Making the World Better
I particularly like Anne Frank’s sentiment because I feel it applies to what we do as a design + construct firm and what we do as individuals in our community.
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A Rose By Any Other Name
ADU. Accessory Dwelling Unit. Not as romantic sounding as Carriage House, or as quirky as Grannie Flat, or as loaded as Mother-in-law Unit. But all are different names for the same thing, a space for dwelling that is separate or attached to a single family home on a piece of property.
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A Shared Space is a Happy Space
Remember the TV show “Golden Girls”? How about “Friends”? Or perhaps “Three’s Company”? All of these shows included family or friends sharing a home. We called them roommates at the time, now in this new “sharing economy”…
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Form and Functional; Accommodating our New Non-Traditional Lives
Today we’re doing different things with traditional space layouts to accommodate our lives that are becoming anything but traditional. Our desire for space types seem endless. A few of the types being revolutionized are master bedrooms, home offices and living rooms.
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Bold Colors and Natural Materials Are Back
There was a lot I loved about Greece, but what sticks with me most about that trip as a young adult, are the colors. The bright bold colors that always look freshly painted against the alabaster white stucco walls.
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'Tis the Season for Outdoor Living
It is finally that glorious time of year again when there is a remnant of evening daylight at the end of the workday; just enough time to enjoy a meal or a glass of wine on the back patio or at an outdoor café with friends.
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Open Space and Quiet Places
Our architecture evolves along with our lives. As our lives, on a whole, become less formal and less socially structured, so do the spaces in which we work and live. We wear far fewer suits, work far outside 9 to 5, and can work virtually anywhere.
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When Building Sustainably Is Simply Building
What seems like long ago I would see for-lease signs on the sides of buildings advertising available space as “fully wired” or “wifi enabled”; these technologies were new and unique amenities at the time.
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What I Love To Create
When you ask Abeer Sweis what kind of space excites her, she would say one that influences people. Whether it’s a residential home or commercial space—wherever people spend time—she wants to bring out quality interactions in relationships that stimulate ideas, fuels communication, creates intimacy, and allows for growth.
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Not All Architects Created Equal
When selecting a firm, it’s important to understand the difference between the types of services each one offers so you will know what to expect. A firm that exclusively offers design and drawings means that it creates the design and drawings and then hands them off to the client.
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The Evolution of SweisKloss
Abeer Sweis has come a long way in the 20 years since she started her own boutique design firm. She remembers being in business for just three months when she hired one of her Architecture students as her first employee.
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Abeer's Inspiration
What inspires one to become an architect? Ask Abeer Sweis, and she’ll tell you about a time when she was nine years old. On a Sunday afternoon drive with her family through the countryside of her native Amman, Jordan, she noticed a building unlike anything she’d ever seen.
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