About us | A design philosophy

Our aim is to satisfy clients’ and users’ needs with designs of economical beauty, since…

Nature does nothing in vain, and more is in vain when less will serve; for Nature is pleased with simplicity, and affects not the pomp of superfluous causes.
Isaac Newton: Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, 1687.^[1]

In this quest…

Imagination is more important than knowledge.^[2]
Albert Einstein

but…

…imagination in a terrible strait-jacket [Reality].
Richard Feynman

and simplicity may be necessary, but it is insufficent…

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.
Albert Einstein

since there remains 侘寂 (Wabi-sabi)^[3]

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.
Leonard Cohen: Anthem, 1992.

Disclaimer

It seems that in this PR infested world 'Mission Statements' are obligatory – and architects take to 'philosophizing' like politicians to power and bears to honey: as a profession, our fondess for B.S.^[4] is the equal of any. We too are in favour of motherhood and apple-pie, but are as fond of the humanity of Jane Jacobs^[5] as we are averse to the brutality of Le Corbusier et al.

We have no mission statement.

Notes

1. Newton may have taken this from Galileo:

Thus it is said that Nature does not multiply things unnecessarily; that she makes use of the easiest and simplest means for producing her effects; that she does nothing in vain…
Galileo Galilei: Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, 1632.

2. This is the widely quoted, and unattributed, form: The original is more explicit:

It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience.

Albert Einstein: "On the Method of Theoretical Physics", The Herbert Spencer Lecture, Oxford, 1933.

3. Wabi-sabi is a Japanese aesthetic founded on the acceptance of transience—beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete", embracing the anomalies and wear which give uniqueness to an object.

Wabi: simplicity, freshness or quietness.
Sabi: patina, beauty that comes with age and use.

4. Harry G. Frankfurt (2005). On Bullshit. Princeton University Press. ISBN: 0-691-12294-6.

5. Jane Jacobs (1961,1997). The Death and Life of Great American Cities. ISBN-10: 0679600477 ISBN-13: 978-0679600473.

The former 'Notes' have been removed to Notes alias Guff.

Minima cura si maxima vis
(For the greatest results, attend to the smallest things.)

The motto of the Accademia dei Lincei

That's enough of this…

If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended:
That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend:
If you pardon we will mend.

William Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream.