John Gavin Dwyer, Architect, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
From Archiplanet
| Architecture Firm | John Gavin Dwyer, Architect |
| People | John Dwyer |
| Address | 2501 Irving Avenue South #2 |
| Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55405 USA | |
| Telephone | 651-208-1159 |
| Fax | {{{fax}}} |
| info@johngavindwyer.com | |
| Web Site | http://www.johngavindwyer.com |
| AW Directory | ArchitectureWeek Directory Listing |
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Contents |
[edit] Services
Architecture and Construction
[edit] Focus
Single Family Residential Integrate Project Delivery Sustainability
[edit] Projects
[edit] Firm Statement
I feel privileged to practice architecture. It’s an art form capable of creating beauty that transcends visual into what it means to be human, to dwell. I see beauty defined as much by what is absent as what is present in a place; where we are spared of things so we can simply be, in peace, in that place.
I try to create this beauty in a building the same as I see it in a person. I try to look beyond outer appearances and understand the ethos of a building’s place and purpose. I focus on creating a place with the traits I aspire to have in myself; honesty, forgiveness, compassion, passion, warmth, health, durability, humanity, imperfection, presence, and supportiveness.
I once heard Alvaro Siza say, “A house is a machine that’s always broken.” I see myself as this kind of evolved modernist, one that embraces the organics of change and the imperfections of humanity as the things that make the world beautiful. I find myself, in my work, reaching a point where I let go and allow a building to become what it wants to be. I give it permission to be imperfect. This gives me hope that it can be as beautiful as those who will dwell within it.
I believe architecture is building. This makes it one of the most resource intensive human ideas. So I remain committed to my responsibility, as an architect, to create resourceful ways of living. For me, this begins with a holistic vision of resources, where all forms, natural, human, material and monetary, are integral to each other. Design then becomes an economic and ethical process of understanding the value/values we place on those resources.
Materials, labor, democracy, energy, money, water, time, maintenance, social equity, environmentalism, natural light, physical health; these and countless others are all the resources of building, both in construction and in the life of the building, for which we each attribute our own values. This is what makes every building, every form of dwelling, unique.
To engage these possibilities with sincerity and responsibility, I have formed a practice that integrates design and construction into a single, seamless process. My hope is it will begin to restore the notion of the architect as master builder, will result in ever more beautiful and resourceful dwellings, and will create ever evolving and truly sustainable ways of living.
