Architect Tom Kundig is known worldwide for the originality of his work.

This paperback edition of Tom Kundig: Houses, first published in 2006, collects five of his most prominent early residential projects, which remain touchstones for him today. In a new preface written for this edition, Kundig reflects on the influence that these designs continue to have on his current thinking.

Each house, presented from conceptual sketches through meticulously realized details, is the product of a sustained and active collaborative process among designer, builder, and client. The work of the Seattle-based architect has been called both raw and refined— disparate characteristics that produce extraordinarily inventive designs inspired by both the industrial structures ubiquitous to his upbringing in the Pacific Northwest and the vibrant craft cultures that are fostered there.

About the Authors:

Dung Ngo is editor-in-chief of August: A Journal of Travel + Design.

Tom Kundig, FAIA, RIBA, is a principal and owner of Seattle-based Olson Kundig. He was elected to the National Academy of Design as an Academician in Architecture in 2016, and he received the Seattle AIA Gold Medal in 2018. Kundig's work has appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times Magazine, Architect, Architectural Record, and Architectural Digest. His most recent book, Tom Kundig: Working Title, was published in 2020.

Striking, innovative, and dramatically sited, the twenty-nine projects in Tom Kundig: Working Title reveal the hand of a master of contextually astute, richly detailed architecture. As Kundig's work has increased in scale and variety, in diverse locations from his native Seattle to Hawaii and Rio de Janeiro, it continues to exhibit his signature sensitivity to material and locale and to feature his fascinating kinetic "gizmos." Projects range from inviting homes that integrate nature to large-scale commercial and public buildings: wineries, high-performance mixed-use skyscrapers, a Visitor Center for Tillamook Creamery, the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, and the Wagner Education Center of the Center for Wooden Boats, among others. Tom Kundig: Working Title includes lush photography, sketches, and a dialogue between Tom Kundig and Michael Chaiken, curator of the Kundig-designed Bob Dylan Archive at the Helmerich Center for American Research.

About the Author: 

Tom Kundig, FAIA, RIBA, is a principal and owner of Seattle-based Olson Kundig. In 2016, he was elected to the National Academy of Design as an Academician in Architecture, and he received the AIA Seattle Gold Medal in 2018. Kundig's work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Architect, Architectural Record, and Architectural Digest.

In Tom Kundig: Works, the celebrated Seattle-based architect presents nineteen new projects, from Hawaii to New York City.

Kundig's award-winning houses, known for their rugged yet elegant and welcoming style, are showcased in lush photography with drawings and sketches and appear alongside his commercial work from multistory complexes to the Tacoma Art Museum to a line of hardware (handles, door pulls, hinges, and more).In firsthand accounts, Kundig describes the projects and his design process with many personal anecdotes, making Tom Kundig: Works as much memoir as monograph.

The book also includes an introduction by design editor Pilar Viladas and in-depth conversations with Kundig s frequent collaborators gizmologist Phil Turner and contractor Jim Dow (Schuchart/ Dow) and clients (Bigwood Residence and Studhorse).

About the Author: 

Tom Kundig, FAIA, RIBA, is a principal and owner of Seattle-based Olson Kundig. In 2016, he was elected to the National Academy of Design as an Academician in Architecture, and he received the AIA Seattle Gold Medal in 2018. Kundig's work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Architect, Architectural Record, and Architectural Digest.