Gavin Fraser
Registered architect1,6 based in San Francisco with a focus on
craft, housing, and regenerative building.
I work across disciplines with the guiding principle: first do no harm. I have been an editor,2
a designer,3 an advocate,4 a fabricator,5 and a builder.7
1. DBA - La Avenida Apartments - Finishes
Photo by Jacqueline Lin |
2024
1. DBA - La Avenida Apartments
Sidewalk | 2025
1. DBA - Community Garden Shed
Photo by Brett Jones | 2025
1. DBA - Woodland Park Apartments
Rendering | 2025
1. DBA - Claremont South Village
Rendering by me and Carley Leckey |
2023
1. DBA - Community Garden Shed
Sketches | 2024
1. DBA - Community Garden Shed
Photo by Brett Jones | 2025
2. The Last Straw - 75
2024
2. The Last Straw - 76
An editors note we wrote | November 2024
2. The Last Straw - 75
February 2024
2. The Last Straw - 76
Photo by Mateo Salinas Clarke | 2024
2. The Last Straw - 75
February 2024
2. The Last Straw - 74
April 2023
2. The Last Straw - Website
2025
3. CASBA - Annual Conference Hands-On
photo by Tyler Westerman | 2023
3. CASBA - The overlapping benefits of straw
Done for fundraising |
2025
3. CASBA - Conference Panel
photo by Tyler Westerman | 2023
3. CASBA - Event poster
2023
3. CASBA - Straw Building Exchange forum
2023
4. DBA_workshop - Sango Court entry lobby
Photo by Bruce Damonte | 2024
4. DBA_workshop - Midway Village entry lobby
Photo by Bruce Damonte |
2024
4. DBA_workshop - Process for the Sango Court entry lobby ceiling
Photo
by Jordan Byrnes | 2023
4. DBA_workshop - Process for unit entry signs
2023
4. DBA_workshop - Process for Midway Village barn doors
corner details after and before routing | 2023
4. DBA_workshop - Oakland office storefront glass wall
photo by Jordan
Byrnes | 2023
6. Independent - Table detail and its final home in my apartment
I eat
breakfast here now | 2024
6. Independent - Table legs
in the middle of the welding process | 2024
6. Independent - I made a zine for a bit called Three Month
From issue
9/10 | 2020
6. Independent - I made a zine for a bit called Three Month
From issue
5/10 | 2020
6. Independent - I modified a plywood chair design and built it
The
original design is by Rafael Horzon | 2024
6. Independent - I designed some housing resources
2025
6. Independent - I designed an annual planner for myself
2024
7. Rural Studio - Horseshoe Farm Homes
photo by Timothy Hurstley | 2020
7. Rural Studio - Sydney tamping soil
foundation prep | 2019
7. Rural Studio - Slab pours
with Frank napping | 2019
7. Rural Studio - Installing roof trusses
photo by Michael Kelly | 2019
7. Rural Studio - Taking a break from sheathing the roof
photo by Sydney
Gargiullo | 2019
7. Rural Studio - Finish details
the back porch | 2020
7. Rural Studio - The communal front porch
photo by Timothy Hursley |
2020
7. Rural Studio - One of the three apt. interiors
photo by Timothy
Hursley | 2020
7. Rural Studio - Each resident has a private back porch
photo by
Timothy Hursley | 2020
7. Rural Studio - Sketching pin up
2019
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Footnotes
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3. Independent Projects. Mostly graphic design and fabrication work including a housing resource guide, a zine, and some furniture.
↗ Housing Guide for the Rural American West
4.
↗ California Straw Building Association. As a boardmember I work with CASBA to organize it's annual conference, improve
its straw-building resources, and sometimes design fundraising materials.
5.
↗ DBA_Workshop. I spent half a year building bespoke furniture, doors, ceilings, and other
fixtures at the DBA_Workshop. |
6. ↗ OpenScope Studio. I led the completion of construction documentation for a parking-replacement ADU
design, and worked on the adaptive reuse of a historic high rise.
7.
↗ Auburn University Rural Studio. With three undergrad classmates I designed and built a few homes in Greensboro,
AL.
|
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A Focus On What?
|
The planet
is changing at an alarming rate, and the AEC industries cannot continue to
minimize their impact. Faced with this existential crisis, it's our responsibility to practice what I
broadly call regenerative building. It's a term, borrowed from the equally
broad "regenerative agriculture." When I say it I mean maintenance, repair, building
less, adaptive reuse, design for deconstruction, bioregional design, a circular
construction economy, bio-based material use, equitable supply chain management, and
environmental stewardship. Through The Last Straw and CASBA, I advocate for
regenerative building practices, promoting care and sufficiency over authorship and
opulence. |
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Contact
|
Photo of me (Gavin) |