Hardware FixRecommendedDevice not working? Your driver may be the problemCheck updates for common hardware issues.Fix DriversHalloween DealsAmazon USHalloween week deals: useful picks before month-endAmazon US: current deals, useful picks and tech finds.Check DealsClean PCRecommendedOne scan can reveal what keeps slowing WindowsLook for cleanup and repair opportunities.Run Scan×
ThatPainter
Blog

What the DESIGN:ED Conversation With Michael Hsu and Maija Kreishman Reveals About Architecture Practice

Architectural Record’s DESIGN:ED episode with Michael Hsu and Maija Kreishman connects architecture business development, affordable housing for Habitat for Humanity and philanthropy’s ability to open new design opportunities.

By ThatPainter Team 18 October 2026
Special offer. See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy policy.
Special offer. See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy policy.

ThatPainter is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn More

The 46-minute DESIGN:ED episode featuring Michael Hsu and Maija Kreishman is best understood as a three-part practice conversation: how an architecture office develops business, what affordable-housing work for Habitat for Humanity asks of a designer, and how philanthropy can open design opportunities that a conventional commission may not. Hosted by Austin architect Aaron Prinz, the Architectural Record episode offers a focused guide to those connections rather than a project-by-project technical case study.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Episode facts at a glance

Detail What the published information establishes
Guests Michael Hsu and Maija Kreishman, principals of Michael Hsu Office of Architecture
Host Aaron Prinz, an Austin-based architect
Series DESIGN:ED, a conversation series with architects and designers
Length 46 minutes
Publisher date December 19, 2022, in Architectural Record’s episode listing
Core subjects Business development, affordable housing for Habitat for Humanity, and philanthropy as an enabler of design opportunities

The office’s own media archive also lists the episode, but with a different date. For the episode’s publication metadata, the dedicated Architectural Record listing and its issue/news page are the more specific references. The discrepancy does not change the subjects discussed; it simply means the archive date should not be treated as the original release date.

Special offer. See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy policy.

Why this episode is useful to architecture readers

Architecture podcasts often separate practice management from design ethics. This conversation puts them beside one another. Business development determines which opportunities reach a studio. Affordable-housing work tests how design decisions serve people with constrained resources. Philanthropy can supply a route into work whose value is not captured by a conventional fee or market brief. Taken together, the episode presents practice as a system in which opportunity, responsibility and design judgment influence one another.

#1 Best Overall
Sale
Pro Grade Paint Brushes, Paint Brush Set for Walls, Trim & Stain, 5-Piece | Interior & exterior | Cabinets, doors, furniture, decks | For latex & oil-based | Synthetic bristles, Softwood handles
  • COMPLETE 5-PIECE BRUSH SET FOR EVERY PAINTING TASK — Includes 1 Inch Flat, 1.5 Inch Angle, 2 Inch Flat, 2 Inch Angle Stubby, and 2.5 Inch Angle brush giving you every size professional painters use daily. Get all 5 for less than the price of a single brush from hardware store brands — professional grade performance at a fraction of the cost. Perfect for walls, trim, cabinets, doors, furniture, and detailed cutting-in work on any project.
  • ZERO BRISTLE LOSS — GUARANTEED BY PRECISION ADHESIVE BONDING — Every bristle is locked in place with precision-set adhesive that keeps them in the brush — not in your paint job. The coated steel ferrule provides structural support while the adhesive bond ensures clean performance on every stroke. Premium SRT synthetic filaments load more paint and release it evenly for a smooth streak-free finish on walls, ceilings, and trim. Works with latex, oil-based paint, primer, sealer, and wood stain.
  • INCLUDES THE ANGLE STUBBY MOST SETS LEAVE OUT — Professional painters know the 2 Inch Angle Stubby is the go-to brush for tight cabinet interiors, window sashes, inside corners, and detailed trim where standard angle brushes are too long. Combined with the 1.5 and 2.5 inch angle sash brushes you have precision cutting-in covered at every scale — baseboards, crown molding, door casings, and ceiling lines.
  • FLAT BRUSHES FOR BROAD SMOOTH COVERAGE ON ANY SURFACE — The 1 and 2 inch flat brushes deliver even coverage on walls, furniture, shelving, doors, fences, decks, and wood surfaces. Ideal for applying primers, stains, varnishes, polyurethane, and specialty coatings. Solid wood handles provide all-day comfort and control for both professional contractors and weekend DIY homeowners tackling interior or exterior painting projects.
  • TRUSTED BY PROFESSIONAL PAINTERS AND CONTRACTORS NATIONWIDE — Pro Grade delivers professional-grade results at a price that makes sense for crews who go through brushes on every job. Ideal for property managers, remodeling contractors, apartment turnover crews, maintenance teams, and commercial painting operations. Backed by thousands of verified reviews from working painters. Washable and reusable for multiple projects.

That framing is especially useful for students and early-career designers. A portfolio shows finished work, but a practice also depends on how projects are found, how relationships are built, and how a firm decides which work deserves its time. The episode’s published description does not claim that one of these areas is more important than the others. Instead, it places them in the same conversation so listeners can examine the links for themselves.

How the episode approaches business development

“Business development” can sound like a sales function detached from design. In an architecture office, however, it includes the deliberate work of identifying opportunities, explaining a firm’s value, maintaining relationships and deciding whether a commission fits the studio’s capabilities and ambitions. The episode explicitly connects architecture practice with this subject, making it relevant to principals as well as designers who are learning how projects come into a firm.

Business development is also a design question

The important implication is not that architects should chase every lead. A potential project carries a type of client relationship, a scale, a schedule and a set of public or private consequences. Those conditions affect what a team can propose and how much design agency it may have. Hearing business development discussed alongside affordable housing and philanthropy encourages a listener to ask whether the way a project is secured supports the kind of design work the office wants to do.

Special offer. See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy policy.
Rank #2
Soucolor Acrylic Paint Brushes Set, 20 Pcs Pointed Tip Artist Paintbrushes | Soft,No-Shed Bristles Art Supplies for Pumpkin Decorating Kit & Halloween Crafts,Acrylic Oil Watercolor Canvas Rock Nail&Face
  • Great Value Pack Artist Paint Brushes: Soucolor 20 brushes in 10 sizes professional paintbrushes set — no shedding, holds paint well, cleans easily, Acrylic, watercolor, oil, gouache, Halloween pumpkin decoration & face painting, rock painting, ceramics. Fantastic high quality gifts for creative, artistic siblings to share!
  • Awesome Set of Paint brushes: Professional paint brushes can cover all of your needs. The multi-purposed brushes are ideal for Watercolor, Oil, Gouache, enamel, Acrylic Painting, Body, Nail, Face Painting, Miniature, Model, Wood, Glass, Cup, Ceramic, Fine work, Art class, Craft Art Painting, DIY Art Crafts etc.
  • Soft and long-lasting: The bristles are soft and strong, with nickel metal ferrules and blue wooden handles. After cleaning, the bristles will become soft and fluffy again and will not fall off.
  • Easy to clean: it’s very convenient to Wash well in soap and water. Retain shape after drying. the brushes hold up very well. Nice selection to beginners and professionals. Keep them clean and they last a long time.
  • Halloween Pumpkin Ceramic Crafts Supplies: A Great painting gift for family, friends, kids, girls, women, student, classmate, teacher. For using in school, travel or used in the home and office.

Questions to take from the discussion

  • What kinds of relationships bring a practice into contact with meaningful work?
  • How does an office describe its strengths without reducing design to a marketing slogan?
  • When does a new opportunity expand a firm’s capabilities, and when does it pull the team away from its purpose?
  • How can a practice make room for work that may have public value but does not resemble its usual commission?

The episode description does not provide a sales pipeline, fee model, staffing chart or measurable growth result. It is therefore more useful as a prompt for thinking about practice strategy than as a step-by-step business-development manual.

What the Habitat for Humanity topic adds

The conversation also discusses designing affordable housing for Habitat for Humanity. That identifies the setting and the partner, but the published material does not name a specific project, number of homes, budget, location or construction system. Readers should not infer those details from the episode listing.

Affordable housing changes the design brief

Affordable housing is not simply a lower-cost version of another building type. A team has to consider how design choices affect construction effort, maintenance, durability, accessibility, household use and long-term operating costs. Those questions can make the relationship between design ambition and practical constraint unusually visible. The episode’s value lies in putting that work on the same agenda as business development, not in supplying a technical specification sheet.

Rank #3
AROIC 10 Pcs Paint Brushes, Acrylic Oil Watercolor Painting Brush Set | Nylon Hair Brushes Artist Professional Drawing Kits for Adult, Kids Face Canvas Rock Painting Arts Crafts Supplies(1 Pack)
  • 【All sizes of art brushes】: The 10 sizes of multi-functional brushes have various shapes, making the mixing color easier, which is very suitable for artists, students, teenagers, children and painters at all levels. Wonderful Present ideas for friends and family who like painting!
  • 【general brush set】: Professional paint brush can meet all your needs. Multifunctional brush is very suitable for watercolor, oil, gouache, acrylic painting, body, nail, face painting, miniature, model, ceramics, arts and crafts painting, etc.
  • 【high quality process】: It is designed with anti falling bristles, anti-rust nickel ferrule and solid wood handle. You can use the brush to focus on the painting and always be creative.
  • 【easy to maintain】: After using the brush, it is very convenient to clean the brush with warm soapy water and reshape the tip of the brush. Air dry the brush and place it on top of the top for long use.
  • 【100% satisfaction guarantee - buy now】1 packs of set brushes, you can also get friendly customer service, any questions feel free to contact us, within 24 hours to help you! There is no risk in buying our paint brush kit.

Why a nonprofit partner matters

Habitat for Humanity is identified as the nonprofit context for the discussion. A nonprofit housing partner can bring a mission, community relationships and a defined need that differ from those of a commercial developer. That does not automatically produce a particular design outcome, and the available description does not claim one. It does, however, give listeners a concrete example of how an architecture office might apply its skills where affordability and social purpose are central to the brief.

What’s actually slowing this PC down?

Pick the symptom - the matching free tool is one click away.

Special offer. See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy policy.

A practical listening lens

As you listen, separate three kinds of decisions: the decisions that protect a household’s basic needs, the decisions that make a home buildable and maintainable, and the decisions that give the project architectural character. The episode summary does not tell us which solutions Hsu and Kreishman endorse, so this framework is a way to hear the conversation carefully without assigning them positions that have not been published.

How philanthropy can enable design opportunities

The third stated theme is philanthropy as a means of enabling new design opportunities. In this context, philanthropy should be understood as support that can make a project, experiment or relationship possible when ordinary project financing would not cover the work. The description does not disclose a donor, grant amount, funding structure, timeline or measured result, so no specific philanthropic mechanism can be attributed to the guests from the public episode information alone.

Rank #4
Sale
Bates- Paint Brushes, 6 Pack, Treated Wood Handle Brushes for Walls | for Stain Application and Interior Painting Projects
  • Bates paint brushes come in a convenient 6 pieces with 3 flat and 3 angled bristle styles, including (1”, 1.5”, 2”) flat and (1.5”, 2”, 2.5”) angled bristles, perfect for tackling any surface painting or staining job.
  • The sturdy natural bristles of each brush are designed to hold more paint, creating a smoother finish with fewer streaks and saving you time on the job.
  • The lightweight wooden handles provide extra comfort and ease during long painting processes like walls, trims, cabinets, and doors.
  • These versatile brushes are ready-to-use, easy to clean, and can be reused multiple times, making them economical as well as reliable tools for any painting project.
  • Bates paint brushes can be used for both oil-based paints as well as latex stains and are ideal for home or commercial projects such as decks, fences or DIY painting jobs.

What “enable” means in practice

Philanthropic support can alter the starting conditions of a design effort. It may allow a team to investigate an idea before a conventional client is ready to commission it, to participate in a mission-driven project, or to spend time on design questions that have broader public benefit. Those are possible functions of philanthropy, not claims about a particular grant discussed in the episode. The key editorial point is that funding can shape what a practice is able to attempt, not merely pay for work after a project has already been defined.

Opportunity still requires judgment

Philanthropy does not remove the need for a clear brief, accountable decision-making or a realistic path to delivery. A practice still has to define responsibilities, understand who benefits, set boundaries around donated labor and determine how an idea can move from exploration to a usable result. Listening for those questions helps distinguish philanthropy that genuinely expands design capacity from support that only adds a short-lived activity.

Special offer. See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy policy.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Support on Ko-Fi

Hsu’s description of the design culture

Architectural Record publishes this statement from Michael Hsu: “Our office is organized in such a way that design exists everywhere—even someone coming out of school has a voice. We strive to have a lot of respect at the design table, but it’s also a competition of ideas internally; we work with each other to come up with the best ideas and have those move forward.”

Best Value
Sale
Pro Grade Paint Brushes, 2 Inch Angled Paint Brush, Trim & Walls, 3 Pack
  • 2 Inch Angled Paint Brush for Precision Cutting-In – Designed for clean, sharp lines around trim, baseboards, ceilings, corners, and detailed edge work. The perfect size for control and coverage.
  • Value 3-Pack for Pros & DIY Projects – Includes three professional 2-inch angled sash brushes — ideal for contractors, remodelers, and homeowners tackling multiple rooms or repeat paint jobs.
  • Smooth Results on Walls, Trim & Cabinets – Great for interior wall painting, cabinet edges, furniture projects, and trim work where a smooth finish and crisp control matter most.
  • Works with Latex Paint, Oil-Based Paint & Stains – Premium synthetic filaments hold more paint, reduce streaks, and provide a clean finish with latex paints, oil coatings, and wood stains.
  • Works with Latex Paint, Oil-Based Paint & Stains – Premium synthetic filaments hold more paint, reduce streaks, and provide a clean finish with latex paints, oil coatings, and wood stains.

The wording describes Hsu’s view of how the office works; it should not be recast as a formal policy or as evidence of a measured employee outcome. It does, however, provide a useful bridge between the episode’s external subjects and its internal one. Business development brings opportunities into a practice. Affordable-housing and philanthropic work give those opportunities a social context. An internal exchange of ideas determines how a team develops responses once the work is in the office.

Voice and competition are presented together

Hsu’s sentence holds two ideas in tension. “Design exists everywhere” suggests that contribution is not reserved for principals. “A competition of ideas internally” suggests that participation does not mean every proposal advances. The stated goal is to work together toward the strongest ideas. For a listener, that offers a more precise picture than simply calling the culture collaborative: collaboration here includes disagreement, selection and shared responsibility for what moves forward.

What the episode does not establish

The public episode description and accompanying article are concise. They establish the guests, host, three subject areas, episode length and Hsu’s quotation, but they do not expose a full transcript. They therefore cannot support claims about a particular affordable-housing design, a project’s performance, a philanthropic budget, a firm-revenue change, staffing numbers or a detailed sequence of decisions. Treating the episode as an introduction to the themes keeps the account accurate and leaves room for listeners to hear the complete discussion themselves.

Special offer. See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy policy.

This boundary is useful rather than limiting. A short episode guide can identify the questions worth carrying into a studio, classroom or client meeting without pretending to provide evidence the published material does not contain.

A focused way to listen

  1. Start with the opportunity. Note how the conversation connects the way a project is found or supported with the kind of design problem it becomes.
  2. Track the public purpose. When affordable housing is discussed, listen for how the needs of residents and the realities of delivery shape the design conversation.
  3. Identify the role of philanthropy. Ask what becomes possible because of support that might not fit a conventional commission, while avoiding assumptions about amounts or outcomes.
  4. Listen for internal process. Compare the external opportunity with Hsu’s description of a studio in which people at different career stages contribute and ideas compete.
  5. Separate evidence from interpretation. Keep the published facts—guests, date, length and topics—distinct from your own conclusions about how the office operates.

Who should listen

  • Students and emerging architects: The episode links design culture with the less visible work of finding and shaping opportunities.
  • Practice leaders: It provides a compact prompt for discussing business development, mission-driven work and how philanthropic support fits a studio’s goals.
  • Readers interested in housing: The Habitat for Humanity subject places affordability inside a broader conversation about practice rather than treating it as an isolated technical problem.
  • Design educators: The episode’s three themes can support a seminar discussion about how funding, public purpose and internal decision-making influence architecture.

Because no product is central to the episode, the most useful outcome is not a purchase recommendation. It is a clearer set of questions about how an architecture office chooses work, serves a community and develops ideas.

Publication and attribution note

Architectural Record’s dedicated episode listing identifies the program as a 46-minute DESIGN:ED conversation published December 19, 2022, and names Aaron Prinz as host. The article page carries the same date in its issue/news context. Michael Hsu Office of Architecture’s media archive also references the episode but displays a different date; that archive entry should not override the publisher’s episode metadata. The quoted statement above is attributed to Michael Hsu by Architectural Record.

Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.

Free tools Windows power users keep installed

One-click scans. No signup required.

Special offer. See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy policy.
Recommended PC Tool
Recommended PC Tool
Outdated Drivers Are Slowing You DownFree scan - exact matches
PC Slower Than It Used to Be?Free scan - under a minute

Two free Windows tools

One Free Minute Could Fix That PC

Before you go - each of these free tools takes about a minute and tackles what quietly slows a Windows PC down.

Special offer. View Outbyte info, uninstall instructions, EULA, and Privacy Policy.