Knowles Architect, Inc.

09/03/2026

The first of two Loewen Windows and Doors multi-slide pocket doors got installed at our Monroe Dr Remodel project in Mountain View this week. Swipe to see how these disappear into the thickened wall to connect the new kitchen to the new deck. Looking forward to the kitchen in that rendering becoming a reality over the next couple of months!

06/30/2026

We recently had the opportunity to host a photoshoot with ERIN SCOTT for Copper Home in our kitchen. As we transition toward a fully electrified home, office, and practice we decided to switch to an induction range so we could honestly recommend them to our clients. In our case we only had 120v available at our existing 30” range, so the incredibly innovative Charlie from Copper Industries was a perfect fit. As people who love architecture almost as much as we love cooking, we could not be happier with it, and with the opportunity to share it with our friends and clients.

04/17/2026

It was an honor and an absolute joy to present at the West Coast Natural Building Conference this past weekend hosted by and ! I presented a case study on our nearly complete Strawbale ADU #1 and the potential for further scaling and efficiency to be found with natural building technologies which could lead to an incredible synergy between bioregional regenerative agriculture, natural building technologies, and the opportunities created by the rise in missing-middle infill housing development.

It was a truly inspiring conference which left me deeply hopeful about a regenerative future. Extremely grateful to everyone who connected with me after my talk and excited for future collaborations!

03/28/2026

We had a great initial design meeting yesterday on a new residential project on the Sonoma Coast. Using three intentionally different initial options generates such a productive conversation with clients, but it’s also a lot of fun to create three designs!

Which one would you choose?

03/20/2026

One of the ways good design creates joy is when it gets us to stop and notice the beauty of the world around us. Or in this case the incredible beauty of the work of .dickenson as the light of sunrise grazes her site-sourced and handmade pigments. We will always be thankful for the joy that her craft brings us in the heart of our home.

Happy Spring Equinox.

01/30/2026

12/31/2025

2025 seems to have flown by in a flash, but it’s also been a long year of incredibly rewarding work. This year was dominated by multiple projects simultaneously moving through permitting and construction, with several of them coming close to the finish line as the New Year begins. I am incredibly thankful to all our clients and collaborators for making their places in the world better with their contributions to our hard work. Here’s to more of the same (and some very exciting new projects) in 2026!

11/24/2025

How do we take as much carbon as we can out of the atmosphere and sequester it in our buildings? One of the best ways (at about 128-165 kgC02/m3) is to stuff our buildings with locally produced rice straw!

We are working together with our colleagues at and to advance the methods for streamlining straw bale construction in concert with more conventional building methods. .architect we want to bring strawbale into a modern, place-based design aesthetic that takes advantage of its unitary/modular nature to make beautiful, simple forms. Our Strawbale ADU #1 project is currently under construction in Walnut Creek where we are using a technique called Bale-on-End-Between-Studs (BOEBS) originally developed by fellow CASBA members .dasarchitects and .

BOEBS takes advantage of many of the properties of straw bales and marries them with conventional framing techniques familiar to residential builders. Typical 2x6 studs walls are built at 24” OC with plywood sheathing and waterproofing on the exterior. From the plywood to the exterior this is a normal vapor-open construction method. On the inside, straw bales are stacked vertically and rammed between the studs. Lime or clay plaster is applied to the inside of the straw bales, creating an 18” thick wall.

We are streamlining the construction further by designing the bale walls as long continuous mass forms on-module with the size of a typical bale, with windows, plumbing, and electrical placed in the conventionally framed walls wherever possible. We are also experimenting with a second layer of 2x4 studs on the interior to allow for easier plastering, and detailing the edges with wood casing to eliminate labor intensive rounded corners.

By making strawbale construction less labor intensive and more familiar to conventional builders we can broaden its appeal and therefore ability to sequester substantial amounts of carbon.

11/08/2025

Did you know that straw bale construction is one of the highest carbon-sequestering building techniques in the world, and that California grown rice just happens to make the best straw bales for building?

The straw widely available in California comes from the production of rice in the Sacramento Valley. California is the second largest rice producer in the United States and the main US producer of medium-grain rice including nearly all US produced sushi rice. The rice species in California have been developed for extremely high yields per acre with very large seed clusters on each stalk. To hold up those large seed heads the stalks are stronger and denser with a higher silica content than other rice, or other grains. This means they don’t biodegrade as well, often causing a problem for rice farmers who need to plant next year’s crop. But the extra strength makes it easier to pack the straw more densely into bales – making the perfect wall material.

On top of that, a report released in January of this year by UC Davis researchers outlines how flooded rice fields in the Sacramento River Valley also provide critical surrogate habitat for many species of birds, fish, and snakes. Even conventional large-scale rice production provides critical habitat, making it the only large-scale monoculture which has positive impacts for wildlife and ecosystem resilience.

Straw bale construction improves your immediate place, your neighboring ecosystem, and a local farming community, making it a perfect match for the work of Knowles Architect.

Image credits: (rice straw bales) photo by , (aerial) from “A Conservation Footprint for California Rice”, photo by Brian Baer; (egret) from “A Conservation Footprint for California Rice”; (black-necked stilts) courtesy of the California Rice Commission;

11/04/2025

Olle Lundberg was truly larger than life had more impact on me than any man outside of my own kin. He was a wise teacher, a thoughtful mentor, and a generous friend over the course of the decade that I worked for him and with him, essentially out of his home the entire time.

We shared a love of quiet early mornings, of the joy in a hard job done well, of always having a project to work on for the challenge of it, of great food made from things we grew with our own two hands, and of the friendship of a good dog. Olle had a way of understanding the people who worked with him and of finding the places where they each would thrive. He always gave me just as much responsibility as I could handle, and then a little more. He trusted me with the tough clients, the tight budgets, and the short timelines because he knew I could pull them off even when I did not. He knew I could be an opinionated and stubborn designer and he taught me that to be a leader was to be gracious and understanding.

My pre-order copy of his book arrived on my doorstep the day after he died. I was excited to have Olle sign my copy of An Architecture of Craft for me, but in a way, he already did. Just after the sudden passing of my father and the day before I told him I was resigning my role at Lundberg Design to start my own practice he gave me a copy of The Handcrafted Life of Dick Proenneke with this note written in it. Olle was an extremely observant and perceptive person (a prerequisite for being a good architect) and he had just finished writing the manuscript for his own book. I think his note was really talking about his own book and his own life.

Olle’s greatest skill was building a world around himself that was quintessentially Olle Lundberg. I am deeply saddened by this unexpected loss, but it feels very right to me that he passed through the veil up at his cabin, surrounded by his garden, his architecture, his redwoods, and the love of his dogs and Mary. Olle, may the spirit of those dogs who went before you guide you to where you are needed next. I’m sure they can smell Charles’ cooking, and he already has a barrel tasting lined up for you.