Our philosophy

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  Some thoughts on architecture:

  1. Listen and learn (be open to the ideas of others)
  2. Pay attention
  3. Make it (architecture) work hard
  4. Care about the places you make

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  We think putting people at the centre of design and practice is generous architecture… generous because it ranks the inhabitant above architectural ego, material performance and longevity above stylistic rhetoric, environment ahead of consumption.

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  We like the elegant simplicity of buildings constructed in the heroic age of modernism and on the rural frontiers of the new world. We like the early skyscrapers of Chicago, the cast iron buildings of Soho and Tribeca, and the lean and elegant sheds of rural Australia. They represent an economy of means, borne of necessity, which is even more relevant in a resource-hungry century.

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  The brief that we form with our client is the touchstone of architectural excellence. Clarity comes from open and enthusiastic collaboration with the clients and consultants we engage with in the genesis of our work.

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  We work hard to understand all the elements of a place and project. We pay attention to the world around us, what makes people tick and the ideas and inputs of our collaborators.

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  We are based in Perth Western Australia because our founders are passionate about this city and the diversity and beauty of our landscape. We are excited by the possibilities of adding to and enriching our city and corner of Australia, and the extraordinary opportunities for Western Australia to partner with our near neighbours in Asia.

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  We seek out and explore the possibilities of nature – as building setting, the other space, and a place of refuge and respite. Landscape is the complementary binary of architecture, sometimes as garden, sometimes as extension of private and public spaces and as the man-made ‘hard’ landscape of urban space. Our work with landscape architects is a critical design partnership in the creation of memorable and beautiful places

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  Each space and place we make also ‘works hard’ – socially, environmentally and operationally – and is good, at a human level, to be in and use. We care about how spaces look but we care most about how they work and how they feel.