Hank Koning FAIA and Julie Eizenberg FAIA (Koning Eizenberg Architecture) join host Adam Wagoner live from the 2025 AIA Conference in Keystone for a wide-ranging conversation on the “superpowers” architects can use to shape everyday life with more dignity, inclusivity, and joy.

Starting with their shared origins in Melbourne, where they met on the first day of architecture school, Hank and Julie trace the winding path that brought them to Los Angeles, from early construction-site education and “half-time” pub conversations that filled gaps in design culture, to UCLA’s experimental energy and the early days of design algorithms (yes, shape grammars and punch cards).

They preview their AIA talk, Superpowers, unpacking how their work moves from education to housing, using density and typology as a lens, while staying grounded in humanism. That includes making spaces feel welcoming through transparency, informality, and thoughtful user experience. They also get candid about the realities of practice, including immigration constraints that pushed them to start a firm, the pressure of licensing, the value of collaboration over auteur culture, and why they’re still most inspired by the buildings of everyday communities.

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This episode is sponsored by:

AIA Colorado, the Colorado Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, the voice of the architecture profession in Colorado.

Pendula is an inspiring co-working studio to connect and enable architects and practitioners in related fields (engineering, planning, development, interiors, landscape, production, and design).

Check out Adam’s architecture firm, High Low Buffalo!

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