What we believe
Treat the earth well, It was not given to you by your parents. It was loaned to you by your children. Kenyan Proverb.
In a successful planning and design process, people come first. Harnessing their experience and knowledge as users, believers, and dreamers precedes conceptualization or computer generated drawings.
By welcoming people into the spiral of the process, organizations gain true insights and find authentic support. We believe that genuine and meaningful dialogue among "regular" people can make extraordinary
contributions to the planning process.
Why such an emphasis on early process? Simple. We all have keen instincts to build. Constructing is part of our DNA. Since the dawn of humanity, we have sought and crafted shelter, created warmth of hearth, and grew an interdependent community structure. Every one of us, therefore, has a talent for "place-making."
We help to uncover and embrace peoples' innate enthusiasm for place-making. We guide it, synthesize it, and put it into practice.
Be real, build real.
- We believe in reigniting the sense of joy, wonder, and enthusiasm for every project and relationship through the planning and building process. We identify connections and create realistic plans for implementation.
- We choose to respond to society's increasing disposable, commodified landscapes not with despair but with action by creating environments that are more sustainable and human-friendly.
- We choose a life of stewardship over self-serving interests.
- We strive to renew places of meaningful cultural heritage and where there is a real story of truth, educational value, and social importance.
- We search out activities that are authentic and participate in true experiences—sometimes even a little risky, cold, dirty, physically and mentally challenging—not contrived, themed, branded extravaganzas in climate-controlled comfort with a sound-track playing.
- We gravitate toward tactile exploration of design—one that is visceral and inherent to our human condition of adapting, transforming, and evolving through the use of uncommon and mismatched elements to create a perfect harmony of form, function, and community.
- We see how machines and global commerce have affected the basic functioning of earth and wrought changes to society and nature. We see technology and digital advancements of our age as tools to assist, unite, and educate humanity—not control it.
- We believe that social cohesion, self-expression, and cultural advancement can be best served by restoring rituals and teaching all ages to rediscover basic skills of self-sufficiency and balanced connection to the earth, sky, and water.
Our work is the catalyst for the vision of a building project that can be embraced by users and cherished by people before capital is secured or expenditures are allocated. This gives our clients real insight and confidence among their constituents at the start of a project and ability to make informed and timely decisions along the way.
The result of our involvement is that more functional environments arise, more livable spaces are constructed, and social cohesion within communities is strengthened by a process of intentional design—not by chance or through some brand overlay contrived by the 'starchitect' of the week.
We typicality work with clients who think beyond the business proforma knowing what they build will be here long after we are all gone. We urge anyone in the role of shaping our world to leave it a little better than you found it.