Common Objects is an architecture and design studio based in the Pacific Northwest on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. Grounded in an understanding of the inherently shared nature of environment, our work navigates the complexity and opportunity of the communal character of architecture, producing spaces and objects for a broad and inclusive society.
Duncan Scovil, Architect
Born and raised on the Olympic Peninsula, Duncan earned his Master in Architecture with Distinction from Harvard University, and holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honors in Sculpture from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).
Prior to starting Common Objects, Duncan worked at firms in both the Northwest and Northeast, most recently as a Project Lead at Waechter Architecture in Portland, Oregon. There he was involved in a range of projects and scales, including: a renovation of a historically registered warehouse building into a showroom for the design company Blu Dot, a six-building affordable housing development with community center and public park (240,000 square feet with 224 units), a hotel and spa in the Columbia River Gorge, multiple single-family residences and accessory dwelling units, and a prototype cross-laminated timber mixed-use building.
Along with his professional work, Duncan co-taught a series of advanced architecture studios at Harvard, which were run in collaboration with the furniture company Knoll and explored the evolution of the work environment as a space of design. These studios worked in cooperation with the glass manufacturer Corning and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to examine the histories and cultures of each organization and propose scenarios for the future of work. Duncan has been an invited juror for reviews at RISD, Harvard, Northeastern University, University of Oregon, Wentworth Institute of Technology, and Boston College.
Duncan is a Registered Architect in the states of Washington and Oregon.