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Defining Place - Celebrating Context and Community | Will Bruder | TEDxBillings

1,108 views · Published 9 February 2015 · 18:09 · Indexed 4 October 2026

Channel: TEDx Talks · 2015 · Nonprofits & Activism

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The responsibility of the architect is to define and celebrate the pragmatic and poetic needs of the client. A most important component of that charge, which is too often overlooked, is the search for the defining markers of context and community from which a project’s aesthetic presence grows. The elements of ‘place’ to which I refer are natural, historic and mythical. The power of these elements informs our efforts to create the shelters, pavilions and civic icons that shape a community’s architecture. We look for the extraordinary in the ordinary and the sensuous in the simple. In the end, we seek to create an architecture of our time and place and for all ages.

Will Bruder explores inventive and contextually exciting architectural solutions in response to site opportunities and the user needs. His work celebrates the craft of building in a manner not typical of contemporary architecture. Through his creative use of materials and light, Will is renowned for his ability to raise the ordinary to the extraordinary. Self-trained as an architect, Will has a BFA in sculpture from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with supplemental courses in structural engineering, philosophy, art history and urban planning. Architectural apprenticeships under Paolo Soleri and Gunnar Birkerts followed. 
Opening his first Arizona studio in 1974, Will continues to lead and mentor students of design from his firm in downtown Phoenix. He has led work for over 500 commissions and actively engages in his community in civic conversations regarding downtown Phoenix and the role of design in place-making within its fragile, young and optimistic urban desert environment.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

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