“New materials are allowing a thinness and economy in architecture,” Wallace E. Cunningham says of the latest technological developments in his profession. Such advances—lightweight concrete, carbon fibers and cable structures among them—now give the San Diego based architectural designer “the ability to move the support to where it is needed, at the time it is needed, reducing the amount of structure required” and offer him the opportunity to create houses that are both “more elegant and efficient.” He predicts that further material and technical innovations will one day lead architecture toward “truly kinetic work that responds immediately to sun, shade, wind, rain, snow, view and time.”

Cunningham’s current projects are a reflection of his ongoing exploration of buildings’ interactions with the landscape, as well as with history. For a mountain house in Utah, he is planning a stepped roof, inspired by the appearance of snow on the surrounding tree limbs. In contrast, a residence in Mexico, his first there, is inspired by the country’s architectural history, from Mayan step pyramids and Spanish colonial structures to the work of Felix Candela and beyond. Above all else, Cunningham believes that houses should be portraits of their owners; that is why, as he prepares to design, he “must be a detective to find the true nature of the client’s desires, not merely programming but the true purpose of the commission.”

Wallace E. Cunningham

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