Form Function Studio

Form Function Studio Form Function Studio is an architecture and design studio dedicated to Elevating the Everyday.™

08/31/2026

You arrive at Tangle Trail. Sidelights frame the entry. You step in, the ceiling continues at nine feet just like the porch, the home you enter, still hugs you. Shoes off on the bench. You past through space, the room opens, it creates a grander welcome, an arrival statement. Vaulted to fifteen and a half feet. Your eyes follow the height. Your breath catches a little. The kitchen and living room breathe together now. Five people and growing. One home that actually makes room for all of them to gather, or spread out, or invite friends over without feeling cramped. It stretches when it needs to. The entry becomes the journey to experience. The experience becomes everyday living. How does a space need to feel different for your family to actually live in it?

08/26/2026

Three hip roofs defining the structure around Tangle Trail. Every pitch, every plane, every overhang working together into a seamless thought.. Getting to stand on the porch watching the structure start to reveal what it's been holding all along—four and a half feet of overhang wrapping the entire home. Not just shelter. Identity. A welcome moment. No, a hugged welcome moment for the ones getting to experience this porch. The kind of structural intention that shapes how you live through every season. What does it feel like when a building actually thinks about your comfort and experience?

A drawing is where the heart lives. It's where every intention gets tested, every material gets chosen, every light angl...
08/24/2026

A drawing is where the heart lives. It's where every intention gets tested, every material gets chosen, every light angle gets studied. It's where the sauce is—the invisible layer that makes everything that follows actually possible.

We spend months drawing because we know that the months ahead—the building, the problem solving, the thousand small decisions made on site—they only work if the drawing was honest. If the drawing knew what it wanted to say.

When a drawing moves into the world and becomes real, it's not about perfection. It's about watching intention become material.
The magic isn't in the finished photo. The magic is in the moment you realize the drawing was right all along.

What draws you to a space—the vision before it existed, or the way it feels once it does?

08/20/2026

There's something that happens when a client truly trusts you with their home.

They invite you into conversations that go far beyond square footage, finishes, or floor plans. They trust you to think about the moments that will unfold there for years to come. The morning coffee. The holiday gathering. The quiet evening by the fire. The everyday experiences that ultimately shape how we live.

This level of trust, transparency, vulnerability to allow for the design professional to seek out the ways your heart, soul and mind want to live, or should live, is one of the biggest blessings about our job.

At Tangle Trail, we've spent a lot of time thinking about what I call framing views for memories.
As you move through the home, each space is intentionally connected to the next. The dining room opens to the kitchen. The kitchen frames the living room. The fireplace becomes an anchor point within the larger experience. And because of the 5:12 vault overhead, light moves through these spaces differently throughout the day and across the seasons.

What excites me most is that the home never reveals itself all at once.

Every turn creates a new perspective. Every change in light offers a different experience. Every gathering creates another memory connected to the architecture itself.

I often believe the most meaningful design decisions aren't the ones that immediately capture attention. They're the ones that quietly shape how people experience a space over time.
Our clients have given us the privilege of crafting those moments for their family. That responsibility is something we carry with a great deal of gratitude and intention.
Because great homes aren't just designed to be seen.
They're designed to be lived in.
Walk through with me and see how these spaces are beginning to come together.
What's a view in your home that never gets old, no matter how many times you've seen it?

These renderings show the full vision for the exterior of Tangle Trail.We spent months thinking about the outdoor space ...
08/18/2026

These renderings show the full vision for the exterior of Tangle Trail.

We spent months thinking about the outdoor space first. How it sits on the land. How it frames what you see when you step outside. Because the outside shapes the inside. Every opening, every threshold, every view—it all matters.

Where the gentle slope of the land unfolds. The relationship between the home and the landscape. The way light moves across the facades throughout the day. The placement of every opening so that when you're inside, you're connected to what's happening outside. These aren't decorative gestures. They're the foundation of how this home lives on this land.

This is what we're building toward with Tangle Trail. Exterior design that's as intentional as anything inside. A home that sits right. That breathes. That invites the landscape in.

Stay tuned as framing finishes up. You're going to see how these renderings become real.

What draws you to a home's exterior first—the way it sits on the land, or how it opens to the views around it?

08/12/2026

When a client sits down and tells you that outdoor living is non negotiable, you listen. And you start imagining what that means.

Tangle Trail Home has 1400 square feet of covered outdoor space. Four different entries. All of them intentional. All of them opening to somewhere the people who live here actually want to be.

Right now we're at that moment where the digital and paper drawings are transferring to reality. Framing up. Roof trusses coming in. Piers set. And honestly, this is when I get to see what the team has been envisioning actually take shape on the land. It's something I never get tired of witnessing.

The crew making this happen deserves all the credit. Huge thanks to them for bringing this vision to life. If we didn't have craftsmen and craftswomen doing the heavy work, my skillset is useless.

What does outdoor living mean to you? Is it something that shapes how you think about your own space?

McGrane Builders - Dean McGrane
Fosters Kraus - HVAC + Plumbing
J&L Lumber - Lumber supplier

08/10/2026

I'm standing in the lower level of Tangle Trail right now, and this is the queen of window wells for us.

Here's what makes it remarkable: the opening will flood this space with an amazing amount of natural daylight. But it's not just the quantity—it's the quality. We will get really balanced light down here. Pasive Evening light. Semi - direct Midday light. The kind of light that changes how a space feels to live in.

Most people design lower levels and hope for the best with a couple small windows. We designed this one around the quality of the living space, first, which for us, means natural light and views. The geometry of the well, the depth, the opening size—it all works together to bring something genuine into a space that could have been dark.

This is the importance of Architects early on in the custom design process.Because these decisions—the ones that seem small when you're looking at framing—they're actually the ones that shape how a home breathes.

This idea isn't bought off an online floor plan, it isn't found in magazines, nor Pinterest. It's found through listening to the dreams and desires of our clients, now friends, to hear how they want the lower level of this home to be like. What emotion wants to be evoked. And for us, getting these stairs and transition just right for two of their daughters, so that basement bedroom, just doesn't feel like basement bedrooms of yesterday.

We're excited to share renderings and progress shots as we move forward. This detail deserves to be seen.

For years, it sat quietly in the fabric of downtown, waiting for someone to see more than what it was. As designers, tho...
08/05/2026

For years, it sat quietly in the fabric of downtown, waiting for someone to see more than what it was. As designers, those are often the projects that inspire us most. Not because they're easy, but because they ask a bigger question:
How do you honor a building's history while creating a place people want to gather for the next generation?

Our vision was to reimagine this mid-century firehouse as an upscale restaurant and bar. A destination rooted in community, character, and experience. A place where memories are made around a table, conversations linger a little longer, and the architecture quietly reminds you where you are.
Every design decision became a conversation between past and future.

The vertical fire tower remains a defining presence, wrapped in Shou Sugi Ban-inspired siding that acknowledges both the building's civic heritage and the agrarian character of the region. Inside, a collection of experiences unfold: a Bavarian-inspired dining hall, a social bar, intimate booth seating, and a thoughtfully organized back-of-house.

But what excites us most isn't any individual space.
It's how the materiality tells the story.
Exposed structure and steel accents reveal the building's honesty. Warm woods and refined finishes invite people in. The result allows the Old Fire Station to be exactly what it should be: authentic to where it came from while confidently embracing where it's headed.
I believe some of the most meaningful work we do as architects isn't creating something entirely new.

It's helping communities, rural and urban continue to rediscover the value that has been there all along. The power of placemaking is at work.

For Mount Vernon, this wasn't about a revitalization, it's already a destination, we were just hoping to add to the spirit of place that defines Mount Vernon.
Sometimes it simply requires listening.

What historic building in your community deserves a second chapter?

Architect of Record: Form Function Studio
Consulting Architect: STILL Architecture + Design
Interior Design: Form Function Studio

08/03/2026

This is what intentional design looks like when framing is happening.

We're deep into lower level construction at Tangle Trail Residence in Manchester, Iowa. I am standing in the largest window well—connected to two other bedrooms. What you're looking at is the kind of detail that most people will never know is there. But it changes everything about how this home lives.

Here's the problem we needed to solve: how do you create a stunning approach at grade without compromising the integrity of what the main floor is doing AND the lower level.

The answer is a triple sill detail paired with an interior brick shelf.

The triple sill is exactly what it sounds like. Three layers of sill work together to frame out the lower level, while maintaining 9' ceilings, and letting the 21" floor truss do the real work. But the magic is what happens inside. We're protecting the joist with an interior brick shelf. This allows us to maintain a clean, at grade main level without sacrificing the structural clarity we need below.

It's not complicated. It's just thoughtful. It's a custom solution to the context of the site. It's a custom solution that allows us to hit the needs of our clients.

This is the kind of decision that happens in the framing phase, when the walls are open and the conversations are most honest. It's why we show up early and stay present. Because the details that nobody sees are often the details that matter most.

What's a detail in your home that you wish more people paid attention about?

07/29/2026

Level 10 Apparel starts with why. They exist to build exceptional apparel with intention. Their customers deserve to see that & understand it. Being that their motto is "Your Pride, Our Passion", they needed a space to show that feeling.

From retail shell to transparent production floor. The adaptive reuse honors existing structures while creating a vibrant, high-performing environment. The design connects making and selling - customers watch the craft happen, see hands at work, understand the quality. They know why it matters.

The result: a living embodiment of the brand's mission. Speed, quality, community converging in one space. For the client, it became a catalyst for growth. A hub for creativity. A place where customers and employees alike feel connected to the process and the people behind the product.

It's more than a headquarters. It's a destination that celebrates story, scale, and spirit.

That's Design For More.

Architect of Record: Form Function Studio
Interior Design: Form Function Studio
Contractor: Rinderknecht Associates Inc

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101 16th Avenue SW, Suite A
Cedar Rapids, IA
52404

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Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

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