Adam Kalkin

The work of artist and architect Adam Kalkin fuses design, building, performance, conceptual art, kinetic construction and play. The houses and buildings he creates by repurposing prefabricated metal Butler buildings, shipping containers, jetways and urban detritus have challenged conventional notions of architecture and gained considerable attention for their innovative practicality and environmental logic.

A Vassar graduate, Kalkin won the P/A Young Architects Award in 1990. Since then, he has continued his interdisciplinary work in art, architecture, music, technology, and commerce and has exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, and Zurich. Kalkin’s work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Boston Globe Magazine, Architectural Digest, Time Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, and G/A Houses among others.

Among his built projects are the Kalkin House (part of the Shelburne Museum in Vermont), Martha’s Vineyard House, House for Anne and Matt in Maine and Bunny Lane. His Push Button House for European coffee company illy created significant buzz at the 52nd Venice Biennale, and Kalkin & Co. have developed the Quik Build Disaster Relief Swat Team, a team of architects, energy and water experts, agronomists and builders who are available to provide fast, low cost, environmentally sound emergency housing around the world.