Design
Our practice is dominated by Architects, Directors and Associates that have a very practical approach to life and architecture. Our practice has been built on our work with Government and ‘not-for-profit’ organisations where value for money and low maintenance finishes inform the designs as well as our work in regional areas where buildability issues dictate design issues.
The oldest recorded treatises on architecture cite the three values that any work of architecture should possess: firmness, commodity and delight.
We believe that these ancient values remain an important working method even in guiding our contemporary practice of architecture, and are worth elaborating upon here.
- Firmness
Before anything else, the building should be structurally sound, water tight, resistant to corrosion, and it should be these things simply and effortlessly. The architectural ideas should never override this basic function of the building.
- Commodity
The building should let occupants use it without difficulty, its layout should be efficient, adaptable to many configurations throughout its life. The aesthetic ideas should never override this basic function of the building. The building’s materials and construction should be simple and economical for their purpose.
- Delight
And yet, we as architects should not have to see the principles of firmness and commodity as constraints on the beauty of the building. Each building should possess it’s own narrative of its client, its place and its function, a sense of spirit.