The longevity of our species is fundamentally predicated on the diversity of its ecology. In the global world homogeneity disappears to disclose its all−inclusive richness.
Architecture commits the act of building to a singularly specific place. The universal feeds the intent embodied in its material substance. Between these two far apart endpoints, the gamut of human experiences displays its complexity and fascinating differentiation. Repository of expertise, aspiration, know−how, financial savviness, and logistical calculations, architecture caters, shelters, reminds, instills pride, and coalesces all that informs the horizon of the people asking for it. Web connectivity, a generous digital bandwidth, and ubiquitous computing enable architects to design from everywhere for anyone in the anywhere. When architecture accepts the wide spectrum of human types, sensitive to gender, age, class, it positively shapes all aspects of living wherever life unfolds in disregard of the social dividers that have historically fractured humanity.
True architecture speaks the language of the universal, yet is embodied in the situatedness of the particular. It is physically anchored to its site while broadcasting its message far beyond its physical limits. Humankind has transitioned from life in settled communities to collective nomadism: kinetic elites can navigate the world in a matter of hours, a mobility increasingly accessible to the masses. Such capacity has changed the terms of architectural discourse.
Geographic insularity belongs to the past. Architecture now is steeped in worldly affairs, attuned to a global register, sadly with fewer tenable forms of regional design expressions. Ever since Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown published the seminal, Learning from Las Vegas, a new nomenclature has framed design explorations: “multiplicity,” “inclusion,” “populism,” “the commercial,” “signs,” “decoration,” “symbolism,” “allusion,” and “association.” This is the working vocabulary of the 21st−century architect. It is generative of formal eclecticism, of pluralism, of disseminated variety. Diversity is what allows our species to thrive. Consequently, a design practice of ambition inevitably extends its outreach to the global scene to deliver its artistry where it is sought after. No project is too remote for the design quest. Each assignment is a diving board for the exploration of faraway realities, fascinating and compelling in their distinct and complete character. These are focused interventions that in their exhilarating typological mixture loop back into the production of new work closer to home. That cross−pollination is a fertilizer. The vast entirety of the world is home.