Understanding What We’ve Been Designing All Along

Early in my career, I had a problem I couldn’t solve.

The projects coming out of our studio were good. I knew that much. Clients were happy. The work was getting built. But when I looked at the designs, I couldn’t quite articulate what they were about. They just seemed unusual. Not bad. Just different from anything else. Each project looked nothing like the last, and I couldn’t explain why we kept arriving at these unconventional solutions.

It bothered me more than it probably should have.

The Summer of Angst

Somewhere around 2005 or 2006, I spent a summer doing something I’d never done before. I stopped designing and started writing.

I needed to figure out what the hell I was doing. Why did the answers I was putting on paper feel right in my mind, even when they looked strange on the page? What was driving these decisions?

So I wrote. And I thought. And I wrote some more.

And slowly, something emerged.

Four Core Values

Through all that writing, I was able to tease out that everything we did came back to four core values. Every unusual form, every material choice, every spatial decision traced back to these principles:

1. Regionalism – responding to place, climate, and context
2. Functionalism – solving real problems, not decorating
3. Minimalism – clarity and restraint
4. Expressionism – architecture that moves people

I hadn’t invented these values. They’d been driving every project all along. I just hadn’t articulated them.

And suddenly, everything felt great.

The Revelation

Once I understood the four core values, I could finally see what our work was really about. The point was that our approach to every project was consistent, even when the outcomes were wildly different.

That’s where “consistent process, unique outcomes” came from. The phrase described what we’d been doing all along.

“All You Do Is Take Risks”

Not long after this revelation, I was talking with a friend of mine, another architect, about one of his colleagues. He mentioned that this other architect’s work “doesn’t take any risks” and played it “real safe.”

And I said, sort of thinking out loud, “Gosh, I wonder if I take any risks.”

He started laughing at me.

“David,” he said, “all you do is take risks.”

I was genuinely surprised. I didn’t even know I was taking design risks because, to me, I was just trying to solve problems that I identified. It didn’t feel risky at all. It just felt like: Oh, this is normal. You find a problem, you solve it, and if it comes out unusual, then people tell you you’re a risk taker.

But I don’t think I’m a risk taker. To me, it’s all calculated. I’m calculating everything out, and I’m like, oh, it’s not that risky. I just answered the problem.

From Angst to Confidence

That summer of writing transformed how I understood our work. Before, I was anxious about not having a recognizable style. After, I realized that lacking a recognizable style was the whole point.

We’re not here to stamp the same aesthetic onto every project. We’re here to solve problems. Specific problems for specific clients on specific sites. And if you do that honestly, the results should be unique every time.

The projects still surprise people. But now I understand why, and I can explain it. And more importantly, I’m confident that the distinctiveness comes from rigorous problem solving, not arbitrary choices.

The Origin Story

Looking back, this is our origin story. The four core values were always there, but the realization of what was driving everything came from that summer of wrestling with doubt and uncertainty.

I spent those months figuring out what our work meant, and came out the other side understanding that our work means solving problems honestly, even when the solutions look like nothing else.