Matt Baran

Less battle, more building. The Density Guide is live and packed with strategies and real-world case studies for small subdivisions and ADUs on both single-family and multifamily lots. We break down how to hit higher densities with ministerial approvals and limited review…

To be clear, Baran Studio did not do the shipping containers at People’s Park. We did the shipping containers at MacArthur Annex.

To garage or not to garage? That is the question.

It’s that time of year in The Bay…

I get really excited about things like speculative cartography, altered temporalities and phenomenological transcripts. I’m thinking about producing an ontological inquiry disguised as architectural writing, but I don’t think it’s going to win me any new commissions 😔

Last week I was in Berkeley for a review of student work for a program called Springboard, which introduces HS students to architecture. They are being asked to stretch their imaginations about what architecture can be. I often say that the education of an architect is…

Planners are always telling me to make my work look more like the other houses in the neighborhood. This must therefore be peak urbanism:

I will defend your right to paint your house any color you want, or to build it any style or level of ‘ugliness’ you choose.

Meanwhile, in SF, at the Ferry Building…

Huge compliment here. Reminds me of that time @ReggBrown25 compared my work to Corbusier.

I only make architecture for beautiful people…

Neighbors often tell you that if you had just notified them, they would have been nicer. In my experience that’s never the case. They’re almost always angry about change. (Photo of our 950 project in Santa Fe. Ask me about the neighbors!)