2024-06-01T21:01:52-04:00 https://archinect.com/features/article/150155310/striving-for-clarity-in-all-aspects-of-design-with-waechter-architecture Antonio Pacheco 2019-08-28T14:00:00-04:00 >2019-12-28T18:30:50-05:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/1a/1aef0dc03275528dca1d71cb8962fff9.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><p>The work of Portland, Oregon-based <a href="https://archinect.com/waechter_architecture" target="_blank">Waechter Architecture</a> is focused, in a word, on clarity.&nbsp;</p> <p>Spatial clarity, compositional clarity, material clarity, systems clarity, experiential clarity&mdash;All play a guiding role in shaping the firm's eclectic output. The goal of this clarity, according to Ben&nbsp;Waechter, founder and principal of the firm, is to allow, in a way, architecture to fall away, to "heighten and inform the experience of community and landscape," and to create "environments in which we feel most alive, awake, and present; where the relationship of elements is apparent and intertwined."</p> <p>Started in 2007,&nbsp;Waechter's eponymous practice has grown at a steady clip in the 12 years since, a trajectory that culminated recently with the firm's recent selection as one of the Architecture League of New York's <a href="https://archleague.org/competition/ev19/" target="_blank">Emerging Voices</a> cohort for 2019.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>For this week's <a href="https://archinect.com/features/tag/1222147/studio-snapshot" target="_blank">Studio Snapshot</a>, Ben Waechter discusses his firm's learning curve, its recent experiments with Cross-Laminated Timber, and the off...</p>