Theory

In this section we explore some of the ideas that underpin our daily design decisions.

Architecture, the whole process of organised construction, is collective. Ultimately it is to do with cities, even if we are making a country retreat. Cities can be seen as a living organisms, continually renewing and repairing themselves. In this process of renewal we are agents of intelligent change.

Principles of Conservation have an inherent leanness and elegant simplicity. In short:

• think before you act - understand not only the physical building and its context, but also its significance
• when you intervene with an element of new construction, make this a minimal intervention - maybe radical - but no more than it needs
• design for reversibility and building failure, especially when working in historic buildings and spaces
• make the new authentically new.

This approach requires a love and understanding not only of forms, materials and methods of construction of the city, but also the ideas, forces, rhythms, human needs of those who shape it. If it's true for important historic places, why shouldn't it also be true for every place, especially new development?

The Air. A paradox at the heart of architecture is that the valuable commodity is not the building itself but the spaces it defines and encloses. It is the space - the shape of the air - in which the value resides. We can hear the air, but not see it.

Related:
Listening
Sustainability

Humanity