Stick’s design process distills down to three ingredients:
INQUIRY, ITERATION, & REALIZATION.
On the most basic level, Stick practices architecture by doing three things. We ask questions and catalyze dialogue. We generate, synthesize, and refine design concepts. And we shepherd those concepts into reality.
At the start, we work with the client to chart a course through the design process that everyone understands and that is responsive to each project’s requirements. We favor the traditional architectural design phases as the framework for project delivery, but the path we take through each project is always little different.
INQUIRY
The best ideas tend to emerge from dialogue. In our experience, the best dialogue happens when we’re as intentional about what we want to ask as what we want to say. Everyone visualizes the built environment differently. Questions and conversation are the best tools we know to develop a shared vision of things that do not yet exist.
We begin every project by asking thoughtful questions intended to elicit rich responses, and by undertaking a close study of the proposed project site. This allows us to develop a robust sense of context - personal, geographical, cultural, historical, ecological - which informs our sense of the ways in which each project will itself be in dialogue with everything around it.
Before we start designing, we like to write a brief project narrative – usually a carefully-crafted paragraph or two – that mirrors back to the client everything we’ve heard and learned to this point. We have found this to be a highly effective platform from which to launch into the work of design itself.
The project narrative allows the client to confirm that they have successfully articulated – and that the architect has fully understood – their goals and requirements for the project. And it serves as a clear, guiding statement of purpose and intent throughout the design process.
ITERATION
An iterative process is one in which the vision of the final product is a living, evolving thing, rigorously subjected to the influence of new ideas, thoughts, and critiques - our own and others’ - over the entire course of design.
As we work collaboratively toward design solutions, we apply our judgment, experience, values, and intuition, while remaining open to spontaneous bolts of inspiration. We continue to facilitate vibrant, effective conversation between client, architect, and other members of the design team. We invite skepticism and criticism. What works persists. What doesn’t falls away.
This organic and evolving process is what makes custom design so exciting and memorable: we create it together based on your specific situation, desires, and needs. At the end, you will have a thoughtfully designed project and the shared experience of designing it.
REALIZATION
The process of iteration coalesces into a final vision. We settle on a form. The final step is to help our design cross over from the realm of ideas into the world of reality.
Buildings: We generate construction documents, guide the client through the process of bidding and negotiating with prospective contractors, and act as a liaison between client and contractors during construction.
We leverage our design-build background and years of personal experience in carpentry and metalwork to effectively communicate with the trades and negotiate the challenges of bringing design from the page into reality.
Master Plans & Programming: Findings, recommendations, and conclusions are articulated and illustrated in an intuitive, legible, and visually compelling document. The client walks away with an easy-to-follow roadmap of well-defined, actionable next steps.
The first step in this process is to get in touch. Reach out and tell us a little bit about what you have in mind. We’ll respond with a brief questionnaire that will help both of us determine if we’re a good fit for your project.