KieranTimberlake is an American architecture firm founded by Stephen Kieran and James Timberlake in Philadelphia. They have also shown an interest in prefabrication, new technologies and integrating architecture with the actual activities to take place in the buildings they design, especially using "teaching" design elements in schools. Their interest in productions and craft led them to team up with DuPont to develop Smartwrap, a laminated polymer film that can support thin interstitial films, including photovoltaics, OLEDs, polarizing or UV screens, etc.

History[edit]

Stephen Kieran and James Timberlake met while they were architecture students at the University of Pennsylvania in the mid-1970s.^[1] Their architecture professor Steven Izenour introduced them to architects Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, and the pair went to work at Venturi, Scott Brown & Associates, the firm where Izenour was also employed.^[1]

In 1980, Kieran won the Rome Prize, which included a year-long fellowship at the American Academy in Rome.^[1] In 1982, Timberlake also won the Rome Prize and was awarded a year-long fellowship.^[2]

In 1984, Kieran, Timberlake, and structural engineer Sam Harris, established KieranTimberlake. The firm was initially headquartered in Kieran's Powelton Village house.^[3][2] Their first projects included a new building for Kieran's father's car dealership and a jewelry store.^[2] The firm's first big project came in 1986 when they were commissioned to design a campus community center at Chestnut Hill College.^[2] KieranTimberlake was then commissioned for a project at Bryn Mawr College's Shipley School complex.^[2] Harris later left KieranTimberlake in the 1990s to run his own practice.^[2][4]

In 2001, James Timberlake and Stephen Kieran won the Benjamin Henry Latrobe award from the Fellow of the American Institute of Architects which came with $50,000.^[2][5] Timberlake and Kieran used the earnings to write a book titled Refabricating Architecture.^[2] The book was published in 2003, and as of 2011, had sold 13,000 copies.^[2] In 2002, Princeton Architectural Press published Manual: The Architecture­ of KieranTimberlake, which presents a technical look at the firm's architectural practices.^[2] By 2002, the firm had 50 employees.^[2]

In 2003, the firm installed the first actively ventilated curtain wall in North America at the University of Pennsylvania's Levine Hall.^[6][1] Also in 2003, KieranTimberlake built a pavilion featuring the firm's Smartwrap technology at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.^[7] SmartWrap is a proprietary system consisting of layers of transparent PET plastic that incorporates ultrathin photovoltaic cells that gather solar energy, coupled with flat chemical batteries to store it.^[7][8]

In 2008, KieranTimberlake's Cellophane House was selected to appear at the Museum of Modern Art's Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling exhibition.^[9] The building was selected for the MoMA's exhibit due to its modular design, use of sustainable building practices, and SmartWrap.^[9][10]

In February 2010, KieranTimberlake won the commission for the new Embassy of the United States, London.^[11] In January 2018, the new embassy building in London opened. ^[12]

In 2015, Kieran and Timberlake authored Alluvium: Dhaka, Bangladesh, in the Crossroads of Water, a book investigating housing and climate change in Bangladesh.^[13] The book was inspired by the graduate architecture research studio the pair taught at the University of Pennsylvania, which included a trip to Bangladesh.^[13]

By January 2016, KieranTimberlake had moved its headquarters to a 63,000-square-foot former bottling plant for Henry F. Ortlieb’s Brewing Co., now Christian Schmidt Brewing Company, in the Northern Liberties neighborhood of Philadelphia and has 100 employees.^[14]

Selected projects[edit]

• Art and Ideals: President John F. Kennedy, Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.^[15]
• Berkeley College, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
• Brockman Hall for Physics, Rice University, Houston
• Cellophane House, for MoMA's Exhibit Home Delivery, Fabricating the Modern Dwelling New York City
• Center City Building, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, North Carolina
• Engineering Research Center, Brown University, 2017^[16][17]
• Embassy of the United States, London^[18]
• Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.^[19]
• LivingHomes, Single and Multi-Family Off-site Fabricated Housing (LEED Platinum Certified)
• Loblolly House, Taylors Island, Maryland^[20]
• Stewart Middle School, Sidwell Friends, Washington, D.C. (LEED Platinum Certified)
• Melvin J. and Claire Levine Hall, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
• Noyes Community Center, Cornell University, 2006^[21]

Selected Awards[edit]

• 2008 AIA Architecture Firm Award^[3]
• 2010 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for Architecture^[22]

Publications[edit]

• Kieran, Stephen; Timberlake, James (2002). Manual: The Architecture of KierenTimberlake. Princeton Architectural Press. p. 216. ISBN 978-1568983509.
• Kieran, Stephen; Timberlake, James (2003). Refabricating Architecture. New York: McGraw Hill. p. 175. ISBN 978-0071709088.
• Kieran, Stephen; Timberlake, James (2008). Loblolly House: Elements of a New Architecture. Princeton Architectural Press. p. 176. ISBN 978-1568987477.
• Kieran, Stephen; Timberlake, James (2011). Cellophane House. KieranTimberlake. p. 145. ISBN 978-0983130130.
• Kieran, Stephen; Timberlake, James; Wallick, Karl (2011). KieranTimberlake: Inquiry. Rizzoli International Publications. p. 256. ISBN 978-0847836789.
• Kieran, Stephen; Timberlake, James (2015). Alluvium: Dhaka, Bangladesh, in the Crossroads of Water. ORO Editions. p. 351. ISBN 978-1941806869.
• Kieran, Stephen; Timberlake, James (2019). Fullness. Phaidon Press. p. 608. ISBN 978-1580935548.

References[edit]

Notes[edit]

External links[edit]

• Official website