_monday sees....salmela architecture_

For the first installment of Art/Architecture.. I wanted to show you a little from one of my favorite architects at the moment: David Salmela. He practices out of Duluth, Minnesota, in a little office at the back of his self-designed home perched high on the hill, overlooking the gorgeous expanse of Lake Superior.

My first encounter with his designs was his house for a father and son, called the Streeter House. Its simple, and well-sited, and beautiful. Now, simple may be bad you may think, but it is one of the most difficult things to design. And that is a generally good introduction to Salmela - he designs for specific place. None of his projects would be quite as brilliant if they were in a different place.

He designs with amazing an amazing poetic. Relationships of form and color and size, modern aesthetics but with a beautiful warmth. Not easy to do! Every project is unique, designed for specific clients on a specific site with specific materials, but none of the projects seem overworked. When learning about historical Scandinavian architecture the other day in class, it all fell in place. Salmela is Finnish, and his designs are very much linked to that background. With Minnesota being of primarily Scandinavian heritage, it makes sense that his work would be welcomed and fit well into the culture and the landscape.


I interviewed Salmela at the end of this summer (an amazing experience, for which I am very thankful for!), and he spoke of the importance of place. Architects do their best work when they are very familiar with a place, when they have developed from it, understand the culture, the history, the landscape, climate, etc. David Salmela is an excellent designer within Minnesota and the Midwest because he does understand all of the factors.

And he consciously re-frames familiar things within a modern design so that people must like them, because it is familiar and formerly loved. When learning about the great Finnish architect and designer, Alvar Aalto, it makes sense where Salmela developed his ideas. He obviously reads a lot, given his large library adjacent to his desk, and his references to writings and projects of a host of architects during conversation. And one of the best parts is that despite his great knowledge, skill, and success, he is undeniably down to earth.

You can find more of his work here. 


(My interview with David Salmela, as well as other architects and artists in Minnesota will soon be available on my interview blog. I will post a link when it is updated!)