SAWDUST & SOFTWARE

On paper, we are trained architectural and graphic designers, artists, digital fabrication specialists, and entrepreneurs. At heart, we just want to get our hands dirty.

We operate at many scales, from small objects to furniture and sculpture. Our exploration of these scales is grounded in the medium of solid wood.

We blur boundaries. We are both minimalists and maximalists. We obsess over methods of tradition and today. Our pieces sit quietly while commanding attention, equally timeless and of the present moment.

We design both process and form. There are many layers to our process, from materiality to computational algorithms, and at each threshold between layers there lies a certain sense of juxtaposition. We build parametric tools to generate organic outputs. We leverage computerized machines to shape and sculpt natural material. We see these thresholds as opportunities for intervention, manipulating both software and raw material in unconventional ways.

We live at the intersection of craft and technology, designing to align the potential of the digital with the skills and the intuition of the hand.

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Origins is co-founded by Deagan McDonald and Kelsey Nilsen, partners in business and in life. We met while completing our Masters of Architecture at the University of Toronto, and Origins was formed shortly following graduation.