Office: Olson Kundig | ArchDaily

Manhattan Beach Residence / Olson Kundig

Hadir Al Koshta — Sat, 27 Sep 2025 09:00:00 +0000

On a narrow sloping site just blocks from the ocean, the Manhattan Beach Residence draws inspiration from the honest expression of structure and utilitarian design approach characterized by California's mid-century modern architecture, mixed with the client's active outdoor lifestyle.

Bilgola Beach House / Olson Kundig

Paula Pintos — Sun, 18 Sep 2022 22:00:00 +0000

Nestled in the sand dunes of Bilgola Beach, this 9,400-square-foot family home is located on the northern coast of Sydney, Australia. Passing through palm trees and Norfolk Pines, the site’s entrance leads through the solid volumes of the home’s main and guest wings. Upon approaching the front door, the view opens up to the sand dune and beach beyond.

Bay Area Discovery Museum / Olson Kundig

Paula Pintos — Wed, 31 Aug 2022 16:00:00 +0000

Bay Area Discovery Museum (BADM) applies the latest early childhood education research to develop essential learning experiences that inspire and build creative problem-solving skills in children to transform the way they learn. The museum occupies a unique site at Fort Baker in the Golden Gate National Recreation area. Fort Baker, a former WW1 military base, overlooks the Golden Gate Bridge, the kind of beautiful and significant location that is rarely developed for children’s programming. The campus-wide master plan and renovation developed by Olson Kundig in collaboration with Surfacedesign honors the architectural integrity of the historic site and the museum’s child-focused mission, transforming the guest experience for each of the museum’s 350,000 annual visitors.

Analog House / Olson Kundig + Faulkner Architects

Valeria Silva — Tue, 09 Aug 2022 06:00:00 +0000

Designed in collaboration with the client – an architect based in Truckee – Analog House celebrates a rugged, high desert site populated by ponderosa pine, manzanita, and exposed basalt. The home’s footprint meanders through the understory, deliberately shaped to preserve existing specimen trees and create a protected internal courtyard. Extensive transparency and clerestory windows throughout the home provide access to views and daylight, while numerous indoor/outdoor connections link occupants to their surroundings, an important consideration for this active family.

Bob Dylan Center / Olson Kundig

Valeria Silva — Fri, 05 Aug 2022 16:00:00 +0000

Dedicated to the study and appreciation of Bob Dylan and his worldwide cultural significance, the new Bob Dylan Center traces the creative trajectory of this prolific artist across his 60-year career. Located in the Tulsa Arts District, the Center is envisioned as a dynamic, multifaceted venue, housing permanent, temporary, and traveling exhibitions readily accessible by artists, historians, musicologists, and the general public seeking a deeper comprehension of Dylan’s work, his influences and the offshoots inspired by his legacy.

Rio House / Olson Kundig

Paula Pintos — Tue, 17 May 2022 07:00:00 +0000

After living in the urban core of Rio de Janeiro for many years, the clients wanted to build an intimate retreat on their property adjacent to the Tijuca National Park where they could enjoy books, art, and especially the natural landscape. The primary design goal was to make the house as small as possible within its tropical jungle setting. The 1,500-square-foot house rises into the rainforest canopy – a secluded hideaway for the owner couple to retreat from the distractions of city life.

ANOHA—The Children’s World of the Jewish Museum Berlin / Olson Kundig

Paula Pintos — Mon, 28 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Through the imaginative exhibits within ANOHA—The Children’s World of the Jewish Museum Berlin, the museum gives their youngest guests a sense of hope and possibility. Located within an existing former flower market hall, the heart of ANOHA is a circular wooden ark, standing almost 23 feet (7 meters) tall with a 92-foot (28-meter) base diameter. The curvilinear ark complements the curved ribs of the Brutalist light scoops overhead, while the shift in materiality from concrete to wood offers a softening counterpoint to the existing space.

Dragonfly House / Olson Kundig

Andreas Luco — Fri, 02 Apr 2021 07:00:00 +0000

At its heart, this vacation house is about creating a place where a young family can gather away from the city to enjoy the outdoors and build a legacy of memories. Located on the ecotone, or border, between a Ponderosa pine forest and lake, the home is a framework for the family to experience nature. The house emphasizes the crossing point between these two ecological zones – a distinct yet subtle marker of the family’s presence and legacy. The home’s materiality helps it fold into the landscape.

Collywood House / Olson Kundig

Pilar Caballero — Fri, 26 Mar 2021 18:00:00 +0000

This high-tech West Hollywood retreat is located just above the Sunset Strip and overlooks Los Angeles with sweeping views that stretch from the San Gabriel Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. Maximizing access to these breathtaking views from all parts of the home was a key design directive. Other design goals were to blur the boundaries between inside and outside as much as possible – because the client comes from a background of outdoor adventures, he wanted the house to feel like an adventure to him and his many guests. Many custom-designed and automated elements throughout all three levels contribute to the home’s uniquely modern identity.

California Meadow House / Olson Kundig

Andreas Luco — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 17:00:00 +0000

Envisioned as a singular continuous, flowing expression, this family estate links architecture, interior design, art and landscape into an integrated whole. Unified around the central “home base” living area, views radiate across several reflecting pools to gardens and the nearby Santa Cruz Mountains. The residence includes three auxiliary buildings and extensive outdoor living areas, but the subdued sophistication of the design helps dissolve the home into its verdant site.

The Burke Museum / Olson Kundig

Pilar Caballero — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 19:00:00 +0000

The Burke Museum is the oldest public museum in Washington State with a collection of over 16 million artifacts and specimens, ranging from totem poles and gemstones to dinosaur fossils. Because the Burke’s collection is so wide-ranging and continues to grow – it is a collecting museum – the new building needed to serve as a coherent, effective container that would allow for flexibility over time. The building’s rational scheme holds the complexity of the Burke’s activities and collections, both now and into the future.

Capital House / Olson Kundig

Andreas Luco — Sun, 16 Aug 2020 02:00:00 +0000

Inspired by classical monuments such as the Lincoln Memorial at the nearby capital, and the client’s longing for a vaulted roof form, Capital House is at once monumental and cozy, regal and understated. The contemporary lines of this modern residence are balanced by neutral tones and natural materials, including stone, concrete and bronze. The two-story house is clad in elegant slabs of limestone on the bottom level, rising to extensive glazing on the second story and a curved roof floating above. Choosing dark, rich colors for the exterior helps the home recede visually and blend with the neighborhood.

Blakely Island Artist Studio / Olson Kundig

Andreas Luco — Sat, 08 Aug 2020 19:00:00 +0000

An intimate study in scale, this compact 450 square-foot cabin makes the most of its remote site on a forested bluff overlooking the water in the San Juan Islands. Consisting essentially of a single room, the wood-framed cabin offers flexible space as a painting studio or a guesthouse. The back of the structure gently nestles into the hillside bounded by existing trees and boulders, enclosing a micro kitchen and bathroom.

Northwoods House / Olson Kundig

Andreas Luco — Tue, 04 Aug 2020 17:00:00 +0000

This home in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula frames and emphasizes its natural context, making nature its focus. The design reacts to the surrounding environment, dissolving inside/outside boundaries and creating composed views into the woods and towards the water.

Tofino Beach House / Olson Kundig

Pilar Caballero — Thu, 30 Jul 2020 06:00:00 +0000

Nestled in a weather-beaten forest, this 2,500-square-foot beach house creates a connection between the drama of the nearby ocean and the sense of sanctuary provided by the trees. Composed primarily of one large room, the house is light-filled on the south side facing the ocean, and insular and protected on the other side.

Hale Lana House / Olson Kundig

Andreas Luco — Fri, 19 Jun 2020 01:00:00 +0000

“Hale Lana’s roof picks up on the local Hawaiian vernacular, where large canopy roofs gather prevailing trade wind breezes and keep them moving through the building. However, this project takes that idea to a new level structurally with a very long cantilever and an extremely precise leading roof edge.” –Tom Kundig, FAIA, RIBA, Design Principal

Wave House / Olson Kundig

Pilar Caballero — Fri, 12 Jun 2020 10:00:00 +0000

“The design of this home explores organic forms inspired by the topography, shoreline, and water to enhance the connections between interior and exterior, the built and the natural.” –Kirsten R. Murray, FAIA, Design Principal

Studhorse / Olson Kundig Architects

Karen Valenzuela — Sat, 14 Mar 2020 17:00:00 +0000

The sixty-mile-long glacial Methow Valley, in the northern Cascades of Washington state, is a special landscape, with a climate that ranges from hot, fire-prone summers to winters with heavy snow pack. It’s a true four-season landscape—the landscape I grew up in. Our clients wanted to build a second home here that would be a kind of adventure home for them and their kids. They are great parents and always undertaking adventures as a mindful, deliberate way of developing memories as a family.