#436 - WALTER HOOD, Creative Director & Founder of HOOD Design Studio
SUMMARY
This week David and Marina of FAME Architecture & Design are joined by Walter Hood, Creative Director & Founder of HOOD Design Studio. The three discussed Walter’s childhood and education; architecture and landscape architecture differences; experimenting with different career paths & evolution; Hood Design Studio practice; the influence of art education on landscape design career; embracing change and imperfection; architecture service in landscape firm; establishing culture and project consistency in a firm; artist vs architect; and more. Enjoy!
ABOUT WALTER
Walter Hood, a multidisciplinary designer from Charlotte, NC, is globally recognized for his contributions in art, landscape architecture, urbanism, and research. Founding Hood Design Studio in Oakland, CA in 1992, he now leads as its creative director. His passion for landscape and urbanism emerges from its broad, democratic scope, allowing experiences beyond architectural constraints. Infusing African American cultural arts into his philosophy, he established a unique voice, reshaping spaces to reflect contemporary needs without erasing their history. A professor at UC Berkeley and former Harvard educator, Walter penned “Black Landscapes Matter” and has received accolades like the 2019 MacArthur Fellowship, the 2021 Architectural League’s President’s Medal award, 2023 WSJ Magazine Innovator in Design award, and the Vincent Scully Prize in 2024.
TIMESTAMPS
(00:00) Walter's Studio.
(03:03) Walter's childhood & education.
(13:13) Difference in studying architecture and landscape architecture.
“Architecture was more rigorous in the precision of the making and more interested in the speculative ideas in design. Whereas landscape, particularly in Berkeley, was highly steeped in the sciences. Whether it's social sciences or natural sciences. This subjectivity didn't exist in the realm of landscape architecture as it did in architecture.” (16:27)
(19:00) Experimenting with different paths in early career.
“In the early part of my career, I tried everything. I didn't say, “This is what I want to do.” My students are very much, “I want to do this.” But I question them, “How do you know you want to do that?” I remember in Philadelphia, I left this landscape firm that I had been with for three and a half years, and then I immediately started working in an architecture firm. [My friends were perplexed as to why I would leave the landscape firm. It’s because I got bored.] Because of all these varied experiences, by the time I got into school, [I thought the career exploration] could wait. I knew that the diversity in the profession will always be there.” (19:19)
(20:52) Career as an evolving project.
“Starting in the 90s, it was on the back of the post-modern movement. All those [architects and designers who are really successful now, such as Zaha Hadid,] were making paper architecture then. They didn't have projects, so they used design research as a way to figure out what their practice would be. Then, when that first commission happened, they already knew what to make and how to make it and just furthered those things. I think that's what many young designers don't see today. It took years to build the foundation for the firm. You had this culture, which I think has been abandoned to a certain degree. People think they just need to win [a prestigious design competition and then they will blow up versus thinking about how they want to practice.] There should be a period of cultivation in some way so that when you do get the project, there's a clarity to the work.” (27:19)
(28:48) Ease of access to information.
(31:46) When Walter started his practice.
(36:22) Influence of art education on landscape design career.
“Make a decision, then see what you get. We're constantly fiddling to the last minute in architecture and landscape architecture. Compared to when making a piece of art, you make a decision, and you just do it. It's revelatory. I worked on ten paintings for a show last year and it was the first time I've ever done paintings. A guy was coming to pick the paintings up on Monday. It was the Friday before and my paint needed to dry so I had to stop. In architecture, after the building is completed, you go there with a checklist of things to fix. Five years later, you’re still going back and trying to fix things. In art, once the work goes, it's gone. It's done. There's a beauty to that and it's really hard to get that to happen in the studio because everybody's constantly trying to get it right. That idea of getting it right is a little bit too much.” (36:55)
(38:39) Embracing change and imperfection.
“We should be thinking about how people should be living today. It is not, “We need more social housing. We need more of this...” But we should be thinking about [how we should live in a constantly evolving world]. You don't see people discussing, “Maybe we should be living more collectively. Maybe we should live on smaller footprints, more individually, etc.” Even in landscape design, I'm less interested in form now. I'm more interested in the question, “How can I create this thing that people can go into versus something people look at?” It's almost like we're not teaching that anymore as ways to begin a design. Just these very simple logics of how we exist in space. Instead, we are defaulting that we have to live in this Cartesian world.” (44:03)
(50:02) Adding architecture service to landscape firm.
(53:29) Walter's firm.
(01:01:53) Artist vs Architect.
