Design Philosophy:
While many architectural practices are built on design, design and more design, IPA believes that the architectural practice should be more encompassing and also consider craft, process, and technology. In doing so we believe our projects result in better outcomes. IPA has built it’s practice on the tenants of Design, Craft, Process and Technology.
Design:
Not all design is good design. Just because a kitchen was designed to have a refrigerator, stove, sink and dishwasher does not mean that the kitchen will work well. All too often designers do not have the life experiences or ability to find the best solution. IPA works hard to study every project’s needs to find a solution that functions well.
“If given the task I can design anything including something completely opposite from a building. For example I can design a shoe and it would work and function just as well or better than any commercially available product sitting on a store shelf today.”
– Jake Boen, Founder of In Place Architecture, PLLC.
If you have known Jake for any length of time and discuss design you may have heard a variant of the shoe design quote. The process of design is to understand precedent designs of similar scope, study needs, function, materials and assembly of said materials. Designing a building is no different than designing something as opposite as a shoe. Jake is not afraid to dig deep, ask questions, and learn something new on every project.
Craft:
Jake practices architecture with a passion for the “Craft”. He believes that one must understand though doing and learning. Jake is an architect who is not afraid to understand and practice the design of all building trades. Structural, mechanical, and electrical engineering? Not a problem. Jake has years of experience designing these systems in residential and commercial structures which gives him an advantage above many architects who must solely rely on their consulting engineers to design these types of integral systems.
Technology:
“Using the new design technologies in the old paradigm is like buying a pneumatic nail gun and using it to pound nails”
– Jim Balding, Collogue and Founder, The ANT Group.
In the practice of Architecture Jake is a “next generation architect” and was raised on a computer, and it shows. Since 2002 Jake has been using Autodesk Revit Architecture and Revit MEP (mechanical, electrical, and plumbing) to produce BIM (Building Information Modeling) architectural and engineering designs and produce construction documents. Jake is an Autodesk Revit Certified Professional and has taught software courses at Pima Community College and co-presented at Autodesk University in Las Vegas, NV. As a co-founder of the Southern Arizona Revit Users Group Jake has experience teaching and sharing what he has learned in his daily practice. Jake also uses various other software and hardware during IPA’s daily practice to facilitate project design for architectural, structural engineering, mechanical, and energy modeling and calculations.
“I think the most amazing thing about the slide rule is that you start to think about math in geographical terms. You begin to know where the right answer is supposed to be and that's what engineering students here at MIT or anywhere in the country began to understand is, when they looked at that initial equation, they had a sense of where they were supposed to find the answer.”
IPA realizes and understands that sometimes technology isn’t appropriate for everything and that we need to go back to the foundations or to our tenant of Craft. Manual drafting, or long-hand calculations are sometimes more efficient and suite the project’s needs or schedule better than getting stuck on technological answers. Experience through our hands-on approach helps to guide our use of appropriate technology.