KieranTimberlake


KieranTimberlake is an American architecture firm founded by Stephen Kieran and James Timberlake in Philadelphia. The firm espouses a philosophy of sustainable design, collaborative design, and in-depth research. They have also shown an interest in prefabrication, new technologies and integrating architecture with the actual activities to take place in the buildings they design, especially using "teaching" design elements in schools. Their interest in productions and craft led them to team up with DuPont to develop Smartwrap, a laminated polymer film that can support thin interstitial films, including photovoltaics, OLEDs, polarizing or UV screens, etc.

History

James Timberlake and Stephen Kieran met at the University of Pennsylvania School of Architecture, joining Venturi, Scott Brown, and Associates, before receiving Rome Prizes separately and finally founding their practice in 1984. The firm maintained itself as a noted sustainable design firm for many years, building a reputation for attention to detail and consistency. The partners were awarded the inaugural Latrobe Fellowship from the American Institute of Architects in 2001.
KieranTimberlake received more attention after the publication of Refabricating Architecture, a book that explains and argues for the prefabrication of buildings using Building Information Modeling and close coordination of architects and contractors. Timberlake and Kieran argue that offsite production of buildings would be less expensive, more sustainable, and offer tolerances and techniques not possible in on-site construction. They also insist that mass-customization, as they call it, is the proper extension of the ideas expressed by Le Corbusier and other early modernists, who sought to develop inexpensive and easily built housing. Consequently, the book emulates the format and style of Toward an Architecture.

Work