Bo Sundius of Bunch Design | Stop Making Sense ADU in Los Angeles | Designing Small Spaces
Courtesy of Bunch Design
Designing Small Spaces
I’m joined by Bo Sundius, the owner of Bunch Design. His latest project, the Stop Making Sense Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU), explores how you can make a small space feel big. ADUs are 1,200 square foot houses built on an existing single family home property. The space must include a kitchen, bathroom, and a bedroom. Bo highlights that this format allows for some income flexibility that can really help middle class dreams come true, provide a space to help care for aging parents, and respond to the housing crisis in California.
Bo walks us through his firm’s typical design process and how they went about designing this specific project. His approach is to think outside of the box, literally and figuratively, and imagine the space from the inside out. Making an 800-to-1,200 square foot home feel expansive and airy isn’t necessarily about the construction, but rather cognition. His design includes vaulted ceilings, skylights, and minimal corners.
Growing up in a home that was built on land and water, it’s no surprise that Bo rejects the idea of cookie-cutter houses. We talk about trends of pre-design without prefabrication, his thoughts about the sustainability of venture capital-driven innovation in design and construction, and the reality of 3D printed homes. We also touch on the future of property development in light of historical and recent economic booms and busts.
“Well, the ADU, it’s a small house. It needs all of these things. Kitchen, bathroom, bedroom storage. It’s only 1200 square feet. In the case of SMS, it’s even less. The question for us when we’re designing these ADU’s is always, well, how do you make a small space feel large, which is a question of, of cognition, right? Of awareness, of how you see things and how you perceive things. ”
Courtesy of Bunch Design
About Bo Sundius
Bo Sundius is the owner of Bunch Design, the Los Angeles-based design firm he founded with his wife Hisako Ichiki. Bunch Design’s work crosses product, building and urban scales and has appeared in a wide range of publications, including the Los Angeles Times and Dwell Magazine. Previously, he worked at Jerde and at Roto Architects, both in Los Angeles. He is a graduate of Brown University and Sci-Arc.
Episode Timestamps
2:10 – Your path to being an architect started with, of all things, fishing. Tell us about that.
5:57 – What was college like for you? And how did that set the stage for your career going forward from there as an architect?
14:19 – Tell us about the first project that you started with and how it came about.
21:39 – Let's talk about the area, the neighborhood and the site for the Stop Making Sense Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU).
31:52 – So in this process for this particular ADU, what would you say were the design influences that you took on as part of your design process?
37:58 – Tell us about the typical design process that you have as a firm and how you went about designing this specific project.
43:15 – The building industry, unlike say automobiles and aviation, has long focused on and celebrated individualization, not standardization. I know you have hot takes on this, so what are your thoughts?
49:34 – What are your thoughts about the sustainability of venture capital driven innovation?
1:04:50 – What do you think a way forward is for our industry through these economic collapses and the next ones to come?
Connect with Bo Sundius:
Courtesy of Bunch Design
About your host:
Atif Qadir is the Founder & CEO of Commonplace, a technology company making it easy for commercial real estate professionals to find and use the $100B of real estate incentives given out every year in the US.
His work has been covered by Technology Review, The Real Deal, Commercial Observer, and Propmodo. He’s also a frequent speaker on the future of buildings and cities on popular industry podcasts and at conferences, including this past year at the Commercial Observer National DEI Conference, Yale AREA Conference, Columbia Real Estate Symposium, Open Data Week NYC and Austin Design Week.
About Commonplace
Commonplace is a founding sponsor of American Building. It is a 100% minority-owned, real estate technology company founded in 2020 to make financing social impact development projects across the US easier. It is funded by venture capital investors Hometeam Ventures, Park West Asset Management, New York Ventures and Shadow Ventures.
About Michael Graves
The world-famous design firm Michael Graves is also a founding sponsor of American Building. Its namesake, the iconoclastic designer Michael Graves, FAIA was a fierce advocate for people-centric design. His work defines a generation of American architecture and includes the Portland Building, the Humana Building and the Denver Public Library. The 1st season of American Building was filmed live at The Warehouse, his historic home in Princeton, New Jersey:
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