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.