Plural Office is an architecture firm in Austin, Texas that designs structures nationwide.

Work
As a group of architects and researchers, we are committed to shifting paradigms by creating equitable and environmentally sensitive places, spaces, and cities. Our team has completed projects in Texas, Oklahoma, Washington, and Minnesota, and we're currently working on projects in Texas, Wisconsin, Missouri, New York State, and Kansas.
Built projects
Projects in process

Across our areas of expertise, we offer services in architecture, interior design, and sustainability consulting.

Process
Our process is ever-evolving, adapting to new inspirations, technologies, and contexts. We begin by listening, collaborating with our clients to envision possibilities for what their project can become. Early on, we establish core concepts and an ethos that will guide us, allowing the spirit of the project to remain legible from start to finish. We don’t believe in a standard approach but in refining a toolbox that facilitates iteration on complex design challenges. We sketch, research, model, debate, restart, and refine in search of clarity.

Alongside our construction projects, we research issues that affect and are affected by the built environment.

Research
Building structures with materials that capture carbon. Designing structures that maximize energy efficiency. The many points of ingress into conversations surrounding sustainability, and the myriad opportunities for the building industry to mitigate the climate emergency–these compose just a subset of the topics we're researching for our journal Perspectives. Whether we're investigating the environmental benefits of non-action or counting the virtues of cross-laminated timber, our research ensures our principles aren't just empty words–they're built into Plural architecture.

Plural’s built work stands as a testament to care and attention to detail. It’s also a reflection of our team's experience.

Team
Principals, founders, and licensed architects Josh Carel and Adelle York have lived and designed in cities young and old, on both coasts of the U.S. and a few places between. Their understanding of the technical intricacies of architecture, in conjunction with their sense of social and environmental responsibility, yields balance. They design structures that are resilient, both in the enduring quality of their construction and the value they bring to their communities. Director of Constructability Scott McDonald previously worked on a vast scale of award-winning structures, ensuring their feasibility at every step of the process, ultimately overseeing their translation into built work. He’s now doing the same for Plural projects in Texas, Minnesota, Kansas, and Wisconsin. Alex Daniel, a Texan who spent the better part of a decade teaching in Korea, reminds us that the practice of architecture is also a study in writing.

Josh Carel, AIA, CPHC

Partner, Director of Architecture

Josh Carel is a licensed architect in Texas, Arkansas, Idaho and Washington State and a Certified Passive House Consultant (CPHC). Prior to founding Plural Office, he lived and practiced in Tulsa, Seattle, and Boston and has a wide range of experience in context and project type. He holds a Graduate Certificate in Urban Sustainability from Harvard University, a Master of Architecture from the University of Washington, and Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Oklahoma. Josh co-taught Construction Methods and Materials at the University of Washington for several years and has been an invited design critic at the University of Texas, the University of Washington, Boston Architectural College and Wentworth Institute of Technology. He is a partner and leads the architecture division at Plural Office.

Adelle York, AIA

Partner, Director of Design

Adelle York is an architect and urban researcher. Her research is at the intersection of sovereignty, resource extraction, and urbanization, examining the ways in which territory is expressed as it relates to global oil capital. Adelle received her Master in Design Studies in Urbanism, Landscape, and Ecology from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Architecture with Special Distinction from the University of Oklahoma. She has worked as a designer in Texas, Oklahoma, and Washington, and has taught design studios with the Harvard Design Discovery Program and the Art Institute of Seattle. She has been an invited design critic at Boston Architectural College, Wentworth Institute of Technology, the University of Washington, the University of Texas, and the University of Oklahoma. She is a partner and leads the research division of Plural Office.

Scott McDonald, Assoc. AIA

Director of Constructability

Scott McDonald joins us from Northwest Arkansas where he practices and runs Deft Construction. He holds a Bachelor of Architecture from the Fay Jones School Of Architecture, where he focused on furniture design and steel fabrication. He has managed the Fay Jones School of Architecture wood shop and led the construction division of the University of Arkansas design-build program. Prior to joining Plural Office, he was a design associate at Marlon Blackwell Architects and Brya Architecture, then transitioned into building custom homes for Insite Construction. Scott bridges the gap between functional design and construction; he finds his niche in producing constructable solutions to sophisticated architectural challenges. Scott is the Director of Constructability at Plural Office and leads our projects in Northwest Arkansas.

Alex Daniel, MFA

Director of Communications

Alex Daniel is a retransplant to Austin. After studying English Writing and Rhetoric at St. Edward's University in ATX, he spent three years writing and designing software and hardware manuals before moving to Busan, South Korea to teach English as a Second Language. After two years in Busan, he earned his English 6-12 teaching certification and moved to Seoul to teach middle and high school English Language Arts. The music and fiction he wrote through all of those endeavors eventually led him to the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he taught writing courses while pursuing his MFA in Creative Writing. Now back in Austin, he's helping to establish Plural's office and crafting the firm's voice while continuing to write and teach writing at St. Edward's University.