The Objects That Define Tom Kundig: An Architect's Personal Artifacts

9 hours ago7 min read

The objects we cherish often reveal more than our tastes; they map the very geography of our creative lives. For Tom Kundig, the celebrated founder and principal of Olson Kundig, a handful of personal artifacts serve as both tools and talismans, each narrating a chapter of his hands-on architectural philosophy.His cowboy hat is far more than headwear; it's a portable piece of the Pacific Northwest, emblematic of a grounded, no-frills approach to design that values the tactile reality of the construction site over the sterility of the digital realm. His Jeep Wrangler functions as a mechanical parallel to his buildings—rugged, utilitarian, and engineered for direct engagement with untamed landscapes, mirroring the way his structures pivot and open to converse with their surroundings.Then there is the fundamental pencil, a quiet testament to process in an era of complex rendering software. It represents the primal, physical connection between a thought and its first material form.The seal sculpture adds a final, revealing layer. Its smooth, fluid curves provide a deliberate counterpoint to the heavy, industrial language for which Kundig is known, hinting at a nuanced duality in his work where raw power coexists with poetic sensitivity.To listen to Kundig reflect on these items is to understand that for him, design is not a compartmentalized profession but a holistic way of being. The utility of a Jeep, the symbolism of a hat, and the grace of a sculpture all contribute to a single, continuous dialogue about how we inhabit space, construct meaning, and strive to make our built environments as resonant and alive as the natural world.

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