Architecture is evolutionary—not revolutionary.

Tom Kundig

Principal / Owner & Founder | FAIA, RIBA

Tom Kundig, FAIA, RIBA, has spent over four decades crafting award-winning architecture across six continents. He finds joy in the grit and determination needed to innovate, creating functional architecture that responds to context and reflects the stories of its users. After years of honing his distinctive style, Tom became a principal and owner of Olson Kundig in 1996. His portfolio spans a range of built and ongoing projects, from adaptive reuse developments and hospitality destinations to sports facilities and venues, museums, wineries, private homes, and more.

Tom Kundig: Working Title

Princeton Architectural Press | 2020/06

Architect Tom Kundig’s work, which draws heavily on context and place, both urban and rural, is evidence of his longstanding interest in the ways people interact with built and natural environments. This keen sensitivity has been honed throughout his extensive career designing private residences, but it is just as present in his larger scale work. Sampling 29 recent projects from around the world, this large-format fourth monograph showcases Kundig’s signature attention to innovation, materiality and craft. Introduced by journalist Mark Rozzo, Tom Kundig: Working Title also features Tom’s University of Washington Distinguished Alumni Award acceptance speech and a conversation with Michael Chaiken, Curator of the Bob Dylan Archive. The projects that follow these narrative explorations span the globe, representing a variety of public and private work including residences, hospitality projects, cultural spaces and workplaces, presented through stunning full-color photographs, plans and sketches. Featured projects include houses in the United States, Australia, Costa Rica, Brazil and Switzerland; cultural facilities like the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in Seattle, WA; Austin restaurant, Comedor; Martin’s Lane Winery in British Columbia, Canada (cover image); and a high-performance tower for South Korean retailer Shinsegae International, among others. Introduction by Mark Rozzo Published by Princeton Architectural Press

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Tom Kundig: Works

Princeton Architectural Press | 2015/11

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 journalist Pilar Viladas and three revealing conversations with the architect and his frequent collaborators: gizmologist Phil Turner (the man behind the amazing mechanical apparatuses featured in much of Kundig’s work), contractor Jim Dow of Schuchart/Dow (master builder and craftsman responsible for many of the projects), and clients Shane Atchison of Studhorse and Jack Anderson of the Bigwood Residence. Published by Princeton Architectural Press.

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Tom Kundig: Houses 2

Princeton Architectural Press | 2011/09

Our 2006 monograph Tom Kundig: Houses was an instant critical and commercial success. Over the past five years, Seattle-based Kundig has continued his meteoric rise, collecting numerous awards, including the 2008 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for Architecture Design. Tom Kundig: Houses 2 features seventeen residential projects, ranging from a five hundred-square-foot cabin in the woods to a house carved into and built out of solid rock. In his new work, Kundig continues to strike a balance between raw and refined and modern and warm, creating inviting spaces with a strong sense of place. The houses seamlessly incorporate his signature inventive details, rich materials, and stunning sites from the majestic Northwestern forest to the severe high desert. Published by Princeton Architectural Press

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Tom Kundig: Houses

Princeton Architectural Press | 2006/12

The work of Seattle-based architect Tom Kundig has been called both raw and refined, as well as super-crafted and warm. Kundig’s projects, especially his houses, uniquely combine these two seemingly disparate sets of characteristics to produce some of the most inventive structures found in the architecture world today. Kundig’s internationally acclaimed work is inspired by both the industrial structures with which he grew up in the Pacific Northwest and the vibrant craft cultures that are fostered there. His buildings uniquely meld industrial sensibilities and materials such as Cor-ten steel and concrete with an intuitive understanding of scale. As Kundig states, “The idea is inseparable from the fabrication, inseparable from the materials used.” Tom Kundig: Houses presents five projects in depth, from their early conceptual sketches to their final lovingly wrought, intimate details. Kundig’s houses reflect a sustained and active collaborative process between designer, craftsmen, and owners, resulting in houses that bring to life the architect’s intentions, the materials used, and lines of unforgettable beauty. Edited by Dung Ngo Published by Princeton Architectural Press

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Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects: Architecture, Art, and Craft

The Monacelli Press | 2003/01

Over 35 years, Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects created a body of architecture recognized for its ability to merge notions of materiality, craft and lightness, all of which are richly demonstrated in their work on art collectors’ residences and art museums. The firm began its creative existence with architect Jim Olson, whose work in the late 1960s explored the complex relationship between dwellings and the landscape they inhabit. In the early 1970s the growing firm broadened its emphasis to include urbanism and the landscape of the city. Though firmly rooted in the regional features of the Pacific Northwest—its unique climate and dramatic landscape—the firm’s work extends beyond any regionalist classification. Instead, their projects are characterized by a relaxed modernism that is attuned to its regional context. Each of the projects featured in this volume exhibit a striking use of both natural and highly refined materials, masterful modulation of light, a careful balance between monumentality and intimacy, and frequent collaborations with artists and craftsmen, especially glass artists such as Ed Carpenter. Essay by Paul Goldberger Published by The Monacelli Press

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