12 Year Anniversary Book

12 years ago we set out to practice architecture differently. We wanted to make more useful, more beautiful, more inspiring buildings and places, but to do this we knew that we had to find a better process that harnessed the full spectrum of society’s talent. We could see that there needed to be greater recognition of the power of collaboration and creative exchange in the design process and that this needed to change before architecture and urbanism could evolve.

Our goal was to take on complex and challenging circumstances and turn them into more virtuous conditions for better outcomes. Our aim was to engage with the public to ensure that projects were better grounded and would succeed more sustainably. As designers we wished to put end-users needs first, to understand them more fully, and to resolve issues through design rather than wish them away.

Put simply, we wanted to establish better, more inclusive processes which would result in better more inclusive places and buildings. Over the past 12 years we found many others who also think this way, and we feature a few of them here.

People make places make people.