Adam Dayem

Adam Dayem

Adam Dayem is an assistant professor of architectural design studios and visual studies classes at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Additionally, he serves as principal of actual/office, an architecture and design studio.

Modern house architect actual/office has designed the 2,500-square-foot Sleeve House in Taghkanic, New York–two hours away from Manhattan–to blend in seamlessly with its pastoral Hudson Valley environment. Comprised of two long volumes–one smaller than the other–sleeved around each other on top of a cast-in-place concrete base.

Early Life and Education

Adam Dayem hails from New York City. After attending Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for his architectural studies, he joined Bernard Tschumi Architects where he participated in numerous competitions and projects around the globe.

He currently teaches architectural design studios at both RPI and Pratt University, while his current research explores the nature of representation within contemporary architectural design, its evolving capacities to generate conceptual and formal novelty and how this influences conceptual and formal novelty production.

actual/office is an architecture and design studio based out of Brooklyn led by Dayem, known for their open-minded philosophy reflected in projects like The Sleeve House; an extraordinary 2,500-square-foot home composed of two long volumes stacked one upon another on top of a cast-in-place concrete base and wrapped with weather-resistant wood made with the ancient Japanese technique known as shou sugi ban to create weather resistance.

Professional Career

Dayem, principal of Brooklyn-based architecture and design studio actual / office, has earned multiple awards for both theoretical research and architectural projects. His firm positions itself between speculation and reality with the intention to help people uncover hidden potentials bringing the previously unimagined into focus.

His open-minded approach to architecture was demonstrated in his Sleeve House, a Hudson Valley home composed of two elongated volumes joined together at an angle and resting on a cast-in-place concrete base. It reflects its surroundings while offering fully and partially enclosed indoor spaces for living and relaxing purposes.

Dayem serves as an Assistant Professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where he teaches architectural design studios and visual studies courses. His research explores how representation has developed over time within modern architectural design practices.

Achievement and Honors

Adam Dayem holds both a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from UC Berkeley and Master of Architecture degrees from Columbia University and has become an award-winning designer and educator since. He is the principal of actual/office, an architectural design and research practice established in Brooklyn in 2004. Since then, his studio has taken on various work related to architecture, furniture design, research and more; its projects have received multiple awards and been showcased internationally. Alongside operating his own design studio, he serves as an Assistant Professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where he teaches architectural design and visual studies classes. His research interests revolve around contemporary architectural design representation.

Personal Life

Dayem is the founder and principal of actual/office, an architectural and design studio located in Brooklyn, New York. His firm’s work shifts between speculation and reality to bring hidden potentialities into play. Dayem also teaches at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where he leads architectural design studios and drawing courses. His research explores representation within modern architectural design practices and its capacity for conceptual and formal innovation – something shown off through projects like Sleeve House that sits almost vulnerablely against Hudson Valley countryside landscape – two volumes wrap around its concrete base which sit close together on either end elongated structure that sits almost vulnerablely against pastoral Hudson Valley landscape – comprising two volumes that wrap around cast-in-place concrete base for support elongated structure spanning length of over 12 yards long elongated structure made from cast-in place concrete bases that connect two sleeves together, wrapping around base cast-in place concrete foundation.

Adam Dayem
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