Design Philosophy

Croxton Collaborative’s design philosophy centers on achieving a harmonic balance between art and science. This philosophy flows from a 'value-centered' design process possessing three dimensions of value:

• 1) Environmental: a deep understanding of natural systems at the site.
• 2) Sustainable: understanding the full consequences of integrating
       built and natural systems.
• 3) Humanistic: community and individual health and well-being.

It is important to note that these parameters of value and quality of life enhancements are achieved as a deepening of design integrity, which remains paramount. Building on the foundation of these values, a clear sense of spatial order, proportion, massing, color, texture and transparency create clarity of intention and inform each design resolution. The originality of each project is fully expressed at the deepest level of environmental/sustainable wisdom and architectural design excellence, as a leadership exemplar of the client's mission. By exploiting a full understanding of the built and the natural assets of the site, Croxton Collaborative consistently achieves pragmatic and measurably superior buildings and related systems within a humanistic design approach. All of the firm’s buildings and interior spaces provide orientation to place, a sense of time of day and carefully blended artificial/natural light systems.

There is an inherent value-system that stands behind the firm’s twenty-year history of sustainable innovation – a user-centered focus, a focus on individual and community well-being. High performance design criteria – a sustainable landscape approach, energy and resource conservation, enhanced productivity, and systems and finishes that are environmentally clean, durable and easy to maintain – these are the elements that define a design that is ‘in-step with natural systems’, or sustainable in nature. Developed in the context of award-winning design, these are the same attributes that contribute, in no small manner, to the full realization of design excellence. The two are inseparable: there can be no excellent design solution that does not also consider human well-being and environmental excellence. Buildings that are of consistently high quality are designed with such criteria in mind, offering attractive, airy, day-lit spaces, superior indoor air quality (IAQ), low toxicity, thermal comfort, and a safe and comfortable working environment for the occupants.

Finally, the firm practices sustainability as a foundational value and as a collaborative and on-going process, informing all values, priorities, objectives and project initiatives. The goal of this approach is simply to enrich our traditional definition of design excellence, to engage deeper levels of design intelligence and resourcefulness, at all stages of programming, planning, design and construction. Ultimately, only a project that is in step with the natural systems potentials that govern its locale, can achieve the full potentials of architecture as both art and science.