What if the constraints and limitations of architecture became the catalyst for design invention? The award-winning young architecture firm Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis calls their answers to this question "opportunistic architecture." It is a design philosophy that transforms the typically restrictive conditions of architectural practice small budgets, awkward spaces, strict zoning into generators of architectural innovation. Often building portions of projects themselves, these architects seek to maximize their project's impact through material fabrication and construction.Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewispresents a diverse selection of built and speculative projects ranging from small installations to larger institutional buildings. Their celebrated restaurant projects including a caf with a wall made by the architects from 479 cast-plaster coffee cup lids present innovative solutions to the challenges of working with existing space. Their large institutional buildings such as Bornhuetter Hall for Wooster College imaginatively engage the particulars of program, budget, client needs, and code. Their designs for a residence in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, morph from a standard suburban elevation on the street front to a modern pavilion at the back. Also included are a selection of the firm's speculative projects addressing issues of urbanism and suburbanism. Built projects are accompanied by thought-provoking texts, beautiful drawings, and photographs. An appendix distills their design philosophy into five tactics, a readymade code for students and practitioners looking for design ideas for the real world.Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewiswill enlighten and inspire architects to create more useful, attractive, and interesting forms.

Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis is an architecture partnership established in New York City in 1997 by Marc Tsurumaki, Paul Lewis, and David J. Lewis. Paul Lewis is an assistant professor at Princeton University.

Marc Tsurumaki is an adjunct professor at Columbia University.

David J. Lewis is an associate professor at Parsons The New School for Design.