Manifesto

Our office is formatted as an open plan work space where we congregate together, working in close proximity and discussing freely new ideas and design direction as it unfolds. We are welcoming and treat our office as a place for impromptu visits and exchanges.

In our designs, we begin by developing a response of the built form to the sites. We explore through sketching, discussing and exploring ideas of context, form, mass and expression. For us, each site informs the design process uniquely and provides primary input for the genesis of the built form. The site comes to us in its pure form and we look to discover all that it has to offer both easily (views, grading, and exposure) as well as those that are discovered only with more in-depth analysis.

We gather, observe and absorb all that we can in relation to each of these primary aspects.

Since each site is an original, each project will also naturally be original, responding to the conditions that the site presents. It is our belief that the built form that surrounds us also shapes our lives. The process of designing for us then is to help provide a positive influence for our clients with the buildings we design.

We explore the use of materials, new and old, reinterpreting how and where they might be used. New materials test our sensibilities and offer new means of expression and new ways of “seeing” interrelationships within the context of each project.

We do not follow a style but are modern in our sensibility.

We are explorers of the “basic scheme” (also referred to as a “Parti” in the design world) in our designs seeking to uncover the essential moves or motivation and design idea for each building.

Our environments are shaped by need, preference, desire, social norms and economics. As a society, we gather together to enjoy the benefits of shared support systems. The organization of urban space is the result of rational and economic thinking. DiStefano/Jaud Architecture seek to design and build upon this foundation and in the process find expression for the joy of life by way of the design of individual space, work space and social or public space. Society has come to a time where the limitation of resources behooves us to be attentive to environmental sustainability. Resources are finite and we must begin to pay respect to the blades of grass, the trunk of the tree, the water in the stream. DiStefano/Jaud Architecture is committed to environmentally respectful design solutions interfacing with client needs interests and values. At the same time we are committed to finding the joyful in the design that will bring lasting and meaningful purpose to spaces.

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