Who would you hire to design your house?

When reporting the ra50 story for the November/December 2010 issue of residential architect, we asked our ra50 architects to tell us whom they’d choose to design their own house (assuming they couldn’t do it themselves). There was some interesting overlap in the answers. 6 people said they’d never hire another architect to design their house. Several others named their business partner, and 6 said Glenn Murcutt, who was one of the ra50 himself. 4 people mentioned Peter Zumthor, and John Pawson and Smiljan Radic received two votes apiece. Still others had non-overlapping picks, such as Antoni Gaudi (chosen by Steven Ehrlich) or Kengo Kuma (Anne Fougeron). And some took the question as an opportunity to show their respect for peers practicing in the same city–or for their architect children. “I love this question. The answers are so telling,” said Michelle Kaufmann, before naming William McDonough as her choice.