Speaker
Brian Johnsen, AIA
Brian Johnsen, AIA is a founding partner of Johnsen Schmaling Architects, an eight-person design studio widely recognized as an important voice in contemporary American architecture. Johnsen Schmaling’s work has garnered critical acclaim for its conceptual rigor, serene simplicity, and formal restraint, all rooted in an elaborate design process in which the close reading of physical context and cultural memory translates into an abstract architectural narrative that informs the entire evolution of a project, from initial conceptual ideas to the development of intricate construction details. Johnsen Schmaling received the Emerging Voices award from the Architectural League of New York and was featured in Architectural Record’s Vanguard issue as one of ten “exceptional global architecture firms to watch.” The firm's work has been honored with over 100 professional design awards and featured in countless books, design publications, and exhibitions around the globe. Johnsen grew up in Chicago and received his architectural education from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.
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20 Years: On Rigor
Reflecting on the first two decades of their eponymous practice and the recent release of the firm’s monograph “Johnsen Schmaling: On Rigor,” Brian Johnsen and Sebastian Schmaling will discuss the importance of conceptual rigor and formal restraint in their work — “skillfully assembled, simple forms with a reductive logic whose outcomes seem, like the best poetry, both novel and inevitable” (Architect magazine), and “a collection of buildings of near-monastic simplicity with a sense of place and an unfussy precision” (Architectural Record). Looking at both recent and earlier projects, Johnsen and Schmaling will argue that rigor is not a constricting force but one that is aesthetically liberating and, increasingly, environmentally imperative.
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Thank you to our amazing 2024 Conference Committee and committee chair Chris Rute, AIA, for all their hard work on this year’s convention.