As part of AN’s media collaboration with The Architectural League of New York, the March/April 2026 problem of The Architect’s Paperfeatures profiles of the League’s eight Emerging Voices winners. The biennial award acknowledges the work of practices in the United States, Canada, and Mexico with unique style voices that concentrate on work beyond just architectural design. This month each of the companies will present their work in a lecture series. Ahead of the online talks AN will roll out the company profiles online. Next up is Hopson Rodstrom Design Company, a California-based practice that will provide its deal with March 12. The full list of winners can be found here and the calendar of lectures here.
If Nick Hopson and Klara Rodstrom, founders of Hopson Rodstrom Design Company (HRD) needed to describe their firm in one word it would be the Swedish term “Lagom, meaning ‘simply the right amount’– well balanced, restrained, very little however warm.” This word is an apt description of HRD’s style principles, as evidenced by the South Pasadena, California– based company’s minimalistic method throughout its portfolio of single-family and multi-family real estate.
Hopson and Rodstrom fulfilled on their very first day of college in an architecture studio. They ultimately started dating and went to graduate school together at Columbia University. In 2015, after weding, they chose to pursue their long time imagine beginning their own architecture firm while also broadening their household. Though two life-altering events at one time might sound stressful, looking back, they are happy they did it that way. Rodstrom mentioned, “We began counting on our own ability to design and browse the process of architecture, and it seemed like the right minute to step away from the high stress environment of architecture, working for other people, the late hours, and all of that.” She added, “It seemed like a good chance to grow our own thing, both our family and our service. And it enabled us a little sense of flexibility however likewise an area to create our own voice.”
Jagger is a 74-unit, mixed-use building in West Los Angeles. (Paul Vu, Here and Now Firm)
Over the last 11 years, HRD has changed in project and company size. Throughout that time, the firm dealt with Task Tradition, a collection of 1920s bungalows in Riverside, California, that it changed into transitional housing. This trajectory from multifamily to single-family homes provided the company with experience that can be found in handy when it started rebuilding homes for those affected by the wildfires in Los Angeles last year.
HRD added to the Case Study 2.0 program, where designers developed a predesigned brochure in response to the Altadena and Palisades fires. All styles can be purchased at a portion of the marketplace cost to assist those impacted by the fires. The couple has also designed other projects for victims of the fire. For these, prioritized showing the neighborhoods’ historic architecture in their own styles. “This is a community that is restoring due to the fact that they love their neighborhood … how can we make architecture respond to and support that?” said Rodstrom.
HRD’s work is considerate while likewise being joyful, bringing a lightness to its jobs. It approaches its designs by identifying what would finest suit the clients for the long run. As designers, they are peaceful spectators permitting their work to speak for itself.