
HandsOn Design Jackson Hole architect
Paul Duncker, AIA (307) 690-4989 pduncker@mac.com
blurring the distinction between art and craft
History & Philosophy
Hands On. It’s an apt description. Hands on a pencil, sketching out the image of something that exists only in my imagination. Hands on a chisel, a clamp. A welder. Human intelligence, human creativity. The opposite of artificial.
What motivated me to become an architect was watching my cabinetmaker father , drawing up the next project he was going to build, then working with him in this shop, turning that image turn into reality. In my practice I've expanded that experience to the creation of whole structures.

Paul Duncker, AIA
Principal
I received my architecture degree in New York City in 1985, my license in 1988. Jackson Hole became home in 1995, and I established HandsOn Design in 1999. The size of the firm has ranged between one and five staff members, and right now it's just me. That means the principle of the firm does all of the design, management, and document preparation. There's 30 years of experience in every pencil line and each keystroke.
I also served as a Teton County Planning Commissioner for 10 years while the county rewrote its Comprehensive Plan, along with participating in numerous other community design efforts. I approach code compliance issues with the same creative problem solving skills I use in every other aspect of my design work. One recent project included removing a section of existing structure, turning it into two smaller structures in order to meet code compliance exceptions. Creative demolition.
Awards and Publications
Awards
Wyoming AIA Award of Honor Red House 1999
AIA Center for Communities by Design
Certificate of Recognition for Design Excellence In Affordable Green Housing 2005
- East Kelly Avenue Housing
Environmental Design and Construction Magazine- Excellence in Design 2007
- Alta House, Alta, WY
Periodicals
Architectural Record, "All in the Family" Sept. 1994
- custom cabinetry, Flatiron Residence, New York, NY
Fine Homebuilding, "Red House," Summer 2002
- annual "Houses" issue
Fine Homebuilding, "Factory Built Houses" July 2004
- construction technologies
Builder, "Beyond the Box" Fall 2004
- SIPs panel construction
Building Products, "Panel Power" Jan/ Feb 2005
- SIPs panel construction
Residential Architect, "Mindful Choices" March 2005 - sustainable design
Homestead, "In With the Old, Out With the New" Spring 2004 - renovation and remodeling
Homestead, "Elegant and Industrious" Spring 2005 - kitchen renovation
Homestead, "It's Easy Being Green" Spring 2006
- sustainable design
JH Style, "Mountain Dreaming" Fall 2015 - personal profile
Publications
Taunton Press, Built-In Furniture by Jim Tolpin 1997 - stair cabinet/loft bed
Taunton Press, Small Homes 2003
"Design Ideas for Great American Homes" series
The Farmhouse, New Inspiration for the Classic American Home 2004
- Jean Rehcamp Larson, Taunton Press,