OUR DESIGN PHILOSOPHY

“Slow Fashion” Architecture

We live in the age of fast fashion and fast consumption which affects almost every sphere of our lives – be it clothing, food, architecture or interpersonal relations. Buildings are being designed and built the same way fast fashion clothes are made: quickly, cheaply, trend-driven, and not meant to last. This has enormous impact on our societies and our environment, as construction and demolition waste accounts for roughly 35-40% of all solid waste streams. Local identities are lost, as cities start to look “no name” – without a cultural or regional character.

The alternative to “fast fashion” is the “slow fashion” mindset. Architecture that is built to last, is context and culturally sensitive, is adaptable over time and is designed with the people in mind. “Slow fashion” becomes a philosophy of space – a refusal of the disposable and the generation of excessive waste, a return to care. A “slow building” is one that can change its function, be repaired easily, and remain relevant for generations, thus achieving timelessness.

Social Connection & Belonging

Experts describe loneliness and alienation as an “epidemic” and a global health issue, especially among young adults and low-income populations, linking social isolation to depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts. And all this inevitably leads to a general decline in community engagement and trust.

Nearly 1 in 6 people worldwide report feeling lonely (According to WHO).

To a great extend, the information technology and digital media are to blame for the disintegration of traditional social bonds and the fragmentation of attention but, as architects, we must admit that, unfortunately, poorly designed spaces & places also facilitate and amplify alienation and reduces face-to-face interactions.

The solution is to create built environments that create slow-paced urban lifestyles and thus encourage social interaction both between neighbours and complete strangers. Think pocket parks, communal courtyards & areas, walkable neighbourhoods, warm materials and colours, lobbies and community rooms in buildings and many other tricks of trade. Architecture that reflects the local culture, the memory and the history of the place.

The Good Neighbourhood

Architecture should serve the community and promote the vision of “the good society”. The current ongoing crisis in urbanism – the widespread banal sameness of our environment – is a direct reflection of the crises and contradictions that are taking place in our society.

With the advent of generative AI tools, the architectural profession is becoming increasingly dissociated from the design and production of buildings and increasingly associated with the production of intellectual property. Our role as architects is more that of “choreographers” of human activities and community engagements – that of designers of social and cultural conditions & processes, rather than of forms and occurrences, who can actively contribute to the construction of positive identities.

Differentiation

The ubiquity and the easy access to powerful AI tools, that are able to generate design variations and ideas “a la carte” at an astounding speed, will inevitably lead to narrowing and convergence of architectural ideas & ways of thinking by creating a self-referential loop. This reduces the possibilities for experimental, open and innovative architecture beyond the known and accepted formulas. Understandably, conservative market forces are always pushing towards already proven, already built and already thought solutions.

We are here to explore territories that can’t be chartered and reproduced by the algorithms, by infusing personal experiences, stories and emotions.

Beyond Function

A vital part of architect’s task is to give form to a function, to permit purposes to become space and create architecture which is more than just a building, more than just a utilitarian object. Aesthetical considerations is the force vector that transforms a building into a work of architecture by facilitating the interaction between three interdependent moments – purpose, space, and material.

According to Theodor Adorno, ”Beauty today can have no other measure except the depth to which a work resolves contradictions. A work must cut through the contradictions and overcome them, not by covering them up, but by pursuing them.”  Specifically, architecture is always caught in a contradiction between serving a practical purpose and the aesthetic freedom and this makes it vulnerable to commodification and ideology. Think the purely functional but cold and oppressive housing estates of the 1970’s.

Flexibility & Changeability

The shift from an industrial to an information society with its new digital economy and its multifaceted, ever-changing and self-organising processes and needs is anything but fixed and static. Life itself is anything but static. What was functional yesterday, can easily become obsolete tomorrow. This implicitly unstable condition means the architecture of today has to be open-ended, continually evolving and adaptable to rapidly shifting cultural, economic and urban realities. Buildings that can be reused or repurposed help reduce demolition waste and limit the need for new construction materials and this can have significant financial benefits.

Adaptability and reusability became even more obvious in the new post-covid era when communities are faced with increasing mass migration, remote working which resulted in empty office towers and caused unexpected economic transformations. The concept of changeability emphasizes architecture as something dynamic rather than frozen monuments in time and is a radical notion of design as an open system which is truly responsive to shifting social demands and behaviours. What people crave today is authenticity. So, reuse isn’t just sustainability – it is also cultural memory staying alive and present.

Evoke Meaning Through Materials

Materials with meaning. Historically, materials always have had cultural and political connotations. In the beginning of the modern era, the use of glass, concrete and steel helped distinguish the openness and transparency of a new egalitarian society from the encapsulation and impermeability of the stone castles of the patriarchal societies of the past. In today’s efficiency-oriented world, criteria for material selection, more often than not, are based on performance and ecological responsibility. Innovative materials have acquired the function to project a public image, similar to the mediating role played by ornamentation in the past.

Material selection is closely connected to the idea of “slow fashion”, which celebrates natural, durable, and responsibly sourced materials. Architecture can share this potential through the use of timber, stone, clay, recycled materials, and other materials that age gracefully – by embracing evolution, patina and repair, all these adding to the authentic story of a particular building or a place – layer by layer, like an ancient palimpsest.

The Shape of the City

People today are mostly concerned with the rationality and functionality of the spaces inside their buildings and this is understandable – spaces must be designed to be cozy, delightful and habitable. But more often than not, these spaces are accessible only to a very narrow circle of close family members, friends or co-workers. In contrast, the exterior will be seen by sometimes millions if not tens of millions of people during the whole life cycle of a building. Buildings will be loved, hated or met with indifference and the cumulative effect of our built environment creates what we call “the spirit of the place” and it directly affects how people feel about their city. As architects, we have the responsibility to make our cities less bland and less generic-looking and thus more enduring, hospitable and livable. We reject pure modernist functionalism.

Our obsession with the city goes beyond the primal fascination with its richness of shapes and skylines – we are equally interested in urban life with its countless overlays of human interactions and accumulations of collective memories that persist across generations. Public plazas, parks and streets should not be treated just like any lifestyle products – they are also civic institutions. Even young and instant cities of global spectacle like Dubai, with their hyperreal and cinematic skyline are starting to acquire patinated layers of collective memory over time.

Sustainability

We believe that buildings should be conditioned for and by their environment to ensure a positive impact on both people and planet. In that respect, climate and topography considerations are key drivers in the design of our buildings from the very inception to ensure a resilient and adaptable way of life for the communities we serve. Wherever possible, we try to create a geographically-specific architectural language that is sensitive to the surroundings, employs sustainable and locally sourced materials with a low carbon footprint, and utilises natural air-cooling, light controlling and shading techniques.

But sustainability has also another, a more human dimension, which lies beyond technology and is as important as technical performance. A building that people love and care for is less likely to be demolished. Thus, sustainability is also cultural and emotional.

Craft & Local Identity

Architecture rooted in local craft traditions and regional materials can resist the globalized sameness of the ubiquitous glass towers and the B&B “AirSpace” apartments. Designing and building with local builders, artisans and building techniques – be it simple traditional plastering or hand-laid brickwork – not only supports local communities and regional economies but also produces buildings and spaces that carry human presence, are cultural fingerprints and feel authentic to their environment, as if organically growing out of the land they are built on.