This week on The Fireside Chat™ podcast, Ryan Bloom welcomes President and Founding Partner Monika Haefelfinger and Principal Scott Utterstrom of XTEN Architecture, an award-winning international architecture firm based in Los Angeles, California, and Sissach, Switzerland.
Born in Basel, Switzerland, Monika Haefelfinger’s interest in art and design deepened during an apprenticeship with her father’s architecture firm in Sissach. At the age of 21, Monika moved to the United States with the intention of spending a year there with her mother, a California native, and fell in love with California living. Following her studies at the University of Southern California and Columbia University, she worked for architectural firms in Switzerland and in the US. In 2000, XTEN Architecture was born in partnership with her partner and late husband Austin Kelly.
Scott Utterstrom was born and raised in Portland, Oregon, and graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo in 2003. During this time, he spent a year abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark, and traveled throughout Europe to visit prominent architectural works. After working for the Los Angeles office of AGPS Architecture, he continued his studies at UCLA, before joining XTEN Architecture in 2007. He was named Principal in 2015, and has played a key role in the firm’s many award-winning projects.
In this dynamic conversation, Monika and Scott discuss the architect’s role in articulating their client’s vision, even in smaller spaces in densely populated urban areas, the commonality between Californian, European and Middle Eastern clients in their wish to create a comfortable and welcoming home for their families, where they seek inspiration, and how they bring the progressive and experimental spirit of Los Angeles into their projects.
This episode of The Fireside Chat™ podcast is hosted by Ryan Bloom, Co-Founder and President of Urban Bonfire. If you enjoyed it and love great design as much as we do, please subscribe. Follow us on Instagram @UrbanBonfire or join the conversation on Linked In. To find out more, please visit https://urbanbonfire.com.
XTEN Architecture – http://xtenarchitecture.com/
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