Build shelter. Not too big. Mostly plants.
Those seven simple words––though borrowed and modified from famed author Michael Pollan in more recent years––embody the ideology that has guided the Bay-area architecture firm Arkin Tilt for nearly three decades. Led by David Arkin and Anni Tilt, the duo decided early on to hang their hats on ecological design––mindfully adapting designs to be harmonious with the surrounding ecology and working with bio-based, alternative construction systems like straw bale and rammed earth to reduce the carbon impact.
Though others were practicing ecological design, in 1997, it was still somewhat few and far between. Sustainable design hadn’t truly caught on in the mainstream. But this opened the door for Arkin Tilt to blaze a few trails and show what could be done with alternative construction methods.
What drew them to this relatively unpaved path? David believes it was just something innate in him since childhood.
“I often note that I spent a good part of my high school and college years living in a tent,” he said. “I think a lot of our connection to nature with the way we shape our buildings was a result of that experience.”
That connection to nature eventually led David to California and an apprenticeship at The Sea Ranch working with architect Obie Bowman, a pioneer in ecological design. As it turns out, those couple of years spent with Bowman would forever change the way David approached architecture.
“He was really a master, not only of passive solar design and sensitive sighting of buildings in an amazingly beautiful natural environment, but also utilizing wood, primarily, as a resource and large rocks and other natural materials,” he said.
Later, during graduate school, David went to work with Sim Van der Ryn, another architect known for integrating ecological principles into the built environment. Together, they were tasked with designing a showroom for Real Goods Trading Company at the Solar Living Center. Utilizing rice straw bale, “gunearth” and salvaged Douglas fir for thermal mass, they also oriented and designed the building as a large sundial to create a passively conditioned building. Because of the climate-responsive design features and creative use of natural and salvaged materials like pressed strawboard, hemp and recycled car tires, the showroom became a model for what could be achieved with alternative building systems. In fact, the AIA named it one of the top 10 environmental projects in the US in 1999.
That project was one of David’s first forays into building with straw bale, and it inspired him and a few others to form the California Straw Building Association.
“I think our relationship with natural materials really blossomed out of that work, the friendships created, and then a growing interest in what are these resources that are found often very locally, if not on a job site, and how can they be used?,” he said.
It wasn’t long after that project that David and Anni decided it was time to start their own firm. And so, in 1997, Arkin Tilt Architects was born.
“We decided that we were going to wear green on our sleeves and came up with five very simple rules, which still guide our practice to this day,” he said. “Harmonize with the site. Build as little as possible, which I like to say is somewhat ironic for architects, but it’s really not making spaces any larger than they need to be to meet those needs. Passive survivability, which is shaping the building in response to climate-resource efficiency and maximizing that. And making designs that are beautiful and lyrical, and hope that others get excited and want to do the same.”
Luckily, their first few projects teed them up to demonstrate those values. There was the ranch-style home remodel that incorporated a fallen Pacific madrone tree in the interior, natural ventilation, daylighting and recycled-glass countertops (with remnant glass bottles of soda water drank by the client), among other ecological elements. Then there was the modest 28-square-foot addition to a bungalow in Berkeley that they clad in repurposed license plates and used a spent railroad track as a beam.
Of course, designing with salvaged materials requires some planning and creativity, but it can lead to some richly unique designs, such as the greenhouse in which they used decommissioned flaps and ailerons from Piper Cub aircrafts in place of traditional shade fins. Then there was the middle school project where they installed old billboard tarps to create washable surfaces on the restroom walls. They’ve used ore cart wheels, old street signs, retired dorm-room furniture, and the list goes on.
“There are methods of utilizing these resources, but I’d say if one is looking at larger structural elements, it’s important to identify what those resources are ahead of time,” David said. “If you’re wanting to use doors and windows, go find them first and then design the building to fit them. You can always count on finding a 3’ by 80” door, but beyond that, it’s going to be harder to say, ‘I’m going to find a window that’s exactly the size of my opening.’ You probably won’t.”
Adaptive reuse of materials is not without its challenges, but it is getting easier. Traditionally, simply finding the right materials and intercepting them before they end up in the landfill has been one of the biggest challenges. Thanks to some online resources, it’s made reuse more accessible to designers regardless of location.
“Frankly, these days, places like Craigslist or eBay…it’s all out there and it’s findable,” David said. “There’s been more of a push, particularly with AIA’s Materials Pledge, which is an emerging program to promote climate health, ecosystem health, human health, social equity, and also circular economy. There’s a lot of interest, especially in the interior design world, in making resources findable and installing them in a way that they’re reusable––that they just don’t end up in the landfill any longer.”
Another benefit to repurposed materials is they’re often higher quality than what’s available today and made of “real” ingredients like solid wood or steel without the addition of toxic chemicals. Of course, it depends on when they were produced and David recommends still doing your due diligence.
“It’s something we are paying attention to,” he said. “The suspicion is––and I’m going back again to doors and windows––that you’re probably dealing with lead paint or even if you aren’t, assume you are. Then removing it carefully and appropriately or encapsulating it becomes part of that program. But by and large, a lot of these resources, older ones especially, didn’t have a lot of the toxic chemicals in them.”
When David and Anni initially started their practice, building with low-carbon materials came somewhat innately to them. They just didn’t have a term for it. They were already looking for ways to reduce waste and build with natural materials, but then a lightbulb went off.
“At some point, we had an ‘aha moment’ of plant-based materials store carbon through photosynthesis, so we need to use more of these,” David said.
That aha moment propelled them further into straw bale and other plant-based and earthen materials, seeing a direct path to reducing the carbon impact more immediately.
“As our buildings become lower energy users and can run on renewable energy, the upfront carbon impacts of the materials––which includes everything from the extraction and manufacturing of those materials to the transportation impacts of getting them to the building site––that’s everything,” he said. “Those impacts are immediate and they’re today.”
A couple of resources David recommended for learning about and sourcing low-carbon materials are the Carbon Smart Materials Palette and mindfulMATERIALS. And when it comes to interiors, one of the best things designers can do is work closely with architects to select structural materials that are beautiful on their own.
“Interiors tend to be some of the best places where these [bio-based materials] can be utilized in many ways,” he said. “It comes back to choosing finishes that, by their nature, do the job. And with architects, creating buildings that have good-looking structures to the degree that one doesn’t necessarily need to cover it up.”
This might be leaving structural wood systems exposed in walls and ceilings, or building with a material like BamCore or plywood that reveals a natural beauty that doesn’t need to be painted or wallpapered.
“We also always take care to balance,” David said. “So, if you have a wood ceiling, maybe not having wood walls or vice versa. It’s good to have a lighter surface to bounce daylight around.”
To achieve balance, they’ve developed a diverse palette of natural materials to work with, like the aforementioned BamCore, rice hulls for insulation, cork, hemp wool, hemp wood fiber board, adobe, various clay plasters and clay floors. And by using many of these materials in their personal projects––the firm’s office and their home––they’ve realized a few other benefits: the grounding effect of stepping barefoot onto a clay floor, improved indoor air quality and the mood-boosting qualities of being surrounded by nature-based materials.
Not all materials are created equal, however. To get a better understanding of the carbon impact and ingredient makeup of the materials they are considering, David and team routinely turn to material data safety sheets (SDSs) and environmental product declarations (EPDs), as well as the Red List from the International Living Future Institute (ILFI). The Red List has become somewhat of a “do not use” guide of chemicals to avoid.
And again, David reminds us, it goes back to keeping things simple. Not building too big. Sourcing local as much as possible. And designing with bio-based materials, then letting the natural beauty of those materials sing.
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