Who Are We?
Atelier Mey is a collective of architects who enjoy confronting the circumstance of architecture. The architecture is conscious and generative–it is actively engaged in setting and curious of the novel. The work of Atelier Mey is committed to design excellence.
Projects are realized at varying scales and range from the intimacy of the human body to the assemblage of architecture into urbanism. In relation to specific project inquiries, collaborative transdisciplinary teams contribute to an open dialogue inclusive of geography, material science, energy, and biology.
Rooted in pedagogical frameworks, academic inquiries act as provocations for the practice of Atelier Mey, while the firm engages in partnerships with industry leaders and manufacturers for both speculative and built work. The work is inherently sustainable and dedicated to craft.
Christopher Meyer, AIA and Shawna Meyer, AIA are the firm’s founding principals, first collaborating on material explorations and the design and making of a series of small scaled built artifacts and furniture pieces in 2010. Atelier Mey was later established in Miami as an interdisciplinary full-service design firm building on two decades of professional design experience.
Born: Cherry Point, North Carolina
Raised: Military Bases Across the United States
Shawna earned her Master of Architecture from the University of Minnesota College of Design in Minneapolis, Minnesota and a Bachelor of Science in Architectural Studies at the Fay Jones School of Architecture + Design at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Professionally licensed in the states of Minnesota and Florida, Shawna has worked at international award winning architectural practices in Minneapolis and Boston. In 2018, Shawna was named a Grist 50 Fixer for her sustainably focused work as a Senior Associate at Kennedy & Violich Architects and her authorship on the climate focused Pamphlet Architecture.
Shawna has co-authored essays exploring the relationship between infrastructure and architecture and was co-author with partner Christopher Meyer and Daniel Hemmendinger of Buoyant Clarity, Pamphlet Architecture 36, published in 2018 by Princeton Architectural Press. She has been a guest critic at the College of Design in Minneapolis, Fay Jones School of Architecture in Fayetteville, Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston and currently is a design studio lecturer at the University of Miami School of Architecture.
Born: Wiesbaden, Germany
Raised: The Ozarks of Southern Missouri
Christopher earned his Master of Architecture from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University in Cambridge Massachusetts and his professional degree from the Fay Jones School of Architecture + Design at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Professionally licensed in the states of Minnesota and Wisconsin, he has practiced in Minneapolis and Boston on award winning projects. In parallel to professional practice Christopher and his partner Shawna established a building studio questioning processes of making and material explorations.
Teaching experiences include the University of Minnesota College of Design in Minneapolis, MN, a visiting professorship at the Fay Jones School of Architecture + Design in Fayetteville, Arkansas and College of Architecture at the Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston, MA.
Christopher has authored essays on design and architecture’s relationship with dynamic and evolving environmental systems and was co-author with partner Shawna Meyer and Daniel Hemmendinger of Buoyant Clarity, Pamphlet Architecture 36, published in 2018 by Princeton Architectural Press. Christopher is presently an Assistant Professor at the University of Miami School of Architecture and the Director of LU_lab, a research center focusing on the evolving dialogue of urbanism and environment.