Our goal is to achieve high impact results with low environmental impact, low carbon/material footprints, and low maintenance energetics. We contend that meaningful aesthetics and design innovation emerge from bottom-up responses to low supply: In the search for new socioeconomic and environmental equilibria in society today, low is the new minimalism. We believe that humans and ecologies perform best at low stress levels, and that by optimizing efficiency we can maximize the transformational power of built environments and inspire reflection on the contemporary world and our roles within it. Simultaneously builders, theorists and artists, LOWDO sides against both empty rhetoric and exclusive regimes of high design characterized by excess. As a low design office we work to construct buildings and create places that amplify opportunities for all people, regardless of class and culture.
Ryan received a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from Duke University where he was awarded the Aubrey E. Palmer Award for outstanding academic achievement, and a Master in Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. His current research integrates sustainable techniques of construction with novel development and delivery models for affordable architecture. He has previous experience in architecture: Hashim Sarkis Architecture Landscape and Urban Design, MOS, Kieran Timberlake; construction: S/A Construction; and structural engineering: Leslie E. Robertson Associates, Walter P. Moore. Bollom taught as a studio instructor for the Harvard Graduate School of Design Career Discovery Program.
DK received an A.B. in Engineering Design and an MArch, both from Harvard University. He is a principal of LOWDO and co-founder of nonprofit design think tank DSGN AGNC. His research recouples form-making with the social dimensions of global environment, siting sustainability between technology and geopolitics. He has presented his work at the Royal Institute of British Architects, Harvard Graduate School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell and the University of Ghana, Legon. Previously he worked for architecture office MOS and Ghanaian architect Alero Olympio. He is a TEDGlobal 2010 Fellow.
Ashley received a Bachelor of Arts with Distinction in Architecture from Yale University followed by a Master in Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design. She has also studied architecture in Florence and Vienna with Syracuse University on academic scholarship. Her student work has been recognized in international competitions and publications, and she has previous experience in architecture and design firms in a variety of locations: Francisco Mangado and Associates in Pamplona, Maryann Thompson Architects in Cambridge, Kitrell Garlock and Associates in Las Vegas, and and consulting work with CS Studios in Cape Town. Heeren has played an active role in a number of progressive community-oriented organizations, from designing with non-profit agencies to inciting greater critical discussion at the GSD--both as co-founder of the online student journal Trays and as Student Forum President. She has also taught art and architecture for over six years to underprivileged youth and most recently taught as a studio instructor in the Harvard GSD Career Discovery Program.
Low Design Office, LLC
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