Meet MoDE Architects: Our Design Philosophy
MoDE is an architecture firm known for our public works projects and innovative design. Because we primarily take on projects that serve our community members, we are highly aware of their needs and committed to providing them with solutions. In other words, we take a people-centered approach–and this extends to not only our community members but our clients, too. Through a close partnership with our clients, our team of seasoned architects takes the time to learn their unique goals and then achieve them.
In today’s post, we are sharing our design philosophy and what it means to care for both our clients and community members through our intentional design process.
To start with the basics, we’d like to walk you through our proven eight-step A-E (Architectural-Engineering) design management process. These time-tested steps in our process have allowed us to minimize risks and exceed the expectations of our clients and various stakeholders alike. Many of the steps overlap or run concurrently, but their overall arc demonstrates our commitment to people-centered design:
Step 1: Initial Assessment
Our team starts each project by assessing our clients’ needs through a series of conversations. We aim to learn about each client’s budget, vision, goals, end users, and more. From there, our team develops a collaborative overall solution in conjunction with our client while keeping the end user (often a particular group of community members, such as middle schoolers who will attend a new public school) in mind.
Step 2: Building Condition Audits and Investigation
Next, our team assesses the location’s current conditions with site investigations, allowing us to learn about the area and any existing conditions. Our many years of experience have taught us that every building project is unique–and that we must gain a detailed understanding of the site during the project’s beginning stages. The more we understand the site, the better we can serve our clients and community members.
Step 3: Design Goal and Target
After our site assessment, we develop an initial design based on our clients’ goals, which will vary depending on the project. Our team’s thorough, streamlined process allows us to address technical considerations and incorporate more details as we go.
Step 4: Explore Alternatives
From there, our team investigates and evaluates viable design alternatives. A big component of our ethos as a firm is to design within our clients’ budgets. This stage allows us to explore additional options that may be more budget-friendly while still meeting our clients’ goals and enhancing the human experience of the end users’.
Step 5: Order of Magnitude (OM) Development
Next, we develop an Order of Magnitude and then help our clients understand the scope of work for their project, adjusting it according to their feedback. The OM is very technically detailed and serves as a roadmap for our team and a reference for various stakeholders. Our team also uses the OM to develop our finalized construction budget.
Step 6: Critical Review
From here, we strengthen our design solutions with thorough assessments and adjustments. This step also allows our team of experts to solve any programmatic or technical challenges that have arisen in the process.
Step 7: Work Plan
Once we have critically reviewed and finalized our design, our team executes the architectural delivery process within the scheduled time frame, budget, and constraints. Depending on the client’s preference, our experienced team can also provide construction administration services to verify everything is built to our specifications.
Step 8: Client Feedback
Last but not least, we communicate consistently and proactively with our clients throughout the process. Our team keeps clients posted on our progress and engages them in an ongoing dialogue to ensure their goals are met at each phase.
All in all, this eight-step framework ensures both clients and community members are kept at the forefront of our design. With each project comes a different set of needs to meet and goals to achieve, which is why we communicate well with stakeholders and design with a close attention to detail.
Our people-centered design practice also means being both socially and environmentally conscious. Because many of our projects come from the local government, they have specific community-oriented goals in mind. To meet these goals, our team interviews community members and researches other successful projects and studies as needed. These information-gathering stages are often some of the most meaningful for our team, because we get to deepen our understanding of our community while knowing our design will aim to solve the various issues we learn about.
When it comes to environmentally conscious design, we are committed to continued education to keep up with the latest environmentally conscious technology and standards. One of these new standards, for example, is the WELL Building Standard, which our team is excited to incorporate into our practice. WELL is essentially a system for monitoring the various features of a space (such as light) that impact its users’ health and well-being. Our team of seasoned experts also has experience with LEED design and indoor environments, which helps us incorporate eco-friendly elements into our design when possible.
Ultimately, we want our buildings to serve their owners and inhabitants well. By using our tried-and-true eight-step process, combined with our commitment to socially and environmentally conscious design, the team at MoDE is pleased to meet the needs of our clients and community members alike. Serving others is at the heart of what we do, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Interested in experiencing our innovative and people-centered design? We invite you to get in touch with our team. We would be happy to have a conversation about your potential project’s vision and goals–and how we can help.
