Chris M. Baribeau, AIA

Principal architect

Chris Baribeau, AIA is the Principal Architect and co-founder of modus studio, a progressive and mutable design collective. The firm is based in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and has contributed a broad range of influential, sustainable, and award-winning place-making projects to the built realm since its inception in 2008.


Together with companion fabrication lab, modus shop, the firm bridges the profession with architectural, graphic, prototyping, and fabrication work. Craft in the hand of design and making is at the core of their design vocabulary, used to create architectures founded in a think, make, do process.


As the leader of the firm, Chris draws daily inspiration and experience from his place, the threshold between the natural and man-made world of the Ozarks. He is an advocate of conscious observation as inspiration for design and views the world around him as an unwritten instruction manual for living.


He follows an idea; the idea that architecture can be sourced from the simple, everyday experiences of life. He believes the architecture that results from these experiences can be inspiring to all people in a personal, practical, and sustainable way. People deserve good space and good buildings, derived from good ideas.