MAX VASHER ARCHITECT LLC
STUDIO: Jin Zhu
Max Vasher Architect LLC specializes in unique custom residential design; including vacation rental and custom commercial design. The studio's practice is one that caters exclusively to clients that seek distinctive architecture that celebrates both site and climate as well as the needs and enjoyment of those who dwell within this setting. Each composition is a synthesis of site, sustainability, and need of the occupants.
​
Max's team includes trusted associates and subcontractors in the fields of Engineering, Drafting and Construction. Max handles all consultations with these specialists himself allowing clients to deal exclusively with Max to achieve the desired design goals.
Located in the high desert northern foothills of the Sandia Mountains, Max's atelier is located in Placitas, New Mexico within the Studio/Home (named 'Jin Zhu') that he designed and built with his own bare hands.
MODERN ORGANIC ARCHITECTURE
Modernism Unbound
Max Vasher's design approach is most influenced by the ideas associated with Modern and Organic Architecture. Max finds the practicality of Modern Architecture and the creativity of Organic Architecture as the ideal starting place in which we can weave creative solutions and a contemporary knowledge of sustainability. For instance, he uses passive heating and cooling design as energy-wise solutions to living but he also uses passive design to create dramatic plays of structure, light and air throughout the seasons. In Max's design paradigm, sustainable design becomes an opportunity rather than a hidden goal.
Design wise, Organic Architecture and Modernism have mingling roots. While Organic Architecture embraces the sensibilities of modernism it further seeks an intimate marriage of structure and site unbound by the rigid geometries often associated with modernism. Rather, Organic Architecture weaves together a synthesis of site and structure. Every moment, every movement; the experience of the occupant is one where the interior space pays fealty to the exterior space that cradles it. Organic Architecture chooses from the pantheon of geometries seen in the natural world rather than being restricted by the shapes of material products. This extends from overall plan to small engineering detail. Like a fractal, the principle of each design is reflected throughout its multitude of parts both micro and macro. Max sums this practice up by defining it simply as "...creative problem solving with a mission."
​
The mission aspect to this design approach is simple. By creating an architectural experience that engages our senses, our surroundings, our very world, we elevate the contemporary human experience and an appreciation of the planet as a whole.
"Architecture that promotes awareness of its surroundings and pays respect to the piece of earth that lends itself to a building is a necessary and precious reminder to be stewards of this beautiful planet and to revel in that beauty with both purpose and abandon." -Max Vasher
REGISTERED ARCHITECT
MAX VASHER
Max was born in Chicago, IL and spent his childhood in St. Joseph, MI sailing and exploring the area's many Frank Lloyd Wright homes. His middle school, high school and early college years were spent in the Sarasota/Tampa, FL coast area. He then settled in his adopted state of New Mexico. He received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Anthropology and a Master of Architecture degree from the University of New Mexico including foreign exchange semesters at Xi'an University in China and Taliesin West (The Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture) in Phoenix, AZ. After graduate school, Max mentored with Architect Bart Prince. Max specialized in physical model making and model restoration under Bart's employ. Max states that "...working directly with Bart to bring those models to life in three dimensions was the greatest post-graduate architectural education I could have hoped to receive." Max's varied construction experience began in his adolescence and includes building large boat docks in Florida, manning a concrete construction crew at The Great Stupa of Dharmakaya in Colorado, roof repair at The Potala Palace in Lhasa Tibet, repair and restoration at Bart Prince Studio, and full construction of the home in which he and his wife now reside. Other fun facts about Max: he put himself through college and graduate school as an accomplished tattoo artist, and often quips that "...tattooing funded my early architecture habit." When he's not working in the studio, you'll find Max cooking, practicing yoga, mountain biking, and spending time with his family.