Playing Together: The Art of Collaboration

Date: Aug 24, 2015 6:00:00 AM

THE INCIDENT

I was picking up my daughter at her “Arts Camp” and I had the chance of seeing a music/dance performance. There were some young people creating music with instruments they had designed with everyday objects and dancing at the rhythm they were producing. Although each one of them danced following their own style, the movements of one influenced the movements of the others, creating a perfect harmonic ARTwork composition between all.

The result was astonishing, full of energy and creativity.

 

THE CONNECTION

Suddenly I realized how much the performance I was admiring is similar to my own work as an architect.

Each project, as in an artistic performance, is created from an idea which develops thanks to a group of people, each adding his/her personal talents to create a harmonious result. Each one influences the moves of others, and in turn is influenced by the moves of the others. With our clients, consultants and team, listening, communicating, understanding everyone’s needs and sharing information we dance around the idea, tracing each line, full of meaning and thoughts,  elaborating a balanced and composed performance, creating our own pieces of ARCHwork for the pleasure of our clients, their neighbors and our communities.

 

THE EVERYDAY LIFE

We are working on a Yale University renovation building and landscape area. As we are architects and landscape architects we have the opportunity to develop building and landscape plans internally in the office. The building has an existing glass façade which receives too much direct sun in the summer months. We presented a couple of options to the client, in the first one, a row of caduceus trees were planted close to the façade to protect the building against undesired excessive radiation during the summer months. In the second one, we protected the façade with a wood trellis rotated to intercept the severe summer- sunrays while allowing them during the winter time. Perennial species located farther from the façade were proposed for this option.


Continuous series of elements playing together to create our everyday pieces of ARCHwork