Projects With Purpose: Morpholio's Anna Kenoff on Iterative Testing, Ideas That Shape Our World, and Building a Career

By Julia Gamolina

Anna Kenoff is a designer in New York and co-founder of Morpholio, a technology company focused on drawing and design process specifically for architects. Morpholio's software, Trace and Board, have been featured as best tools for architects across almost every design journal and highlighted extensively by Apple. Previously, Anna practiced architecture in New York with WORKac and led research, publications, and public projects at Columbia University’s Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture. She lives in Bedford with her husband and their two boys. In her interview with Julia Gamolina, Anna talks about what she’s learned from professional practice, the time-tested creative process as inspiration for Morpholio, advising those just starting their careers to to think about how you want to spend your days.

JG: You’re a trained architect, and eventually co-founded Morpholio. How did Morpholio come about, what was the ideation process like, and how did you launch?

AK: Morpholio actually also began as a research “side” project. My co-founders and I all started architecture in the era of hand drawing but then encountered an immense wave of technology throughout our schooling and early careers that began to redefine the design process in fascinating yet often controversial ways. In fact, I initially met one of my co-founders, Toru Hasegawa, in Charles Renfro’s hand drawing class at Columbia. In 2011, Toru was working with his former classmate, Mark Collins, another co-founder, on early app coding and exploration. Our interests merged around the idea of a digital version of a design portfolio.

As part of the last generation straddling traditional and digital practices, our interest became a fusion—merging known methods with new means to enhance an evolving design process. The portfolio app was designed to replicate the messy studio experience, including canary yellow tracing paper, in the then newly popular but not yet design-friendly iPad, hence the name Morpholio.

When Apple introduced the iPadPro and Pencil for drawing, we all instantly knew that Trace, on its own, had a real future in the design process. By bringing hand drawing and sketching into this new digital realm, we were attempting to preserve and advance a time-tested creative process that might otherwise be lost in the digital era.

You've been working on Morpholio now for over fourteen years — how has the product and company evolved in that time, and how have you?

As we’ve grown, we’ve had the opportunity to collaborate with some of the most amazing firms, including Zaha Hadid’s office, who presented our Trace technology at an Apple event, and Norman Foster’s office in London. We’ve had the privilege of visiting other brilliant firms all over the world. We talk to users every day. These days, nothing is more rewarding than seeing a drawing that was made in Trace that is beautiful and evocative and helped someone realize their vision.

Now that I have kids, and I’m watching them grow and navigate the world, I also think a lot about an early idea around Trace. For most of us, creativity or knowledge can’t simply be summoned. You have to create a safe space for fluid thinking. The reason sketching works is because it effectively normalizes, and speeds up, the process of trying and failing. You draw in non-precious, transparent layers so you can remember some things, forget others, and choose which ideas to advance. The centuries-old studio concept of iterative testing becomes a metaphor for life. This is where the ideas that shape our world will come from — all of us not being so afraid to put ourselves out there.

What have you also learned in the last six months?

I, like many of us, have taken a dive into the world of AI, attempting to better understand the history, landscape, possibilities, and risks. Much of the discourse around AI includes obvious positions of fear and dread, however, it is here to stay, and we are watching a phenomenal revolution unfold in real time. We know it will need guardrails and regulation, and I’ve learned that we — as humans, as citizens, and as designers —must be prepared to participate, if not lead, in advocating for, envisioning, and shaping the most positive outcomes.

“For most of us, creativity or knowledge can’t simply be summoned. You have to create a safe space for fluid thinking.”

— Anna Kenoff

Let’s now go back a little — how did you choose where you studied architecture?

I grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina. I was fortunate that my mom took me all over the country to explore opportunities, but when I saw the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, it was hard to imagine a more interesting place to begin studying architecture. Thomas Jefferson’s vision to create one of the first public universities in the fledgling United States, still the heart of the school, is rich in innovation and fraught with contentious issues that we grapple with to this day. Above all, the university is ambitious in its belief that we can always strive toward a stronger, better society through design and education.

While at UVA, I had several professors from Columbia who inspired me to consider New York as the next step for a few years of work followed by grad school. I moved to New York shortly after 9/11.

You first worked as an architect before pivoting to working on research, publications, writing and technology. Tell me about your time in professional practice.

I worked at a few firms, but my most meaningful years were at WORKac under Amale Andraos and Dan Wood. Leaving Columbia GSAPP, I was hungry to merge my passion for design with my desire to work on projects that leaned toward a social or political impact. One of the first things I heard Amale say, that I’ll never forget, was, “You have to take a position!” I was hooked. That phrase still echoes in my mind, reminding me to stay vigilant about the world around me and always use my voice to engage and contribute.

My time there was incredibly rewarding, particularly working on projects like a public farm and MoMA P.S1, which led to an Edible Schoolyard for activist chef Alice Waters in Brooklyn, and a public library in Queens with the NY DDC. However, the pivot began when I became pregnant with my first son, just as the world fell prey to the 2008 financial meltdown. There were endless questions about what lay ahead and what this would mean for the profession, especially in discussions around housing.

P.F. 1 at MoMA P.S. 1 in Queens, NY. An exhibition and half-acre working farm designed to provoke thought about sustainable food systems and visionary urbanism. Image Courtesy of WORKac.

One of the many public events surrounding *Foreclosed* and 2012 Museum Catalog. Images courtesy of graphic designer MTWTF.

What did you decide to do?

I happened to hear about an opportunity back at Columbia, where Reinhold Martin had just taken over an independently endowed think tank called The Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture. Reinhold was just beginning to use this new platform to launch Public Housing: A New Conversation which would examine the troubled culture and policy around housing in American cities and suburbs. In my time there, we expanded that to a multi-faceted project called Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream in partnership with MoMA.

Like much of my experience at WORKac, the “job” was to re-state the problem, question the deeply entrenched cultural, political, and even scientific assumptions surrounding the premise, and strive to incite a new conversation around an issue. Whether negotiating with a client, a community, or the public at large, learning to frame an issue in a way that inspired new thinking and action was key to the overall endeavor. In every case, there were public workshops, public hearings, research, fundraising, design, exhibitions, publications, press, and a lot of collaboration.

Looking back at it all, what have been the biggest challenges? How did you both manage through perceived disappointments or setbacks?

Unlike the start-up model, we never took outside funding. We had to be scrappy, and we still do all our own coding and design the apps as a team, relying on our insider knowledge of the industry. We didn’t pay ourselves for years, falling back on teaching and other gigs. But we all truly believed there would be a place for digital drawing by hand and relied on one another to stay committed to that vision. Today we have a still small but incredible team, mostly architects, who wear many hats, and help reinforce that commitment.

“I’ve realized that a career, like a friendship or a relationship, may look big from the outside but it is built of a million tiny things that add up over time to something meaningful, impactful, and life-changing.”

— Anna Kenoff

Who are you admiring now and why?

My girlfriends. My parents. The amazing women on Madame Architect…people that show up. So many people just keep bringing it, relentlessly pursuing their vision of a better world, particularly in these trying times. When I think about the careers that I’ve gotten to witness as they really took off from the early days — women like Kate Orff, Amale Andraos, Ana Miljacki, Liz Diller — I am so inspired by their unwavering energy and commitment. I’ve realized that a career, like a friendship or a relationship, may look big from the outside but it is built of a million tiny things that add up over time to something meaningful, impactful, and life-changing. As a close friend once advised me, “Just keep showing up.”

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?

I’ve always wanted to use good design to champion good causes. When you get the right designers involved, you have the potential to disrupt the systems that are reinforcing toxic norms such as generational poverty, lack of access, and unsustainable thinking. This could be an edible schoolyard as opposed to a playground, polished messaging for a non-profit, smart preservation and conservation. I am exposed to so much creative energy and talent and I love any opportunity to connect that beauty and thinking back to a project with purpose. Convincing design can unlock fundraising, visibility, storytelling, and policy. It’s all connected, and I hope it is something I can do much more of in the years to come.

Trace tools include scale, dimensions, rulers, familiar pens and brushes, perspective guides, and stencils. Site Plan by Russ Tyson, Whitten Architects & Ken Studtmann, Emma Kelly Landscape, Concept Sketch by Vignesh Madhavan, Diagram by Carlo Enzo, and Perspective by Alena Fokina.

Image courtesy of Morpholio. iPad Drawing by Carmen Gasalla, inspired by Stuart Franks.

Finally, what advice do you have for those starting their career? Would your advice be any different for women?

Think about how you want to spend your days. A lot of people ask me if they should make an app, or a podcast, or even start a firm. If you have a passion project in mind, yes, go for it! But, like any project done well, it is an ongoing and multi-faceted commitment. Do you want to do what it will take to maintain it, grow it, and take care of it and its community?

Career-wise, success for me means that you are truly content with how you spend your days. The ability to live and do work each day without compromising your core values is always the goal. That may mean slowing down at times for family or ramping up to find a new challenge. Either way, success has to come in the present, as opposed to being solely quantified by some far-off goal that you may or may not reach.

I never could have predicted this path and I’m still not sure where it might lead. But staying present to ride the ups and downs has been key. This is just one moment in time, one chapter. Get the absolute most out of it, give it all you can, and you will know when it is time for the next thing, big or small.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.