Place and Space: Montalba Architects

Founded in 2004 by David Montalba, Montalba Architects is an international architecture firm with offices in both Los Angeles and Lausanne. Raised between Switzerland and California, David has cultivated a design philosophy that balances precision and craft with humanistic architecture to form a cohesive presence of both the contextual and the conceptual. Place and Space encapsulates this insightful philosophy through the ideas and projects of the studio spanning more than a decade.

Montalba Architects produces impactful architecture and urban design-related projects in a broad range of locations, from the rural landscapes of Wyoming and Switzerland to dense urban sites in New York and Los Angeles. The work engages in a collective pursuit of uncovering ideas and processes to create new forms of expression through space and scale. Projects featured in the book emphasise the importance of experience in architecture, and environments that are both socially responsive and aesthetically progressive, which build on the firm’s trademark craft of volumetric landscapes, material integrity, natural light and pure spatial volumes.

Place and Space explores the duality of Switzerland and California, and how these locations have inherently influenced the overall ideas and work of Montalba Architects. Woven throughout the text are conversations between David Montalba and other creatives and thinkers, including landscape designer Andrea Cochran, artist Andy Denzler, entrepreneurs David Alleman and Rich Pierson, and film director Zack Snyder, that cross-examine and explore different approaches to space and place. With a foreword by the acclaimed LA-based architect Lawrence Scarpa, alongside extensive photographs and reproductions of drawings, this book further shapes the philosophies that craft a cohesive connection between all Montalba Architects work and is a testament toward its continued influence within the industry.