Pollen
Pollen

Materials

Recognition
Texas Architect March/April 2014

Material investigation is a fundamental to Pollen’s Architecture. Our firm’s appreciation of hands-on, craft-based building techniques influences our design process at every scale of work, from smaller residential projects to larger commercial or institutional work.  In Pollen’s early days, we were design-build. Developing mock-ups at full-scale and material samples is still important in our process; it allows us to understand the experiential nature of the assemblies and to test constructability.

Founding principal and artist-in-residence, Michael Young, leads the material study process.  An offsite shop is a lab for experimenting with construction materials. Michael’s investigations understanding possibilities of materials sometimes come out of a specific project and sometimes stand alone. Those can be generative in future projects. Studies include a series of prototype material assemblies using materials including polycarbonate, sand, a variety of wood and panel products, epoxy, concrete, and felt.  Working with fabricators and skilled craftsmen has allowed the work to get larger, as in the concrete panels on the 1224 East 12th Street project.

Projects

Materials

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Patterned Concrete Tiles