cognitive Flexibility, and the End of Genius
“It’s not a sign of creativity to have sixty-five ideas for one problem. It’s just a waste of energy.” Jan Kaplicky (1937-2009) There has...
8 views0 comments
mbaran7
- Nov 9, 2014
- 3 min
Ayn Rand vs Woody Allen?
Objectivism, postmodernism, adaptability, flexibility, maybe mediocrity and compromise. I’ve done it again, wasted a perfectly good...
31 views0 comments


mbaran7
- Nov 3, 2014
- 2 min
Generation Flux
Adaptability is paramount in modern business according to the folks in this recent Fast Company issue. Several of the individuals...
2 views0 comments


mbaran7
- Oct 29, 2014
- 1 min
Random Oakland Variations
These admittedly have no rhyme nor reason for being placed together here, outside the fact that they’re around Oakland, and they all...
2 views0 comments


mbaran7
- Oct 16, 2014
- 1 min
West Oakland View
The view from our latest West Oakland project. Better than the Golden Gate Bridge if you ask me. I love it!
2 views0 comments
mbaran7
- Jul 17, 2014
- 1 min
“What’s My Motivation?”
In which Matt tours one of his construction sites only to find a portal into the architect’s very own heart of darkness…
2 views0 comments