ALCHEMY
EMBRACE THE ORDINARY
The chief aim of alchemy - a pseudo-science practiced in the Middle Ages - was to turn base metals into gold. As modern-day architects/alchemists, we embrace the ordinary programs, left-over sites and modest construction budgets of our practice and seek to extract extraordinary and memorable results.
CHOREOGRAPHY
CONSIDER THE EXPERIENCE
Choreography involves planning arranged movement through space. We arrange paths of movement through sequential or serial space to enhance the experience of occupation. We favor mystery over expediency, preferring discovery through visual contrast, tactility, sound, and temperature.
ENERGY
MAXIMIZE POTENTIAL, MINIMIZE WASTE
We find that buildings that respond to climate are both an environmental benefit and a more uplifting place to inhabit. We employ simple, time-honored techniques that reduce energy consumption and connect people to the natural phenomena of their place.
POSSIBILITY
ACCOMMODATE ADAPTATION
We strive to create buildings and public spaces that transcend program to provide comfortable places to live ones life. Ideally, our buildings anticipate and accommodate change, reuse, and adaptation. We offer them as "frameworks" to inhabit, as places of possibility.
PLACEMAKING
DESIGN TO CONNECT
The act of building is primarily concerned with the creation of places for people. Community results from collective spaces that invite shared participation. Our buildings define the public realm, shape open spaces, mark thresholds and create transitions.
RECLAIMING
TAME THE AUTO
The accommodation of the automobile at the expense of almost all else characterizes most contemporary planning. Our site plans insist that cars be convenient but contained, balancing their impacts with other considerations. Where possible parking areas are co-opted for other activities: Plaza, grove, marketplace, play yard.
SPECIFICITY
CELEBRATE THE UNIQUE
We are opportunists. Each project begins with a careful investigation of the uniqueness of its setting: culture, climate, geography, built context, and landscape. We seek the idiosyncratic and particular. Our work rejects generic solutions, grounding itself instead in the specifics of place.
