Driven to Make the World Better

This demands a deeper level of teamwork with building owners to objectively evaluate how to make a difference in building performance and in people’s lives. It requires a clear-eyed exploration of what can be done within available means. 

Without this willingness to confront hard problems, the difficult becomes intractable. With this effort, we make places that better our lives. 

A successful building comes from a strong partnership between building owners and their architects. Budgets and schedules must be met, surprises prevented. This only happens with teamwork. We define challenges together and produce solutions that are realistic.  

The planning and construction of complex buildings takes approvals from internal leadership groups, regulatory agencies, the people who will live and work there, and the wider public. We advocate to these constituencies to achieve your desired results.  

Together with our clients, we identify what problems we must overcome and direct a manageable process to deliver buildings that meet expectations.

The spaces we live in should afford everyone a dignified, healthful, and equitable experience. To make this happen in practice, Studio Ma and our clients engage with those who will inhabit and encounter our projects to discover how they are affected by their surroundings and devise equitable and inclusive environmental design. 

This results in architecture that creates joy and a high quality of life, even with a modest construction budget. It calls for confronting inequalities formed by earlier development that privileged one group over others, if unintentionally. An architecture for everyone comprehends how each person experiences a place and resolves disparities among us.  

Technical challenges must be overcome as social problems are addressed. Resourcefulness in planning and design can surmount the restrictions of limited construction funds. It grows from a pragmatic and optimistic mindset.

Any design project, whether a new building, a small renovation, or a community, presents the opportunity to reduce the effects of construction upon the global climate. Choosing how much really needs to be built and using the right materials and systems lower carbon emissions. Construction adapted to local conditions and that restores site ecologies brings the greatest benefits. 

Our commitment to bioclimatic regenerative sustainability aims to zero out a building’s energy and water consumption and use systems that generate ecological balance. We continuously research materials and systems to advance sustainability, partnering with institutions and the private sector. 

We account for how the building will be operated and maintained before beginning design, so that choices will be realistic and sustainability goals can be achieved. Substantial benefits are achieved from passive design features that take advantage of a site’s location and building orientation.