IDEA is an architecture office lead by architects Eric A. Kahn and Russell N. Thomsen, both founding members of the renowned firm, Central Office of Architecture. Both Eric and Russell are licensed to practice architecture in the State of California.
IDEA incorporates over twenty-five years of design experience into a new practice; one proper to the dynamic nature of contemporary culture. It is a culture characterized by conflicting desires, competing models and contradictory views regarding how to effectively move humanity forward. IDEA develops projects that embody and exemplify a provisional response to this dynamic condition.
IDEA practices architecture as if, more than ever, ‘design matters’. Each project is not a cultural depletion but rather (as it must be) a substantive contribution, enriching the human condition.
IDEA runs on ideas, not the steady production of imagery and repeated stylistic variants others claim as architecture. Whether working with institutional clients such as the Getty Conservation Institute or the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, or the owners of a single-family house in Tokyo, our projects engage a wide array of interests under the umbrella of an architectural practice.
IDEA operates and conceives of architectural solutions at multiple scales, from installations at the Walt Disney Concert Hall to large scale scenarios for plausible, sustainable futures for the City of Los Angeles.
IDEA is invested and passionately devoted to architecture; form and utility are tightly bound together, directing opportunities for joy, delight and the production of unusual forms of beautiful intelligence.
