Firm name: Epiphyte Lab
Location: Pittsburgh
Year founded: 2009
Firm leadership: Dana Cupkova, Kevin Pratt (d. 2013)
Education: Cupkova: Dipl.Ing.Arch., Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Faculty of Architecture in Slovakia; M.Arch., University of California, Los Angeles
Experience: Cupkova: T.R. Hamzah & Yeang, RUR Architecture, and Smith-Miller + Hawkinson Architects; currently she teaches at Carnegie Mellon University School of Architecture (CMU) in Pittsburgh.
How founders met: Teaching at Cornell University
Firm size: Two to Six

Mission:
We love orchids and air plants—called epiphytes—because they are beautiful and need very little to thrive on their own; they grow on other plants but are not parasitic, using their context for physical support and only feed off waste. Our mission is to design and speculate about spaces, environments, and architectures that operate like air plants—tightly coupled with a flow of resources, thermodynamic behaviors, and perceptual experiences. Architecture is part of a larger planetary ecosystem and we are interested in intuiting and designing to encourage new forms, agencies, and authenticities.

First commission:
Hsu House, Danby, N.Y.

The 2,200-square-foot Hsu House residence in Danby, N.Y., features solar-responsive siding and a cast-in-place concrete mass wall that speeds thermal transfer of heat from the sun, filters light into the first floor, and functions as a sculptural focal point.
Simon Wheeler The 2,200-square-foot Hsu House residence in Danby, N.Y., features solar-responsive siding and a cast-in-place concrete mass wall that speeds thermal transfer of heat from the sun, filters light into the first floor, and functions as a sculptural focal point.
Simon Wheeler
Sue and Jerry Kaye

Favorite project:
The Hsu House mass wall, mostly because the likelihood of it working as both a sculpture and architectural replacement of mechanical air conditioning was rather speculative. The odds of constructing it well were low and the process of building it gave us pause. We love it as much as our clients and their kids, who obsessively use it as an interior play-structure. As a sculptural piece of infrastructure, the mass wall became a center of social interactions for adults, kids, and plants. Also, it was “born” in the same year as our daughter.

Completed in summer 2017, the ceiling of Senyai, a 340-square-foot restaurant in Pittsburgh, comprises 275 vertical slats to create acoustic pockets. The visual effect is also an homage to the restaurant’s name, which means “big noodles.”
Massery Photography Completed in summer 2017, the ceiling of Senyai, a 340-square-foot restaurant in Pittsburgh, comprises 275 vertical slats to create acoustic pockets. The visual effect is also an homage to the restaurant’s name, which means “big noodles.”
Massery Photography

Second favorite project:
Every other project, chronologically—currently, that would be a Thai restaurant called Senyai. It is Epiphyte Lab’s first built project in Pittsburgh, where I relocated the practice from Ithaca, N.Y., after Kevin’s sudden passing in 2013. The restaurant was produced collaboratively with CMU faculty member Gretchen Craig and CMU architecture students. We always strive to create a link between academic research and design practice, and Senyai was designed and built partially as a learning experience in making and digital fabrication at CMU. Additionally, it was a summer project, and building any work during the summer has a special, relaxed flavor to it.

What other up-and-coming firms should we keep an eye on?
As an educator, I think that my current and former students (especially those work(ed) with us at Epiphyte Lab) are the ones to surprise, advance, and subvert us in the best possible way. Just to mention a couple (out of many more), look out for: Andrew Heumann’s and Travis Fitch‘s future work.

Green Negligee is an alternative adaptive reuse strategy that employs a lightweight, secondary façade to blur the boundary between a multifamily housing block in Eastern Europe and the surrounding landscape.
courtesy Epiphyte Lab Green Negligee is an alternative adaptive reuse strategy that employs a lightweight, secondary façade to blur the boundary between a multifamily housing block in Eastern Europe and the surrounding landscape.

Origin of firm name:
By looking at and smelling the things we truly enjoy, wondering why wouldn’t we design and build objects that give us the same joy of experience.

Architecture heroes:
Eileen Grey, Buckminster Fuller, Frei Otto, Carme Pinós, Hon. FAIA, among others, but primarily Debora Reiser of RUR Architecture, Jesse Reiser, AIA’s mother. Debora Reiser is a founding and invisible force behind the design talent and rigor of many contemporary architects. In her small practice she formed talents like those of Nanako Umemoto, Laurie Hawkinson, Hani Rashid, Yama Karim, Jason Payne, and many others. She was a formative force in my work. A mentor, an educator, a critic, a crisp line enforcer, but most importantly a dear friend, whose work is beautiful, mysterious, and soulful as much as it is well built (and very unpublished).

Modern-day architecture hero:
My students for their enthusiasm, obsession, and work to come.

Design tool of choice:
Frame of mind and a heat gun

Design aggravation:
A circle

Informed by the Hsu House mass wall, Cupkova’s two-part Mass Regimes research assesses whether complex surface geometries can improve thermodynamic performance through convection.
courtesy Epiphyte Lab Informed by the Hsu House mass wall, Cupkova’s two-part Mass Regimes research assesses whether complex surface geometries can improve thermodynamic performance through convection.
courtesy Epiphyte Lab

Memorable learning experience:
Weeks spent in long houses visiting the jungle tribes of Borneo, realizing how shapes in space matter for survival in heat.

When I’m not working in architecture, I:
am thinking about it, looking at it, running around it, and occasionally running away from it. But I always return.

In collaboration with designer Ben Snell, Cupkova manipulated dough through net casting, creating bread that “wants to be teased, caressed, and eaten in chunks.”
courtesy Epiphyte Lab and Ben Snell In collaboration with designer Ben Snell, Cupkova manipulated dough through net casting, creating bread that “wants to be teased, caressed, and eaten in chunks.”

Biggest challenge in running a successful practice:
Accounting and payroll! It is a nightmare.

Superstitions:
Stay away from superstitious people, especially if they want to be your clients.

Skills to master:
Running an academically based practice—it keeps me continuously in need of learning and can be humbling.

Migratory Landforms, a research submission for the 2016 D3 Natural Systems Competition, explores strategies for land-building in response to the loss of habitable ground caused by climate change.
courtesy Epiphyte Lab Migratory Landforms, a research submission for the 2016 D3 Natural Systems Competition, explores strategies for land-building in response to the loss of habitable ground caused by climate change.
courtesy Epiphyte Lab

Morning person or night owl:
Both and neither. Twenty-fours hours tend to be occasionally indivisible.

Social media platform of choice:
Instagram

Vice:
Skiing and basketball