Vram Malek, Principal at SOM, argues that architecture is extreme collaboration and that sustainability only works when every discipline asks the carbon question about its own piece. He makes the case for a reductive approach: use less material unless it is truly needed.

Vram Malek, Principal, Skidmore, SOM

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In this conversation

How a childhood spent in Rome, Algeria and Canada, and a grandfather's architecture studio in Lebanon, shaped Vram's respect for how other cultures build.

Why sustainability works only when every discipline, from the structural engineer to the landscape architect, asks what the lowest carbon way to do its own part is.

His explanation of why sustainability is uneven around the world, from Singapore's high baseline to New York's Local Law 97 and places with neither rules nor materials.

The reductive approach SOM used at its own offices: question every floor finish, ceiling, wall panel and pane of glass before it goes in.

Why buildings designed today open in five or six years, and how taller ceilings and daylight options keep them useful for tenants no one has met yet.

His view that the one thing that will not change is people: buildings are still designed for human beings.

Fundamentally, architecture for me is a form of extreme collaboration. No single person can put together a building.

Vram Malek

Chapters

A childhood across cultures

Growing up with a father at the UN, and sneaking into his grandfather's architecture studio.

Sustainability as the common denominator

Why doing the right thing now shows up on every project, and how SOM committed to net zero carbon buildings.

Every expert asks the carbon question

How an interdisciplinary team turns a broad goal into specific decisions, one discipline at a time.

Why it is not the same everywhere

Regulation, culture, budgets, materials and trades, and SOM's whole life carbon accounting service.

Use less unless you need it

Beauty as how a space feels, and the reductive approach to cutting embodied carbon.

Designing for the next tenant

Flexibility, global collaboration tools, and what will stay the same in fifty years.

Architecture is a bit too important to create a false choice between what should be and what shouldn't be, in aesthetics and function.

Vram Malek

Takeaways

No single person can put together a building, and as buildings get more complex the circle of collaborators keeps growing beyond architect and client.

Sustainable design works when each expert, from structural to landscape, asks what the lowest carbon way to do their part is.

Sustainability is uneven because it depends on regulation, culture, budgets, material supply and trades; Singapore and NYC's Local Law 97 set higher baselines.

SOM strips out flooring, ceilings, panels and glass it does not need, since reducing material is what cuts embodied carbon.

Because a building designed today opens in five or six years, he designs for flexibility, such as taller ceilings and daylight options, so future tenants can adapt.

Fundamentally, what's not going to change is people. We're still designing for human beings.

Vram Malek