August 4th, 2021
Greetings from Big Sky Country!
Lindsey Love
Lindsey is committed to incorporating natural and raw materials wherever possible in any project. She specializes in determining when, where, and how these materials can be the most appropriate and beautiful solution. She has balanced her architectural and building career with many seasons of construction work doing everything from framing to fine plastering, electrical work and management. Also an educator, Lindsey has led natural building workshops in North Carolina and was a visiting lecturer at Universidad de Valle de Mexico and continues to teach natural materials workshops in her free time. She has a fierce belief that design enhances our experience through creating connection. Lindsey is a Certified Passive House Tradesperson and holds a Certificate in Healthy Materials from Parsons New School of Design, is certified by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards, a member of the American Institute of Architects and the International Living Future Institute. She holds her architectural license in Idaho.
In the winter, Lindsey is the high school nordic ski coach and in the summer she loves to trail run and backpack.
Bridging passion & professional practice
Early in her career in architecture, Lindsey learned that shelter could be built out of raw materials such as straw and clay. She found empowering the idea of constructing one's own shelter, especially out of materials that come directly from the earth. After all, humans have been doing this for millennia. This realization lit a spark in her, which developed into a passion for connecting to nature by designing and building shelter with natural and raw materials. In her practice, she has found working with earth, clay, straw, hemp, lime and wood to be an authentic framework for beautiful modern design, healthy spaces, and high performing envelopes. Although it can be a challenge to overcome building codes and to employ age-old construction methodologies, Lindsey is undeterred and has made it the mission of her career to bridge between trades, and to design with natural and raw materials as conduit.
Ultimately Lindsey’s goal is for this natural building technology to become mainstream again for modern construction in the Rocky Mountain West. She envisions a world of bio-based regenerative buildings that store carbon just as much as they enrich our environment and our souls.
Lindsay Schack
Lindsay established her career as an Architect and an educator by combining her knowledge of architectural technology with her background in psychology and research. In addition to private practice, Lindsay has instructed at Montana State University's School of Architecture in design studio and research seminars and delivered lectures on sustainability at the Universidad Latina in Costa Rica. An intuitive designer and communicator, she creates solutions that relate a client's needs to the context of the project to arrive at healthy, sustainable space. Lindsay is a Certified Consultant for the Passive House Institute-US, certified by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards, a LEED-Accredited Professional and a member of the American Institute of Architects. She holds architectural licenses in Montana and Idaho.
When not at her desk, Lindsay pursues a mountain lifestyle with her husband, two children, and two dogs.
relationships with each other and with society
Having studied both architecture and social science, Lindsay Schack finds them in-extricable from each other when it comes to design. Understanding relationships, motivations and priorities is a critical part to shepherding a team or a project to a successful outcome. Lindsay will share about how the opportunities in design for humans to connect also support and enable healthy and sustainable buildings.
Sophia Sparklin
As a Montana resident, Sophia feels a deep responsibility for the resources of her community. Sophia founded Spark Architecture in 2012, when she moved to Great Falls, MT from Arizona. Spark Architecture’s projects aim for the right balance of proven solutions, while incorporating new tools that may advance the client’s mission. The firm designs to create a sense of place and community, while working within the identified budget and schedule. Sophia is a firm believer that Architecture is a team sport and is on a quest to build teams who can collectively integrate health, sustainability, and beauty into each project. With that goal, she is currently re-organizing the firm into a B-Corp (Public Benefit Corporation), and actively growing Spark’s diverse team of local, national and international collaborators.
Sophia has been a board member of AIA Montana for seven years, and currently serves as Immediate Past President. She just completed her position as Advisor for the Center for Practice at AIA National, and is currently Co-Chair for the Northwestern and Pacific Region Firm Awards. As Regional Director, Sophia represents the Region and highlights the insightful and diverse perspectives from architects in the region.
Trust your gut: the importance of learning to tune in to signals and not to rationalize issues away
Our lives as architects are filled with decisions. Which job to take on, whom to hire, and what adjustments to make when the initial path chosen is not unfolding as intended. Sophia quickly discovered that if one places all one’s trust in lists and decision matrixes, as most Best Practice guidelines suggest, one can be tempted to rationalize just about anything. Rather than overwrite doubts with rationalizations, Sophia instead has found that “gut feelings” are a helpful signal to pause and reflect. The first step is to acknowledge that something does not feel right. The next step might be to ask: “what am I avoiding or choosing to ignore?” Once these gut feelings are properly addressed and acknowledged, instead of suppressed through rationalizations, one often can manage decision-making effectively, and with more energy than before.
Lori Ryker
Lori Ryker lives in Paradise Valley, Montana, near Livingston. She is the founder and principal of studioryker. Her studio is committed to a holistic atelier style work method that holds design, environment and clients at the forefront of the interests of architecture. Her design work and art has been published nationally and internationally.
Lori is also founder and executive director of Artemis Institute, a non-profit that focuses on the cultural expression that arises between creative practices and the natural world.
Lori has taught at schools of architecture across the country and received Tenure at Montana State University.
Lori lectures on remote studio, an immersive education program she developed and taught from 1997-2015, as well as the concerns of sustainability, poetics, and place-based design at architecture schools and professional conferences across the county. She is the author of three books, including Mockbee Coker: Thought and Process. Among her professional and academic recognitions. In 2020 Lori received a Mountain Living 2020 Women in Architecture award.
Lori Received a Bachelor of Environmental Design from Texas A&M University, a Master of Architecture from Harvard Graduate School of Design, and a PhD from Texas A&M University.
THE WAYS – The Paths We Choose that Form Us
After graduating from the GSD in the midst of the early 1990s recession and after 6 month of unemployment Lori returned to New York City to work. Once there the fit just wasn’t right. Out of frustration at her job, the extreme disjunction between school and professional life, she decided to commit to finding a mentor that could serve as a guide. This search occurred long before the internet and email and made the adventure that much sweeter.
Lori will talk about the choices we make that set a path forward for professional and personal life, the opportunities that arrive along the way and the necessity for a clear understanding and commitment to ourselves serving as the best measure of achievement and evolution.
