Hello, we are HouMinn

HouMinn is a material-based design practice exploring fabrication, ecology, and collective authorship. We make things, help others make things, and think critically about how things are made—through prototypes, installations, and full-scale assemblies that test ideas in direct engagement with tools, materials, and collaborators.

Our work blurs the line between high-tech and low-fi. From digital fabrication to hand-formed joinery, we use technology not as a focus, but as a platform for shared making and distributed authorship. We aim to lower the barriers between ideas and their material expression, challenging architectural norms: garments that become walls (Drape Wall), structures that move (Drift House), react (Aloha Evolution), or disappear (Cloak Wall).

Founded in 1998, HouMinn is a portmanteau of Houston and Minneapolis, the cities where we began, and a homophone for “human,” reflecting our hybrid identity, empathetic approach, and collaborative ethos. We pursue open exchange with designers, thinkers, and makers across disciplines and geographies.

Today, we are a growing network of professionals, academics, and students—an evolving constellation of human and non-human collaborators. HiLo Lab extends this network across institutions. We design with biological systems, material behaviors, and ecological forces as partners. Projects like VarVac Wall, Zippered Wood, Orbacles, and BLIP embody our ethos: loosen control, invite mischief, surrender to process, and rethink how buildings are authored.

At HouMinn, more hands mean more ideas. We believe architecture is not a product, but a byproduct—built through shared effort, open exchange, and sustained curiosity.