Architecture Competition Monte D'Oiro Wine Hotel Honorable mention – Matthew Baird, Ines Gulbenkian, Will James and Robert Estrin

We’d like to take the opportunity to introduce you to one of our Honorable mention winner for our "Monte D'Oiro Wine Hotel" competition – Matthew Baird, Ines Gulbenkian, Will James and Robert Estrin from United States!

Honorable mention from United States

Baird Architects is an architecture, planning, and design firm based in New York City and Mount Desert Island, Maine. Founded in 2002 by Matthew Baird, the firm has grown to 18 architects and planners and has built both public and private works in the US, Europe, and Asia. Our work ranges in scale from large campus programming and planning to compelling architectural detailing, all united by our commitment to exceptional design. Our investigations into the unique cultural and material language of each project are tempered by a sensitivity to economic and environmental concerns, and we exploit these constraints to generate novel building forms and planning concepts.

Brief information about the projects that you/your company have been involved with. For instance, what scale have you focused on/preferred, any significant projects where the company/ individuals have been involved?

We are currently working on a range of projects: a master plan for an art museum in Philadelphia; an artist-in-residence complex in Rockland, Maine; a boutique hotel in Bozeman, Montana; and a number of ground-up residences on various sites in the USA. We are driven to research and to make compelling contemporary architecture that reflects a set of values particular to a people and place. We aspire to build in a way that does not exacerbate, but rather seeks to mend climate change.

What does architecture mean to you and what is the role of an architect in your society?

Architecture, to us, is ultimately an act of optimism, whereby a culture can express its best intentions through engaging structures and spaces that push the art of habitation to compelling new levels.

Why do you participate in architecture competitions?

Competitions offer us a chance to think about new design challenges, like Monte D’Oiro's winery, to express new ideas and to share that thinking with a larger group that might not be in our daily architectural milieu.

What advice would you give to individuals who struggle to decide whether it would be beneficial for them to participate in architecture competitions?

Our advice to those who are struggling to decide whether to do more competitions? Have fun, dream big, and just do it!