ABOUT COLTAN

I pursued a career in architecture because of the simple experience depicted in the photo above: drawing. I spent a summer in Italy as a teenager, long before the thought of a career in architecture ever came to mind. As I was exploring different towns and cities in Italy, I felt that these places demanded to be drawn. Drawing was the best way I could absorb and participate in the deep beauty I was experiencing. As I filled my sketchbook, I realized it was not just the history and age of these places that captivated me. The buildings weren’t just beautiful because they were old – they just happened to be old. I was drawn to the proportions and order I was seeing: the hand-carved mouldings and coursing of stone, the textures of the materials, and the play of light and shadow created by these elements. I was moved by how relatable the buildings were in scale and material. These are building characteristics that do not have to be frozen in a past century, but are timeless, alive, and able to be learned.

I believe that truly encountering beauty changes you and can even demand something of you. “The beautiful claims the viewer, changes him, and then sends him on mission,” said the Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar. For me, this experience sent me in pursuit of traditional architecture. Now my drawings are not just memories in a sketchbook but have the possibility of creating places that enrich our lives.

“Let the beauty we love be what we do.”