Freedom in Practice: Soft-Firm's Lexi Tsien and Talitha Liu on Community, Models of Care, and Staying Grounded
Photo by Mary Kang
By Julia Gamolina
Soft-Firm is an interdisciplinary practice and flexible platform for architectural ideas, spaces, and artifacts. Soft-Firm is interested in new forms of representation, vernacular spatial practices, and their ability to shape and self-determine the built environment. Soft-firm is speculative and concrete: taking a playful and lo-fi approach to writing, installations, residential, and commercial work.
Lexi Tsien received her B.Arts in Anthropology and Visual Arts from Columbia University and her M.Arch from Yale University. Talitha Liu received her B.Arts in Anthropology from Washington University in St. Louis and M. Arch from Yale University. In their conversation with Julia Gamolina, Lexi and Talitha talk about the structure of their practice and lessons learned from past firms, advising those just starting their careers to define architecture for themselves.
JG: Tell me about your foundational years — where did you grow up and what did you like to do as kids?
LT: I grew up in the Bay Area California. I played soccer and piano but also loved to draw. I remember going hard on some diorama school projects and loving the game SET.
TL: I grew up in Hong Kong and Honolulu. I ran track and field and took a lot of art classes, but I really loved writing.
What did you both learn about yourself in studying architecture?
LT: Having an anthropology and visual arts training made me look at program briefs and sites differently than some of my classmates. I experienced a steep learning curve, but eventually I came to appreciate my way of hacking things.
TL: I also studied anthropology in undergrad — similarly, the building as an object was never as interesting as understanding the context that involved history, constituents, built environment. That’s definitely where Lexi and I gelled both as friends and as design partners.
Generation House living room transformer. Photography by Michael Vahrenwald.
Generation House kitchen. Photography by Lexi Tsien.
Generation House bathroom. Photography by Michael Vahrenwald.
How did you both get your start in working with the built environment?
LT: I built a sunken house for a mini-golf course in Bushwick. I was Bernard Tschumi’s assistant for a few years also.
TL: I took a few fabrication classes in undergrad so I knew I liked making things. Post college, Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu of Neri & Hu were kind enough to give me an internship in their then fledgling office, even though I had no training in architecture.
Tell me how your work evolved, and you with it.
LT: I worked for DS+R, Davies Toews, and Barkow Leibinger in Berlin. Talitha and I started working together on a VR office which moved into writing about the future of work, an exhibition at ADO, residential work, public installations, and more recently some larger residential additions.
TL: I first worked for Neri & Hu, Rockwell Group, and Alda Ly Architecture. I think there’s a feedback loop between our installation and research projects and our built projects — often one allows us to pose a question that we can explore in another, whether it’s about materiality, community, or family history.
Where are each of you in your career today? What is on your mind most at the moment?
TL: As our office evolves we both think about how to invest our time in meaningful projects, while growing as a business. I’ve been thinking a lot about housing as I’ve been involved with the affordable housing advocacy nonprofit Housing Hawaii’s Future. Along the lines of Lexi’s activism work through academia and in her Chinatown research, I am often working with the question of how architects can be more civically engaged in the built environment.
“Individually there is still a lot to learn about the practice of architecture - I think we both are lucky to have a community of young architects, as well as key mentors who are open and generous with their experiences.”
LT: We’re both figuring out our relationship to teaching and practice, how to balance the two, and how one gives contrast and flexibility to the other. The same goes for our partnership.
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about Chinatowns and ways of scripting public space. I think the ultimate goal is to have the office be an enabler, not something that ties us down. So it helps that we both are learning to surf as a contrast to the office. If there are good waves sometimes we drop everything and go to the Rockaways. We’ve been very lucky to have enough work and things to keep us busy, but we’ve also kept ourselves pretty lightweight out of our own working habits and structurally as an office.
TL: Individually there is still a lot to learn about the practice of architecture — I think we both are lucky to have a community of young architects, as well as key mentors who are open and generous with their experiences.
Looking back at it all, what have been the biggest challenges? How did you manage through?
LT: Working for big firms and trying to emulate their brand or representational style was difficult for me. At a certain point I had to cut the cord and be untethered which was uncomfortable.
TL: Uncertainty is challenging, but I think our earliest stages were about figuring out our strengths and trusting what we bring to the table.
LT: However unsexy this sounds, one of the biggest challenges of our office has been learning how to write good contracts, invoices, and fee structures. Also, figuring out how to work casually as a collaboration and move into being more of an office without taking ourselves too seriously. I think we’ve structured the office to be like a shell company — we do projects independently, together, sometimes as research with other collaborators. There are a lot of moving parts but I think it lends us freedom. I think we feel most grounded by really problem solving something together.
Drive-Thru at Ashland Plaza. Photography by Camera Blaycock.
Love Letters at Times Square. Photography by Maria Baranova.
What are you most excited about right now?
LT: I’m excited to see how our model of working changes. I’m also looking forward to several extensions outside the city where the exterior building form is the main design challenge and opportunity.
TL: I continue to be excited about the possibilities for our sketches, experiments, and everyday observations to become a framework to sniff out fun and meaningful projects.
LT: I just worked on a studio called Emergent Publics at Syracuse, where we looked at Community Plaza at the Everson Museum. I hope that project becomes real someday. Designing that public space could be reparative for the city.
Who are you admiring now and why?
LT: I’m admiring the design intelligence in adhoc solutions you might find in places like Chinatown, Lagos, or Atlanta. I think architecture is undergoing a bit of a paradigm shift where we can really move away from Palladio and Eisenman. I’m admiring Simone Levy, Wolfgang Tillman, Ruben Östlund, and Lina Bo Bardi, always. I think all of these authors create a whole universe within their medium, by making the everyday into something extraordinary – I admire them for their relationship to practice as much as their output as social commentary.
TL: I’ve been moved by “old fashioned” community activism at the grass roots level. Dolores Hayden’s work comes to mind, in addition to groups like YIMBY Action that fight the good fight towards equitable housing policy.
LT: I also really admire some of the contractors and fabricators we’ve worked with. Those collaborations teach us too. Trust allows us to make better and better work.
“I’d like architecture to be more accessible, more programmable, more community driven, and to get over its self-seriousness.”
What is the impact you’d like to have on the world? What is your core mission? And, what does success in that look like to you?
TL: I think our core mission is to empower constituents — both individuals and groups — to take ownership of their spaces. In our ideal world our projects support multiple different groups over the day, seasons, years. We love coming back to our projects and seeing them take on a life of their own.
LT: I’d like architecture to be more accessible, more programmable, more community driven, and to get over its self-seriousness. My core mission is to build and make nice things. I also want to be a great teacher that really includes my students in hard questions and realistic processes. Success means having fun and learning while doing all that.
Kommunalka kitchen for a family. Photography by Lexi Tsien.
Kommunalka kitchen for a family detail. Photography by Lexi Tsien.
Finally, what advice do you have for those starting their career? Would your advice be any different for women?
LT: The truth is, we’re all faking it to a certain extent. Really, what is architecture anyways? There is such a wide range of what NCARB might define as architecture to what it has yet to become. I hope we can think bigger about our role in shaping the built environment, material processes, and how architecture can be in service and more accessible to everyone.
A big lesson has been to embrace each hurdle I thought I was wildly unqualified for and the messiness that comes with it. I’ve gone through my own bouts of imposter syndrome as a woman of color. Lately I’ve reminded myself that NCARB and AIA desperately need people like us. We need more of us in power to make the profession more accessible. We need to challenge the model that exists now. I’d say to those starting a career that developing a way of working and a rolodex of thinkers and makers you respect is the essence of architecture, whether you’re working for someone else, but especially when you work for yourself. Being kind goes a long way. Pay it forward by giving opportunities to others, think about models of care over scarcity. Do the things that make you excited. Take risks and try to enjoy it.
TL: I think it’s important to multitask and learn how to prioritize. I think women juggle many responsibilities in both professional and personal spheres, and getting comfortable with that early on is helpful.