We are a thinking practice with a keen desire to execute complex building types with precision. To do so, we strive to deeply understand the problems our clients face. We begin there, because we are a human-centered practice. We know our users, and we listen to them. We believe that every project begins with a different story, and that each building has a unique soul.
Our goal is high performance, which for us encompasses not only environmental sustainability — the usual meaning of the term — but also the fulfillment of program, both the work of the building’s users and the social relationships that support it. Every component of the building is in service of that social geometry.
A penetrating grasp of program is particularly crucial for the building types we have explored for over eighty years. Thoroughly understanding how hospitals and laboratories work, we shape their spaces and systems to advance the practice of medicine and science.
We value transparency in buildings, to reinforce a sense of community and to connect occupants with the world around it. The landscape — whether densely urban or pastorally rural — is an extension of the building. The two shape one another.
We pay careful attention to all scales of the project, from planning to craftsmanship, and each scale informs the others. Our buildings are well made, their systems finely tuned and their materials and construction elegantly detailed.
We invest in systematic research and the development of tools to better understand how our buildings actually perform. We measure our results, so that we can continue to improve.
We share what we learn, to improve the profession as a whole and, through it, the world.
Sandrine Héroux, Sophie McKenzie, and Emily Chowdhury are each members of our in-house Fabrication team. Their day-to-day work centers on a simple question: what changes when design becomes something people can physically test?
These women challenge the notion of fabrication as a support service, framing it instead as an essential component of architectural authorship, a way to test ideas, share agency, and widen the boundaries of what architectural practice can include.
In our most recent blog, they discuss their individual paths in architecture and reflect on their experience using fabrication as a tool for fostering shared agency, community engagement and broadening the role of the architect. Link in bio!
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