Making clarifies ideas. Clear ideas enable decisions. Decisions move projects forward!
Through the art-of-making, we explore and develop new compositional and tectonic possibilities proud of our virtuosity synthesizing program, sustainability, materiality and building form. In our workshop culture, artifacts of process are everywhere – ideas that inspire the next project. We learn through iterative making, fabrication, and the synthesis of ideas based upon our research and exploration grounded in theory. We find that constant Exploration and Inquiry has an immediate impact well beyond the project – a percolation effect that spans the practice influencing all our work.
Flawless material craft is essential to our work, for the material palette and assemblies for each building are just as meaningful as its form. Through fabrication and visualization, we explore novel assemblies and generate opportunities to install Payette-fabricated components in every project – critical design moments that are part of our “brand.”
Opening later this year, the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, MA is an essay in the tuning of building façades for performance. The aluminum sunshades that veil the building began as a concept tested by scoring Bristol paper. The team utilized tools from all modalities: paper models, CNC-mills, parametric studies, solar analysis, wind and water simulations and full-scale mock-ups to inform the design and drive energy use down. The ultra-high performance building is tracking a 61% reduction in energy use compared to the 2030 baseline.
#earthweek #designalways #buildingscience #performalism #cambridge #bostonarchitecture
PROTOTYPING
Our ability to rapidly iterate large-scale mock-ups is both an internal design tool and a means of communicating complex design ideas to clients and builders. A model or prototype facilitates decision-making; it helps all parties understand the design problem and have a voice in its resolution.
MODEL-MAKING
Models are vectors that convey architecture to people, and each model Payette’s fabrication team realizes is a project of its own. In an increasingly digital world, we value the inspiration that springs from physical objects. We surround ourselves with flexible pin-up space that exposes the design process for projects of all scales.
Engaging With Our Community
Architecture and art can be potent forces for public engagement and civic improvement and regularly engaging with a variety of community groups is a vital part of our practice. A successful project is one where the community it serves feels a sense of authorship and ownership in the work.
The Next Generation
Whether it is our OpenLAB Studio where architecture students are embedded in our office culture, or working with local organizations such as YouthBuild Boston, we are excited about mentoring the next generation of architectural talent and expanding the profession’s pipeline.
BEYOND ARCHITECURE
As an extension of our prototyping work, we are increasingly self-performing fabrication for key furniture pieces, millwork and metalwork within our larger projects. These projects-within-projects leverage our in-house capabilities as well as our broad network of manufacturers and fabricators to achieve cost/time efficiencies while adhering tightly to design intent.
EXHIBITION DESIGN
Payette has exhibited our work at several architecture schools along the east coast. Through drawings, models and finished photography the way we design and think about architecture is revealed. These exhibitions and lectures provide an in-depth look at our process and our purpose.
