Build Lightly Studio Information

Build Lightly Studio is a design/build collaborative pairing architecture professionals with university students to design, construct, and deliver projects to community clients in various locations around the world. Co-founded in 2010 by Miriam Gee and Jason Selley, Build Lightly is centered around projects that present a local design challenge that is both meaningful to the community and engaging to the design/build team involved. Build Lightly Studio participants wield pencils and hammers in the same day, and learn the effectiveness of working in a team, while using a consensus-based design approach. Participants not only gain knowledge and skills in design and construction, but they walk away with a sense of client responsibility and community stewardship — all while delivering beautiful, affordable, and useful structures that tread lightly on the land, to end-users who would not otherwise be able afford professional services. Since the launch of its inaugural project through the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, archawai’i program in Spring 2011, Build Lightly Studio has collaborated on projects in Kalihi Valley, Kaka’ako, Mexico, Costa Rica, Asheville, NC and Seattle, WA. Stay tuned for our next workshop in Guatemala - January 2017!