Updating My Workspace

I’ve been in my studio workspace for about four years now and as my needs have changed it was time to adapt the studio to meet new demands. As a destination separate from my home, yet still nearby, the separation has worked out well but hiring an intern for the summer meant I needed a dedicated workstation. And, I knew that the storage situation needed improvement. To make room, I started by decluttering and removing all the non-essentials I had gathered over the years. From there I sketched out a quick plan to rethink the organization and layout. The video shows the refresh from start to finish, more details below.

See the original studio tour video here.

New Workstation

The studio workspace was designed to adapt to a variety of functions. When I first moved in, it doubled as a music practice + performance space in the off-hours for our two boys and their friends. This practice space took up a full third of the floor area and was the most obvious place to locate the new workstation. With the instruments relocated to the main house, it was time to place the new furniture.

For the work surface, I chose a sit-stand desk with a massive, solid wood top and a flexible solution for a space used by multiple people. At 60” wide by 30” deep there’s plenty of room to accommodate everyone’s needs. The black hardware and natural wood top tie in with the other details in the studio. In a small space like this it helps to maintain a limited color palette so everything plays well together, here we’re using natural wood tones, browns, blacks and grays.

For seating I picked up two of the Soho drafting chairs by Laura Davidson. With heavy-duty cast aluminum bases, plush seats, tilting backs and removable arms these were a solid upgrade from my old creaking drafting chair. I swapped out the casters for roller blade style wheels for a quieter ride on the concrete floor.

New workstation (Sway desk by Ergonofis)

New workstation (desk by Ergonofis)

On the Desk

I removed all the knick-knacks, trays, external drives, and unnecessary clutter from my desktop and consolidated my small essentials (scissors, pens, pencils,) into a simple steel cylinder divided into four quadrants. To ground everything I purchased a large linoleum desk pad and swapped out the standard white apple keyboard and magic mouse for the space gray versions. I blacked out the front and base of my 27” iMac with a skin to complement the other black accessories. The coaster is a repurposed piece of black slate and I added a wireless charging pad by Anker.

Beneath the desk I mounted a black aluminum tray to hold my 8tb Lacie hard drive which stores all my digital files. I tidied up all the cables using split sleeve covers and used small black adhesive hooks throughout the space to keep my cables ordered and out-of-sight. I relocated the bluetooth soundbar that sat on the front of my desk to atop the shelving unit to my right to keep it out of view.

Learn More: Computers for Design Pros

For task lighting, I picked up two of Artemide's Tolomeo mini desk lamps in black, I've always liked their timeless modern look and fitted them with 25W incandescent bulbs (much nicer light to sketch by than LED). Having stripped down my desk to the bare essentials, it was time for the rest of the studio to follow suit.

LINKS ON KIT.CO

Walls + Backdrops

Because the north desk area often serves as a backdrop for filming I wanted a something different and darker there. One of the problems with the Douglas fir interior is that it's not a neutral tone, so it affects the ambient, reflected light in the space, which for filming isn’t ideal. Rather than painting the natural wood plywood on the north wall I chose to skin it with MDF and chalkboard paint. I mounted them on concealed Z-clips so I can easily remove them if I want to in the future.

On the MDF I installed two metal ledges from CB2 adding 8' of horizontal display space without taking up any floor area. I'm using them to display material palettes, books I'm reading and various found objects. Concealed along the front of the ledge are two play lights from Philips controlled via the Hue bridge system and their mobile app they serve as practical lighting in the background and can be changed to any color I choose.

Computer Buying Guide for Design Pros

Storage

When I built the studio, I didn't have the budget for built-in storage but if you want a minimalist, organized and clutter-free space, storage is essential. I've added two IKEA Kallax shelving units beneath the west windows. The upper cubes I'm using to store objects and as reserve capacity for books. The lower cubes I've fitted with Bladdra felt boxes - also from IKEA - to hold irregular objects and things I don't want out in view and collecting dust.

The rolling tool chest is by Husky, I'm using only the lower portion of the unit in the studio (the upper half holds tools in the basement) to organize all of my studio essentials, kiXstand samples, and camera equipment which still leaves plenty of space for new tools. With eleven drawers of varying sizes and depths it can hold a lot. The shallow drawers are easy to keep organized in a single layer. For the deeper drawers I picked up a few pouches and organizers to keep cables and smaller items grouped together.

The height of the base unit is perfect for making models and for filming or photography projects. My two large Alvin cutting mats live on top and off to the side is a rare earth magnet to hold my rulers and utility knife. When the standing desk is raised, the tool chest can easily meet its surface to give me an even larger surface to work on if needed. And if I find myself wanting additional walking space in the studio, The desk can be raised a little more and the toolbox can roll comfortably beneath it.

Styling

To pull it all together I added a few styling upgrades. I added three new prints adjacent to the new standing desk which cleverly conceal the old guitar mounts and these are matted in ice-white with black aluminum frames. These were printed in-house using Canon's Pixma Pro 100 on low lustre paper an incredible printer for less than $300. (For printing drawing sets, I use the HP T210).

To hide the (off-center!) mini-split heating unit, I picked up the Stendig wall calendar by Massimo Vignelli, which I slipped into a concealed poster sleeve and mounted to the loft floor joists above.

To bring a little of the natural landscape inside, I repurposed four concrete napkin holders by Port Living Company to plant moss in and I picked up a tiny Chinese elm bonsai to live on the corner of my desk. By adding these minor accent pieces, you can bring a certain life and personality to your workspace that can simultaneously make your office feel much more inviting. To this I’ve added a few additional inspirational objects and I finally feel like it’s a cohesive workspace with room to spare.

It's a series of progressive upgrades, an evolved, tidier version of what I started with. Our workspaces are guaranteed to change over time along with our priorities and needs and I love that this is a space that can adapt and change with me.

Check out this and all of my curated kits on kit.co.


Considering a dedicated studio space?

Read more: Five signs it’s time to rent (or build) your own.


Studio Plan diagram

 

1. Photography/Printing Space: This is where I keep most of my essential photography equipment, from lenses to batteries. In addition, because of it’s proximity to my desk, My printing tools, including the large format printer also live here for easy accessibility.

Above this are two wall mounted cabinets with flip-down tops which hold stationery, pens and my drone (closest to the main door).

2. Main Workspace: Where I spend the most time in the studio. My iMac, Laura Davidson chair, sketching implements and computer accessories all find their place on my vintage drafting table to create a focused and productive work environment.

3. Display Shelves: A pair of metal ledges run behind my desk and are (currently) being used for display. They also hold my play lights by Philips that provide ambient lighting in the morning + evening, and, practical lighting for filming.

4. Book Storage: This shelf contains references, inspirations, information, entertainment, a few personal accolades. The books I keep here are amongst my most-prized possessions as an architect. On top I have a sound bar which streams music.

5. Storage Units: One of the most impactful upgrades in the refresh, these shelves house concealed items on the lower tier and provide buffer space for an ever-growing library above.

6. Shelving Unit: Unlike the unit of matching design on the other side of the studio, this shelf holds a variety of resources: material sample binders, floor samples, magazines, modeling supplies and paint and a few architectural models. For now, the Canon printer also lives atop this unit. It’s a solid choice to produce colorful, frame-worthy prints, but needs a more accessible permanent home.

7. Minimalist Calendar: Although it’s purpose is to cover the - distractingly off-center - mini-split heating head, this calendar by Massimo Vignelli is a minimalist graphic addition to the studio. Every other month inverses the white and black (see images above).

8. Secondary Workspace: The new workspace is anchored by a Standing Desk. It’s adjustable birch top allows me to be able to easily switch between standing or sitting work environments and accommodates a variety of uses. The Laura Davidson swivel chair is paired with the desk, a comfy upgrade at a fraction of the cost of the Eames Management chairs by Knoll.

9. Tool Chest: One of the largest new furniture pieces in the studio, the Husky rolling tool box houses everything from camera equipment to power tools. I’ve converted it’s available surface so that it when the new desk is brought level, it creates a massive, singular workspace. When the desk is raised higher, the chest can be easily moved under it to provide additional open space.

10. Meeting Table: As more new additions were made to the studio, I found that that the spaces for simply walking had become much too cramped. And given our current situation, in-person client meetings have become a rarity. So I removed one of the tables from the meeting space.

 

How I use Notion as an Architect

As a productivity and project management tool, Notion is very powerful. It’s intuitive, capable and infinitely flexible; a blank canvas that can be almost anything you want. The open-ended structure is a strength when you know how to use it, but a real weakness when you're just getting started and unsure of how to set up your workspace.

In the video I share my Notion workspace and you’ll learn how to customize yours to suit your needs. I start by walking you through the basics of Notion's visual editing tools and then move into more advanced functions to create intelligent task lists, meeting notes templates, SOP's (Standard Operating Procedures) + WIKI's to help save you time in the design process. The project track brings it all together in one dashboard where tasks, resources, schedules and meeting notes are collected and shared amongst team members, both in-house and remote.

Note: I’ve updated and added to the template over the years as I’ve been refining and using it. Be sure to check this blog post and video for the latest.

30X40's Notion Template

Timestamps to help you navigate:

  • 0:43 Four types of pages I use

  • 1:00 Build a Weekly Agenda

  • 4:24 Easter Eggs (For careful observers, I hide things in every video. You knew that, right?)

  • 4:53 SOPs + WIKIs

  • 7:16 An Intelligent Task List

  • 12:22 Building a Project Track

  • 15:00 Meeting Note Templates

  • 17:29 Kanban Phase Template

  • 19:18 Wacken (someday)

  • 19:30 Notion for Life


My Notion templates are completely free. If you’d like to support my work (+ more videos) please consider buying something I make:

Lighting Design + Drawing Tutorial - My Process

We can build a home from a set of five drawings or a set of fifty, one provides a lot more control over the finished product. Whether your plan set is five or fifty, one of the must-have drawings is an electrical plan. Follow along in this video as I design + draw the architectural lighting plan for the Outpost project. An electrical plan is an essential drawing in every architect’s toolbox, it shows the fixture types, switching, receptacle locations, all the necessary electrical devices + equipment we need to plan for in our architecture. Designing it in coordination with the other essential building systems: architectural, structural, mechanical and plumbing affords us optimal control over the design.

Hidden elements in a project - beams, ductwork, vent stacks - can adversely impact the placement of the visible elements - light fixtures, for example - which is why we plan for them early in the design process. Drawing and overlaying each helps us to identify conflicts in the studio and on paper where it's much more efficient and cost-effective to make changes. See how the abstract concepts of ambient, task + accent lighting are accounted for and applied in the design of the Outpost, a remote, off-the-grid residential project here in Maine.

Resources:

Sketching in Isolation - Work From Home Skill Building

Feeling the pressure to make the most of your time in isolation to learn new skills + be productive? If you haven’t quite lived up to your own lofty expectations of what you should be accomplishing, you're not alone. Spend 30 minutes with me in my sketchbook and learn what's been working for me as I design an invented architectural folly.

Time spent in my sketchbook is focused and without distraction. It’s space to think and be creative without the strict boundaries of budgets and schedules. It’s reminded me that not everything I design needs to be rooted in reality, that daydreaming and suspending the laws of physics have value too and can nourish my architecture practice in meaningful ways. Inventing imaginary architecture can be a source of control in a time when agency is in short supply. For me, it’s been an enriching, liberating win in this time of quarantine. I hope spending a few minutes with me in my (digital) sketchbook designing a Quarantine Chapel - whatever that is - will inspire you to get lost in your own sketchbook for an hour or two. And, if you build a few skills along the way, all the better!

DOWNLOAD the 30X40 PROCREATE PACK

Assets Used in this Sketch (most are custom + included in the 30X40 Procreate Pack):

Quarantine Chapel Sketch - 04.17.2020

Quarantine Chapel Sketch - 04.17.2020

kiXstand

kiXstand

How I Work Remotely with Clients

Sharing my process for how I work remotely with clients. Because social distancing protocols have forced us all into new working environments, I thought now would be the perfect time to share how I make, present and catalog all the revisions every design project requires from a distance. Using the Outpost project as a guide and a recent request for a few design modifications, you’ll see the process unfold from idea to presentation to documentation.

Stay safe out there and, don’t miss 15:28, it’s my favorite sequence…!

Other tools in my Kit can be found here.

New tools for the Studio (iPad for Architects)

Do you really need an iPad as an architect, an intern or student? See if any of the four uses I came up with resonate with you. Having always sketched on paper or trace with pencil and ink, a tablet never really appealed to me or seemed entirely useful. I wasn’t sure how it would fit into my workflow, but the Apple pencil and Procreate have changed my mind.

Read More

Design, Meet, Revise, Repeat.

The Outpost project enters a new phase as we refine the design and prepare the drawings for construction. This "awkward phase" is a natural part of the design process and working through it always results in a better building, this video illustrates the iterative process all designers use to improve our work.

Time stamps:

  • 1:04 Locating the Screened Porch

  • 1:35 Budget Considerations + Phasing

  • 2:15 Should every space orient to the view?

  • 3:47 Exploring one more location

  • 5:04 Master bed + bath options

  • 5:37 Remote presentations (using Loom)

  • 5:53 Skype meeting + new concerns

  • 8:17 "I find it a little...boring..."

  • 8:36 You are not your work.

  • 9:51 The need for reference images (I use Pinterest)

  • 10:17 Redesigning the Master Wing

  • 14:02 New information = new options


The video opens as we seek to locate the screened porch which I left out from the previous plans. It's natural - especially when building on site with sweeping views - to want every room to capture that view, but you'll see that prefer to position program spaces to take advantage of the full diversity of a site's features, not only the most dominant one.

As I return to the studio to incorporate the changes from our site meeting, I run through several revisions and schedule a Skype call to discuss progress. During that conversation it becomes clear that the master suite needs to be redesigned to create a separate dressing area and group the shower and soaking tub together.

As a young designer, I had difficulty separating myself from my work. Hearing a critical comment from a client (i.e.: "I find it a little...boring..." ) can be jarring at first. Having worked with many clients and heard a lot of critical feedback, I've learned to draw a very clear line. I am not my work. The work is the work. My job is to shepherd my clients through the design process and help them build the home that best suits them, not the one that will look best in my portfolio. It's possible to hold esthetics, form, and function in high regard whilst meeting the client's needs, they're not mutually exclusive.

The video ends with a brief charrette as I sketch and redesign the master wing. As you'll see, this creative friction from my client pushed the design to a new and better place. Having cleared these minor challenges and confirmed the project is on budget, we'll be moving ahead with the design of the exterior shell package preparing for a construction schedule in the early summer of 2020.

Watch the Outpost Series

If you enjoy these videos, you can support 30X40’s work on YouTube by investing in a course, a toolkit or a digital tool. Many thanks!

Resources

Digital drawing templates

Specification + Schedule templates

Architect's Toolkit (includes the presentation templates shown in the video)

Architect + Entrepreneur Course

360 Cam for Site Shots

Notion template (free) - Organize meeting notes, wikis, to-dos, checklists

Architect vs. Engineer : Design Meeting

A structural engineer is a part of the design team for all my residential work in the studio. In this video you'll join me for the kick-off meeting with my engineer as we begin developing the structural design for the Outpost project. You’ll see how we choose a foundation strategy, work through framing + detail ideas, and understand how lateral loads are transferred and how they affect the materials we choose to build with. The professional tug-of-war between engineer and architect isn't adversarial, rather it's collaborative and makes for a better, more efficient project.

The most interesting part of our dialogue begins around minute eighteen where I ask Albert to comment on one of the most common objections I hear from contractors in the field: "This design is way over-engineered." His answer illuminates how a structural engineer can complement the architectural design process in ways you may not have anticipated.

If you enjoy these videos, you can support 30X40’s work on YouTube by investing in a course, a toolkit or a digital tool. Many thanks!

Watch the Outpost Series

Learning to Sketch

I spend most of my day in a digital work environment and I’ll often find myself tweaking the smallest of details just because I can. Digital space is without limitation, yet creativity thrives on constraints. It’s the boundaries that we’re forced to work within that shape our work. There’s no question digital tools are an integral part of how we realize our architecture today and in the 25 years I’ve been practicing, those tools have changed and improved the way I work significantly. Digital tools are for executing ideas. I turn to my favorite analog tools - pencil + paper - to birth those ideas.

Sketching is thinking. Sketching is seeing. Sketching is learning. With pencil in hand, I’m a child. I think that’s part of the magic of learning to sketch, it allows me to see problems with a child’s mind, the mind of an amateur.

I designed the BLANK sketchbook because I know how transformative establishing a sketching habit can be. Buying a pair helps to support my educational mission on YouTube.

With gratitude

/Eric @30X40

Model Build: Outpost Project

Although many architects today default to digital renderings and virtual modeling, I still use physical models in my practice. I spend a lot of my professional time in digital space and perhaps that’s why I find making tangible objects so satisfying. Cutting, gluing, revising and thinking with my hands surfaces ideas I’m not able to access any other way. Equally, when you build a scale model you’re forced to confront the physics of reality.

This build is what architects call a study model. It’s essentially a three-dimensional sketch, intentionally imperfect and slightly messy. It’s an iterative design tool rather than made specifically as a presentation tool. This one was approximately a 2-hour build from start to finish, of course, that doesn’t include any of the setup or filming time necessary to make the video!

Check out the video for a behind the scenes look at my process.

I use basswood for many of my models because it’s dimensionally stable, easy to cut, takes paint without warping and has a thickness that’s appropriate for the scale I’m working with (3/32” = 1’-0”). To fasten the pieces I use a combination of hot glue and white glue. The hot glue is used more for connections which are concealed and don’t require a high degree of precision. I use white glue for components that may need to be repositioned after they’re set in place, ones that are tiny or fragile, and for parts of the model that are subject to scrutiny by clients. White glue takes longer to set but it has a nicer finished appearance.

Materials + Tools list:

  1. Basswood sheets (1/16” thick) 2” x 24”, Skinny Sticks 1/4” x 6”x 1/16”, 1/16” square sticking (see my Amazon page for more)

  2. Self-healing cutting mats (12” x 18” + 18” x 24”)

  3. White PVA Glue

  4. Fine-toothed saw (cutting dowels + square sticking)

  5. Olfa L2 + utility blades

  6. X-acto + #11 blades

  7. Wire cutters (metal details) + nippers (for flush cuts of wood sticking)

  8. Pushpin, hat pins, + T-pins (for inserting metal details in wood + making holes in cork)

  9. Forceps/tweezers

  10. Guitar string (details)…piano wire works too

  11. Kuru toga mechanical pencil

  12. Scissors (bonsai scissors are great for tight areas), I also like these Allex ones.

  13. 1/4” + 1/8” wood dowel (chimney)

  14. Hot glue gun (not pictured)

  15. Coir mat (not pictured) for landscape elements, shrubbery, green roofscapes

  16. Cork backed metal rule (6” + 24”) + Squares

  17. Cork underlayment (more info. on the site model here)

Watch the Outpost Series

If you enjoy these videos, you can support 30X40’s work on YouTube by investing in a course, a toolkit or a digital tool. Many thanks!

Architecture, Design + Photography (podcast interview with Trent Bell)

A conversation between two architecture school graduates with similar approaches to work + life who followed two very different paths. This video is an excerpt from my conversation with Trent Bell an award-winning architectural photographer (Trent Bell Photography) as we chat in my studio. You'll also join us behind the scenes as he photographs one of my residential projects. For the full interview be sure to check out Trent’s Architecture, Design & Photography podcast, (video here) a project he’s launched in cooperation with Maine Home + Design magazine. See all the photos we captured that day here.

An Incredible Resource for Architectural Inspiration

With more than 581,000+ architectural drawings, photos, and documents to download and use as you please, I couldn't keep this incredible resource to myself any longer. The HABS (Historical American Buildings Survey) along with HAER (engineering), and HALS (landscape) are a collection of building surveys from the American architectural, engineering, building and landscape culture maintained by the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. In this video, you’ll peek in the collection and see how I use it in my architecture practice.

The program was born in the 1930's during the Great Depression as a means to put unemployed architects to work with a mission to preserve and document the architectural heritage of America. Since then, the archive has catalogued more than 43,000 individual structures and more are added each year.

I use it for: creative inspiration, precedent research, to improve my architectural drawing, graphics and delineation techniques, and to study details from some of America's most famous works of architecture.

If you enjoy these videos, you can support 30X40’s work on YouTube by investing in a course, a toolkit or a digital tool. Many thanks!

Architectural Model Making Tips

Architects build two fundamentally different types of models: presentation models and study models. Presentation models are often used in client meetings to convey a finished design in miniature while study models are used by architects as part of the design process. Study models are the equivalent of a three-dimensional sketch and allow us to explore and iterate design ideas quickly. We often begin these by collaging ideas using planes of cardboard and wood.

In this video, I share my best tips for building architectural models something I’ve done professionally for close to 30 years.

Building models remains an important tool and part of my personal process for making architecture. And while many have moved to completely digital forms of modeling, I’ve maintained the habit of building models. Here’s why: there’s a sensory feedback loop between the hands and the brain known as embodied cognition. It’s been shown that our motor system influences our understanding and cognition in much the same way the mind can influence our physical actions. I build models to unlock creative inspiration I can’t otherwise access (they’re also pretty fun to build).

architecture-model-making-tools.jpg

Making Architecture Models (a tutorial)

I've always found satisfaction in turning scraps of wood and cardboard into a tiny model, but I haven't always loved the finished product. If you've struggled with this too (or if you’re just curious about model making) you'll appreciate this week's video where I share my model making techniques.

I'll show you the materials I chose, why I chose them and a few - less expensive - alternatives. I discuss why you would choose one modeling style over another, how to conceptualize what to model and how a few simple tweaks can make a big difference in the esthetics of your architectural models.

If you enjoy these videos, you can support 30X40’s work on YouTube by investing in a course, a toolkit or a digital tool. Many thanks!

NOW

I’ve been wanting to make a “Now” page for a while and I’m posting here to introduce it. A “Now” page is just a collector…a place to post all the things that are inspiring my work + thinking in the studio right “Now”. My Instagram page used to be the place to do that, but fighting with an algorithm took some of the fun out of it for me. I found I wasn’t posting some of the pictures and work that I really wanted to…like the one below for example. I hope you’ll head over there to check it out (and maybe start your own).

Smoked Whitefish, Christmas Eve 2018 [ Photo: Eric Reinholdt, 6DMKII 100MM f2.8L ]

Smoked Whitefish, Christmas Eve 2018 [ Photo: Eric Reinholdt, 6DMKII 100MM f2.8L ]

SEE IT 'NOW'