ABOUT

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Left to Right: Ben Klumper, Dustin Couzens, David Vera, Jason Glasser, Gary Couzens, Madisen Killingsworth, Brogan Gordon-Cooper, Michael Gross, Gary Couzens, Dung Song Kim, Anika Thorsten

Founded in 2013 by architects Ben Klumper and Dustin Couzens, Modern Office of Design + Architecture is a Calgary-based practice working across the fields of architecture, urbanism, landscape and design. We are committed to advancing an architectural agenda through our built and conceptual work, dedicated research and sessional appointments at Calgary’s SAPL.

As generalists, we practice along a diverse spectrum of project types and scales, approaching every project without any preconceived agenda or style, but rather an attitude of calculated naiveté towards the status quo. We seek the untapped potentials in limitation and constraint, exploiting them as opportunities for spectacle to emerge within the everyday. We seek to learn, to understand, to educate and pass along our knowledge through our actions and our collective voice. We relish conversations with like-minded thinkers, dreamers and makers that yearn to produce something bigger than any one individual could accomplish on their own.

Dustin Couzens

Dustin Couzens is an architect, designer and adjunct professor at University of Calgary’s SAPL. Along with Ben Klumper, he co-founded MoDA in 2013. Dustin has previously worked with Coop Himmelblau in Vienna, Hancock Bruckner in Vancouver and Mckinley Burkart in Calgary. Dustin brings design talent and an editorial eye to all of the firm’s work, having been Principal-in-Charge for a range of award-winning projects. MoDA was recently awarded the Prix de Rome in Architecture Prize, the RAIC Award for Emerging Practice and a Governor General Medal in Architecture. In addition, MoDA has been awarded with various Canadian Architect Awards of Excellence, a P/A Award, the Western Living Arthur Erickson Award and a World Architecture Festival Award. He has contributed to work published in Canadian Architect, Wallpaper, Mark, the PLAN, and is currently working on a publication, entitled PAST/forward, focusing on innovative approaches to affordable housing.

E: dustin@moda.ca
P: 403.870.1054

Ben Klumper

Ben Klumper is a principal and co-founder of MoDA and brings nearly 30 years of expertise as Design Architect to all of the firm’s work. Ben has previously worked at Cibinel Architects in Winnipeg and Mckinley Burkart in Calgary. Ben was awarded the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Student Gold Medal upon graduating from SAPL in 2001 and has continued this pursuit towards design excellence as evidenced by MoDA’s two recent competition wins. Ben brings a unique mix of creativity tempered against strong technical competencies, which has proved invaluable to the work undertaken at MoDA.  Ben has been a sessional instructor at the University of Calgary’s SAPL, where he ran the architecture program’s Comprehensive Studio IV for two years and is a sought after guest critic and mentor for intern architects.

E: ben@moda.ca
P: 403.874.8280