As an architecture student, I encountered and became enthralled with a well-known quote from illustrious architect Daniel Burnham:
Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency. Remember that our sons and grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty. Think big.
Burnham spoke those words over a hundred years ago, in October 1910. They simultaneously thrilled and troubled me as a student and continue to do so today. On the one hand, his call to radical thinking, optimism and progress is heartening. On the other, his words betray the fundamental flaws of architecture as an industry in his time and today - an obsession with legacy and newness and the invisibility of women. Burnham himself was also a pioneer of the image of an architect as a singular figure and a celebrity, a trope which continues to haunt the field. As such, his quote is doubly inspiring - for an answer to Burnham’s call for wild optimism and for a rebellion against the archaic structures within the profession. It’s in this spirit that STUDIA was born.
It’s a simple idea that a small practice - one architect and one interior designer - could produce an impact, serve the broadest clientele, and question everything about what a design studio should look like, who belongs and what work is worthwhile.
Our request is simple - bring us your problems. Together we’ll find the magic to stir anyone’s blood.
