Architectural Design
We customize our approach to sustainability to suit the way each client lives. The scope of work, the lifestyle of the client, and the opportunities afforded by the site all impact our decision-making. When you look at building techniques around the world and throughout history you find a wealth of strategies and design elements that can be useful here today. Technology in the field of alternative energy is improving each year. By finding the right mix of design elements and the best new systems for our clients we find a successful approach to sustainability in each design.
We find beauty in function, simplicity, and elegance. There is something quietly exquisite in recognizing over time the way a home controls it's exposure to sunlight and breeze to keep the temperature comfortable throughout the seasons. By integrating sustainable design elements and technology into a visually coherent architectural whole we create comfortable homes with a sense of harmony and authenticity.
The act of creating a sustainable home asks us to weigh our priorities not only against financial and spacial constraints, but also against environmental impacts in construction and maintenance. This context for the collaborative design decision process actually drives the client to clarify most precisely who they are and what their lives are about. Priorities are refined throughout design, permitting, detailing and construction. The end result is that we create something that reflects the clients' values on many levels. There is the feeling of arriving at the truth.
These projects are by their nature collaborative. It is truly a wonderful phenomena to see the net effect of a collaborative design process. Each participant contributes to making a whole project that is much more than a sum of its parts. From the perspective of the architectural design process it isn't surprising that so much of avant-garde art is born of a collaborative, open-ended process. The same community which appreciates this sometimes mind-blowing art also appreciates vernacular architecture, folk art and craft.