Proper design is the blending of your unique needs and desires with the site. This requires a large measure of listening, list-making, and questioning. Tom’s approach is to design a space with you rather than for you. This translates to a lot of time spent together developing, revising, and tweaking the plan as new ideas and ways for using space come up.
The site also requires listening. Each place is unique, with its own patterns of sun, shadow, and cooling winds. It is easy to despoil a place with “construction.” The harder part is to appreciate and work with what is already there. Conservation methods can drastically reduce the energy needs of a home. Proper placement of windows, doors, and living spaces can maximize the heating from the sun and the cooling from the winds at the times they are needed.
Tom’s goal is to come up with a space that is a part of the land on which it sits, that uses minimal resources to build and maintain, and that blends your life with the life going on around you.