BACKGROUND

I moved to Northern New Mexico over thirty five years ago where I was immediately captivated by the rugged mountains, forests, streams and adobe architecture of the Mora valley.  During that time, I lived in what had once been a Penitente morada.  I was taught the art of blacksmithing and how to shoe horses from one of the old men whose family had settled in those high mountain valleys almost  three hundred years ago.  It was during that time I discovered I had a gift for working with and training unbroken horses and was soon being asked to do that for other people in the area.  Living in Northern New Mexico not only taught me self-reliance but more importantly, it taught me respect for people who make a living from the land with their hands.

Three years later, I moved to Madrid, where I started the Volunteer Fire Department and later served as Chairman of the Town Council. It was during that time that I explored a series of different careers - as a silversmith, cabinet maker, working on a framing crew and building some adobe homes.

What these experiences had in common was creating something where there had been nothing before - whether it was designing a beautiful silver clasp or building a house with my own hands. However, what was lacking was something to challenge me intellectually.  What I discovered was architecture.  Architecture is a complex profession which challenges me intellectually while at the same time allows me to fulfill my desire to create beautiful and functional things.

DESIGN PHILOSOPHY

It was in northern New Mexico that I started to understand there are universal archetypical forms that everyone relates to – at least on a subconscious level.  It has been found that children from different cultures around the world (china, india, africa, north america) will inevitably sketch the same picture of a house - a triangle on top of a square.  This is the universal archtype of "home"; however, great architecture like great art goes beyond simple recognition of form and moves us to inspiration. 

In addition to these archtypal forms of buildings, good architecture possesses a poetic side.  The pitched metal roofs and stone or adobe walls of New Mexico architecture protect us from the strong sun and blowing snow.  Just as importantly, the play of light and shadow as the sun marches across the stone walls alerts us to the passing of time and sculpts space to give form to the building.

What I strive to create is space and form which is at once poetic and functional. I would like to believe that my architecture has a quality of strength and beauty through its simplicity of forms and materials. I was taught by an important professor in graduate school to believe that great architecture is about Nature, Mysticism, Woman and Man, and that without these qualities you merely have empty buildings.

APPROACH TO DESIGN

We have a team approach when working with our clients. We talk, ask questions and listen. We try to understand our client's personal taste and lifestyle so we can capture that and reflect it in our design. The result is a synergistic architecture that is rich with the client's spirit and our design vision.

Our design vision covers many areas. One of the most important decisions in architecture is the siting of the building.  How it faces the sun, welcomes a cooling breeze and relates to the native plants and trees are simple yet easily overlooked aspects of good design.

A building should be an extension of the site. The relationship between construction and nature should be symbiotic.  The two should reinforce each other, playing off each other’s strengths.  A building should have a sense that it has always been there - that it belongs there and nowhere else. 

As far as the interior of buildings - too many architects are scenery designers.  It’s not about how many faux finishes you can put into one room.  It’s about the space and the light. It's about proportion and balance.  It's about how you would feel after all the furniture and fancy finishes are removed from the room. If you still feel good in the space - it's good architecture.

It’s not the size of the room, but the proportion of the room that’s important. It’s not just the materials, but how the materials are used. It’s not just about how the rooms are arranged, but how the spaces transition from one to another. You don’t simply put a door on a wall to get to another room. You have to understand how the room works, the path created from the way you enter the room and leave a room, the light, the furniture arrangement, the views.

My design tends to be simple, calm and strong.  It has a quality of strength through its simplicity of forms and use of materials. This allows me to capture the spirit of the Site and Owner.  It allows the people who live in the space to claim it as their own and yet still discover subtle, new things about the space years after they've moved in.  It's fun.

© 2007Boniface + Associates. All Rights Reserved

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office of architecture

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