We have always harbored the naive idea that architecture brings people together—that its effects, however dependent on special expertise, move us in direct and elemental ways.

We are a cosmopolitan, design-obsessed architecture office and atelier, comprising the collective knowledge of four generations of architects and designers from a diverse array of cultures and expertise. Our singular mission is to create bespoke works of architecture which resonate beyond our clients’ needs—regardless of scale, site, or program—and to develop projects which advance the people, cultures, and ecologies around them.

Our architecture is an art of optimism, demanding of us a forward-looking attitude and the nerve to stand out of sync with present norms. We believe the significant work of reconciling past traumas and addressing contemporary discord requires an architecture that posits a more ideal world. Doing so is a naturally enriching process for us and our partners, as we collectively seek to expand our definitions of possibility toward the betterment of our clients, their institutions, and the cultures of which we are all part. As we live in an increasingly divided society, there is a tendency to address this division by counterproductively retreating into provincial understandings of identity. In contrast to current provincialisms, the vocation of modern architecture was, is, and should be cosmopolitan, committed to enhancing the lives of all people everywhere.

As we are reminded by the success of our recently completed, 755,000 square foot Taipei Music Center, this is because architecture is an insistingly real thing in the world. It is also a steep material investment for all concerned, for us necessitating that it not be squandered by shortsighted thinking. That an architecture be sustainable is a minimal requirement, and alone not enough to justify its concomitant efforts and cost. No doubt the final measure of an architecture—as with sustainability—lies not in quantities but in the myriad qualities it exhibits and affords over time, bettering the lives of all.

To posit and construct both a more livable world and a world worth living in: such is our shared motivation.