projects
Define the Process
The first step in the project delivery process is to plan for success.
Project delivery management is the art of establishing and managing the context within which work can be done effectively. We recognize that you must design the delivery process prior to designing the building. Setting the right context optimizes the time, energy, and resources of “our team”. This creates a stable working environment for managing change, generating bigger ideas, and delivering superior design solutions.
We act as facilitators, bringing together contractors, engineers, suppliers, and staff, and organizing their work as members of “our team”. Our process is open and transparent, encouraging the full participation and active collaboration of our clients. We believe in good communication, and ensuring that “our team” has all the information it needs to get the job done.
We act as information managers, generously analyzing, coordinating, and prioritizing information. We create knowledge and freedom of choice for our clients, from which they can make wise and informed decisions. We believe that educating our clients about architecture and the building process as part of our responsibility.
Define the Project
We provide project focus by researching, analyzing, and defining design opportunities.
Architectural programming is the phase in the design process when relevant values of the client, user, architect, and society are identified, important project goals are articulated, facts about the project are uncovered, and facility needs are made explicit. Our inquiry blends intellect and intuition, tangible and intangible building issues, to discover the nature of the design problem.
The architectural program is the recipe or formula that the design team refers to when creating design solutions. It focuses the design teams efforts, and is needed to evaluate the effectiveness of various design strategies.
Each client is different and has a unique vision of their building project. Clients differ because of the values and goals with which they identify. In this age of sameness, difference creates value. The architectural program is a client's differentiation code, similar to genetic programming. This code is as vital, powerful, universal, and unique as DNA. The vast majority of the DNA code in human beings is identical, but a very small percentage creates difference. The design teams goal is to precisely define each client's singularity and uniqueness, and to express that difference in the design solution.
This is the perfect moment in the design process to apply entrepreneurial logic. Systematic analysis enables opportunities and constraints to be discovered and transformed into innovative design solutions. The design team is looking for things that are not ideal, for things that need to be improved. We want to develop the full, and often unseen, potential of each project. Recognizing these opportunities creates value for our clients.
Our Advanced Technology Tools
We are a small firm that can “practice large” because of our advanced technology tools.
Advanced technology has transformed the way we design, document, and deliver innovative solutions. Our parametric building modeller is fun and easy to use because the computer works harder. We have the ability to produce solutions better, faster, cheaper, and more imaginatively. Our clients are surprised and delighted with the value they receive because of our impressive capabilities, including:
- Visualize multiple design alternatives
- Explore what-if design scenarios to define and confine risk
- Provide walkthrough navigation
- Create expressive geometry
- Co-create designs with clients
- Increase image quality with color, shadow, and texture
- Eliminate waste by coordinating change and revisions
- Guarantee consistencies by eliminating error creep in drawings and schedules
- Encourage up-front collaboration of contractors, consultants, and suppliers
- Enhance performance and communication
- Control budget, schedule, and quality
- Create a greater number of details
- Research and specify materials
- Procure products
