“I seek only the gift of creative opportunity and alignment with those who desire beauty, order and balance in their lives and environment.”
An organic architectural practice offering creative, sensitive and intensely personal design.
Dan Duckham has been creating his unique interpretation of Organic Architecture since 1959. He lived and worked in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for the first 42 years of his practice. In 1983 he and his wife Mary purchased 50 acres on Laurel Knob Road in Cashiers, North Carolina, three miles from the Crossroads, and began to clear land and build a house. For 18 years it was a summer home and a continual work in progress, but in 2001 they made Cashiers their home and converted the barn into an office/studio from which Dan conducts his architectural practice.
Two of his local community projects are The Village Green Commons and the new Cashiers-Glenville Recreation Center. During the 1970’s and 1980’s he enjoyed a fine reputation for successful hospitality design, and by 2000 had completed over 75 restaurant/bar projects. Houses, however, remain his first love. They are always the most difficult and personal, but extremely fulfilling.
He has completed over 500 projects and has always been reasonable and practical concerning budgets and methods of building to meet those budgets, and has refused jobs that threatened the risk of failure. Consequently seventy percent of those projects have been successfully built.
“Organic architecture is the natural result of the orderly growth of an idea from intuition to fulfillment. Ideally, there are no traditional images or preconceived ideas. One whole idea (concept) for any project, whether residential or commercial, evolves from the details of the intended use, the uniqueness of the clients and the opportunities or limitations of the site. I believe my function is to act as an interpreter. I translate from one language to another. . . . . . the language of organic architecture. If the relationship is successful the result is always refreshingly new and artistic. It is intensely personal with a sense of cohesiveness. . . . . . a unity of function and beauty”
“Intuition is like a seed that contains within it all the information necessary for the fulfillment of an idea, and when planted and nourished will see us through the growth process to the flowering of the idea.”
“Styles and preconceptions are enemies to architecture. . . . . . like starting at the end. Common sense would recommend starting at the beginning.”
“Order, clarity and harmony are the goals. . . . . . the look of the architecture is a product of the individual uniqueness of the client.”
“The sense for the perception of architecture is not the eyes,
but living. Life is its image”. . . . . . Rudolph Schindler