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1. Many architects have one style or design that they excel at, and will tend to turn their clients in that direction. We believe that the client’s personality and preferences should lead the Architect’s creative process, and that we are versatile enough to carry out whatever vision the client may possess. As the client often does not have a clear or fully defined vision, it becomes our job to distill their wishes and interpret their dreams in order to create the ideal environment for them.
2. Creating great architecture requires, by nature, the repetition of inquisition and solution. Our natural curiosity and creativity combined with persistence allows us to thoroughly investigate and comprehend the needs of our clients and to present them with innovative, “out of the box” solutions to their program.
3. Architecture should make you FEEL. Every space has an energy…it can be calming, energizing, pensive, aggressive, warming, cooling, etc. It is our belief that the combination of space, color and texture in architectural design is the key in defining these energies, and the flow of these energies is what creates the living, breathing experience for the end users.
4. Honesty in architectural design is an issue of utmost importance. As a direct consequence of budget constraints, often times it becomes necessary to decide whether to use faux materials in order to save money. We strongly believe that it is a more desirable solution to choose a minimal amount of natural materials and use them wisely than to use materials that pretend to be something they are not.
5. Our clients choose where they want to build based on the land and its natural beauty. We believe that allowing the land to inform the design is an essential component of good architecture. Every site has features which either should be taken advantage of or masked out by the architecture, as the case may be. This integration of the land and the building allows us to blend the barrier between inside and out, creating spaces unique to that design and catering to each client.
6. It is the unpredictable that makes life exciting…those little moments that make your heart race, or your breath catch. Great architecture should have a measure of unpredictability. To come around a corner and catch a glimpse of a serene pocket garden or a well-lit provocative piece of art is an experience that should never be underestimated. It is with this in mind that we strive to incorporate a little surprise or two in each of our designs.
7. Architectural carbon footprints are becoming more important as our global climate is rapidly changing. With every design, we attempt to incorporate as many ecologically sensitive solutions as the budget and design can bear. Instead of assuming the environment will absorb our excesses, we should adapt our architecture to ask less of our environment.
8. Clean and elegant designs often speak to us much louder than those that try to outdo themselves at every turn. The architect Mies Van der Rohe once said that “God is in the details”, and there are few statements that ring truer than this in the world of architecture. An otherwise unremarkable space can be invigorated with just a few well-placed details, and a space that once had great potential can be ruined with profuse and/or inappropriate details. In our designs, we strive to use detail to enrich each space, but also tend to use details sparingly to allow them to retain their uniqueness and importance.
9. Architects are required to be somewhat of a jack of trades…we know a significant amount about a tremendous number of things. The important thing is for an architect to realize that this does not make them an expert in everything, and just because they drew it one way, it does not necessarily make it the best way. When on a jobsite, the Architect must show respect for the contractors that perform their job day in and day out, experiencing all of the real-time problems and solutions that come with building someone’s dream. Many times, it has been our willingness to give this respect, and to accept our own limitations that has aided in creating the best possible outcome for our clients, and has allowed us to work seamlessly with the contractor. We take pride in believing that every client and contractor that has worked with us would enjoy doing so again.
10. It is our belief that an architect should always strive to better their designs and their processes. To this end, we feel it is incredibly important to keep in touch with clients through at least the first year after they move into their new space. Only through this continued contact can we learn what really works and what doesn’t…what our clients love and what they don’t love about their environments…what we could have done better, and what we did to perfection. We would hope that all of our clients feel that this has been helpful for them as well as for our own progress in our design work. We have the utmost respect for their honesty in this process, as it is that honesty that allows us to consistently improve our ability to serve our clients well.
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