WE ARE MADE
STUDIO PROFILE
MADE Design—Merlin Architecture Design—is an award-winning, New Orleans-based architectural design firm. We are cross-disciplinary, tech-driven, and client-oriented, using cutting edge processes and a contemporary aesthetic to deliver projects of a higher caliber for a nationwide clientele.
Boundaries between the disciplines of science, engineering, design, and art are growing increasingly blurred; we believe the process of designing and creating is similarly interwoven. As architects, it is our responsibility to guide clients through the design process and navigate toward creative and powerful outcomes. It is in this intersection between idea and material, conceptual and tangible, that we at MADE thrive.
MADE previously operated as One to One Design, founded in 2014. With a team of leading architects, designers, and technology experts, MADE provides full-service architectural design and design-related consulting services, both technological and technical. Our diverse portfolio of work includes education, cultural, healthcare, office, residential, and retail projects for a variety of public, private, corporate, and institutional clients.
OUR APPROACH
There are two driving forces behind MADE: technology and relationships.
We believe in fully leveraging technology to enhance the process of designing and creating. We embrace innovative tools for better outcomes and to ensure our vision is the same as the client’s. Tools such as building information modeling, design computation, rendering, and rapid prototyping allow us to test ideas efficiently and discover unique design opportunities that might typically be overlooked. Using these state-of-the-art technological processes, we develop spaces that speak to the natural and built environment while using environmentally responsible and sustainable design solutions, processes, and materials.
Drawing on design thinking, modern aesthetics, and emerging technologies, MADE seeks to understand and respect the built environment, then carry the best of that architectural vernacular into a contemporary realm.
MADE’s vision is a harmonious balance—scale, proportion, materiality, and program—across new and existing architecture.
Yet we also know there are qualities necessary for great client relationships, elements technology can aid, but cannot emulate—the ability to listen, understand, and establish trust. Architecture is a romantic profession; architects are, after all, designers. At MADE, however, we are invigorated by the interrelationship between design, technology, science, and the client. To us, a successful project is one in which all stakeholders experience a strong connection, clear communication, and aligned expectations.
Team
DAVID MERLIN, AIA, LEED-AP
Principal and Founder
Technology Director
David Merlin is principal and founder of MADE, where he leads projects through all phases of design and directs firm innovation. An award-winning architect registered in Louisiana, Florida, and Mississippi, he utilizes his keen understanding of design technology to solve highly technical and complex design problems across multiple realms, including the healthcare industry, historic renovations, and façade consulting. David received his Master of Architecture from Tulane University and a Bachelor of Arts from Vanderbilt University with cum laude distinction.
For over a decade, David has held an appointment at Tulane School of Architecture, where he teaches design technology, including Building Information Modeling, Design Computation, Digital Fabrication, and 3D Modeling and Rendering. David’s academic research focuses on the relationship between information and design. Prior to starting a practice and joining the faculty at Tulane, David worked at Trahan Architects, where he co-led the implementation of digital production processes on the Louisiana State Museum and Sports Hall of Fame and renovations to the Louisiana Superdome. In his teaching, research, and design work, David is inspired by the myriad ways state-of-the-art technologies can be leveraged to enhance the process of designing and creating. At MADE, David leads his team in their explorations of these technologies and design thinking, resulting in cross-disciplinary, tech-driven, and client-oriented outcomes of a high caliber.
Bayne Dickinson, AIA
Principal
Technical Director
Bayne Dickinson, Technical Director of MADE, is a registered architect who received his Master of Architecture from Tulane University in 1980. With over 36 years of experience in all aspects of architectural practice, from site analysis and programming to construction, Bayne brings a high level of technical expertise to the firm’s projects. Since 2002, he has served as founding principal and lead architect of Bayne Dickinson APAC (formerly Ford|Dickinson AAC). He joined MADE as Technical Director in 2014.
Bayne has worked on numerous private and public projects, including a corporate office park in Baton Rouge; diverse projects across Louisiana State University’s campus; renovations to the Louisiana State Capitol; and a 65-foot-tall contemporary boat slip addition and renovation in Gulf Shores, Alabama. His work has been recognized with awards from the AIA Louisiana, AIA Baton Rouge, and the Baton Rouge Growth Coalition. Bayne’s greatest interest and enthusiasm is evident in the later stages of architectural projects, where design ideas intersect with the reality of construction. His ability to maintain high levels of design through rigorous technical resolution makes him an invaluable asset to MADE.
Shea Trahan, AIA, LEED-AP
Design Director
Shea Trahan is an award-winning designer who brings a passion for the power of architecture to impact peoples lives into every project he touches. An alum of Tulane University, UL Lafayette, and the NewSchool of Architecture and Design in San Diego, Shea continues to push the boundary of architectural thought-leadership as a current Doctor of Design candidate in a partnership between LSU and Stanford universities. With one eye always on the big-picture ideas which drive his work, Shea manages to make complex ideas seem approachable. This is evident in his TEDx talk entitled The Architecture of Sound.
Shea brings over a decade of experience in multi-family, cultural, and institutional projects as well as many adaptive reuse projects which utilized historic tax credits to repurpose historic structures. Shea’s research interests in the field of Neuroscience for Architecture have manifested into a certificate in the burgeoning field along with multiple speaking opportunities at the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture. Shea also serves on the executive advisory board of the International Arts and Mind Lab at Johns Hopkins University. Outside of his multiple AIA and Louisiana Landmarks awards, Shea’s work has also been recognized internationally by Architect Magazine, ArchDaily, BBC Future, Roca Gallery London, Archaeoacoustics III, the New Orleans Museum of Art, and was published in Creating Sensory Spaces: The Architecture of the Invisible. Outside of work and school Shea is a collector of vinyl records and exotic orchids.
Alex Ratliff, AIA, NCARB, EDAC
Project Manager
When it comes to designing projects, Alex Ratliff strives for elegant simplicity in a complex set of requirements. Hailing from the suburbs of Chicago, Alex earned a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a Master of Architecture from Tulane University. Bringing nearly a decade of institutional design experience, including University and Healthcare design, Alex has a talent for designing and managing complex, multi-faceted projects with extensive coordination of specialized designers and systems. With an eye for a more comprehensive perspective, Alex enjoys designing projects from the scale of urban and campus design all the way down to the scale of individual details.
With an interest in sustainability in all aspects of his life, Alex enjoys biking around New Orleans whenever and wherever possible, especially to take in the beautiful urban outdoor spaces throughout the city with his wife and children in tow. Alex occupies his free time with designing and building furniture and other objects in wood, exploring the serenity of working with hand-tools. Instead of purchasing new, Alex takes pleasure in restoring woodworking hand tools and just generally fixing anything and everything around him. He is also pleased to sit on the Board of Trustees at Rayne Memorial UMC, using his design talents to help care for a campus of historic buildings.
Zach Winter
Architectural Associate
Zach is a rising architect with five years of experience in commercial, healthcare, and education design. Originally from Virginia, Zach graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Virginia in 2018. Moving to Chicago in 2019, Zach has spent the last four years developing his skills on a variety of projects throughout Illinois, with a major focus on corporate renovations at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. Zach joined Made Design in 2023, moving across the country to New Orleans with his wife, as she joined the orthopedic research staff at Tulane University Medical Center following medical school.
Beyond architecture, Zach enjoys traveling, camping, and scuba diving with his wife. Other hobbies include board gaming and soccer. The world of film has become a major point of interest for Zach in recent years, and he enjoys reviewing and recommending movies to friends and family on social media.