Erik Johnson is a licensed architect in the state of Minnesota, he holds NCARB certification (National Council of Architectural Registration Boards) and is a member of the American Institute of Architects. Erik attended the University of Minnesota where he received his Master of Architecture. He worked for eleven years at Station Nineteen Architects in Minneapolis before starting Stone Tent Architecture in 2015. Erik and his wife, Christine, have four children.

 

Stone

  1. permanent or long-lasting, firm, durable

  2. fixed in place, stable

Tent

  1. temporary, fleeting, momentary

  2. lightweight, delicate, flexible

Definitions for Stone Tent:

  1. A movement or progression from impermanence toward permanence, establishing.

  2. To fix in place what was temporary, or to hold in tension a fleeting experience in a fixed place.

  3. A physical or built form solidifying previously unrealized ideas.

  4. To realize permanence and stability in a momentary experience.

 

In 2014, I left the architecture firm I had worked at for 11 years, my family sold our home and we moved an hour out of the city to a 23 acre parcel of land. Questions about life and questions about architecture drove us. I believe architecture grows out of our situation - out of our life as we see it, and then in turn architecture shapes and supports that life. We were in search of a life that was both real and more simple. This was an opportunity to test architecture in a less hindered and rural place, where it might be more than a preconceived idea. We hoped for it to frame life in a place where a growing architecture might find fertile soil.

Tent Shack - Concept Model (Fixed Ends)

Tent Shack - Concept Model (With Central Tent)

As we began work on our land, and the design and building of our home, we spent a lot of time there in a camping state. When we arrived at the land that first summer we stayed in a borrowed RV, then a couple of tents when weather allowed, and then for much of 2015 and 2016 in what we lovingly call the tent shack. Basically, an in-process platform tent - a gathering place and seasonal shelter for our family, and a symbol. There are some permanent aspects to it such as concrete deck footings and a wood floor, but then there is the tent, flexible and thin, barely covering us from the elements. It was a great way to begin getting to know our land. While camping, the seasons seem more real, the sun more important, and simple elements like cooked food and clean water more valuable. We treasured this time even in the midst of some of the trials a temporary and unsettled life brings. But there is a real desire for something more permanent. We all desire our tents to be turned into stone, whether they are a house, a business or more importantly our lives.

tent 1.jpeg

Tent Shack - Under Construction

Tent Shack - Under Construction

The name Stone Tent comes from a belief that good architecture must engage and make present both the fleeting and meaningful experiences of life, that are sometimes nearly invisible, as well as the permanent necessities of concrete footings, a roof and plumbing. Architecture carries with it the paradox of these light, momentary things joined with heavy, permanent things. The events of our lives that take place within the spaces we build are the real stuff of architecture, and architecture must frame these events with care and purpose or risk being dead spaces.

Architecture is also a movement from tent to stone. The tent represents the limitless open, the wandering, the hopes and inspiration. The stone is fixed, complete, permanent and grounded. When we make that move through architecture away from the tent toward the stone it is a good thing, bringing formation and solidity to our aspirations, but we must still retain something of the tent, the desires and hopes that originally moved us, and the fleeting things that first called to us must still be present.

Finally, since most of us, for the greater part of our lives, find ourselves in some sort of “tent” phase, unsettled and waiting, Stone Tent is also a challenge to see the “stone” present, or at least its hope materialized, in the place of the tent. Architecture is not just a question of taste and style, it is that which shapes and supports our lives on a daily basis. It lends an image to the unseen aspects of our lives, our deeper hopes and beliefs. My hope is that Stone Tent will be about work that stands at this edge between the tent and the stone.

Tent Shack - Under Construction

he went to live in the land of promise … living in tents… For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. Hebrews 11:9-10