Owen Mortensen
Phylum Design
Green architecture requires a great deal of commitment on behalf of building planners, owners and designers. Phylum Design is a full service art-consulting firm offering artwork and furnishings that reflect this commitment to sustainable design…
What is the role of your service or specialty in the development of today’s leading architectural ideas?
Green architecture requires a great deal of commitment on behalf of building planners, owners and designers. Phylum Design is a full service art-consulting firm offering artwork and furnishings that reflect this commitment to sustainable design. Visual cues such as art and furnishings are often the first design elements patrons will experience when entering a green building and thus need to be chosen wisely. Our goal is to collaborate with interior designers, architects, and project managers to create spaces that integrate the natural world into the built environment.
Our specialty is representing artists at the forefront of an exciting new movement in fine art and design variously described as Organic Modernism. Artists within this genre seamlessly fuse modern design with organic elements in the form of sculpture, wall décor and furniture.
What are the latest innovative developments that you are working on?
We are currently in the process of adding images of works from each artist we represent to an online design library we call the Phylum Design Center. This will allow qualified professionals to login to our Design Center to browse, find and commission unique art and furnishings, saving valuable time and resources.
How can consultants and collaborative firms push the boundaries of what is possible in advancing innovative design and architecture?
I was once told that architects are like conductors of an orchestra. An orchestra requires all of the sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments in order to achieve the full-bodied sound that is synonymous with its name. Similarly, architects that utilize the talents of specialized individuals/firms will have a richer, more complete resonance to their buildings. Although this is somewhat an elementary analogy, I truly believe the more minds that focus on a project, the more innovative the outcome will be.
Explain how your expertise was used in and contributed to the success of a particular project?
Much of the work we represent and produce mixes elements of science with design, so we were an ideal fit for a state of the art Biomedical and Neuroscience Research facility on the campus of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah. We proposed art that aligned with the research taking place in the building, in particular the scanning electron microscope photography of David Scharf.