ARCANAAPPROACH
Five stages, repeated on every project.
Observe. Define. Draw. Test. Build. The method does not change between a single house and a four-thousand square metre institution.
Observe
Every project starts on the site itself, not at a desk. We record sun paths, wind, existing vegetation, drainage and the informal ways neighbours already use the land, before a single line is drawn.
We spend longer on site than most clients expect — measuring sun angles, tracing existing drainage, walking the boundary at three different times of day.
Define
Observations are converted into a written and measured brief: areas, adjacencies, budget, structural logic and the two or three non-negotiable ideas the project must hold onto through every later compromise.
The brief is rewritten at least twice — once from the client's words, once from what the site made obvious.
Draw
The design develops through hand-drawn plans and sections before it ever reaches software, then is redrawn at increasing resolution — concept, schematic, developed, construction — each pass tested against the brief.
Hand sketches first, always — the pencil finds mistakes that the mouse quietly hides.
Test
Structural options, material choices and construction sequencing are tested against cost, buildability and climate before documentation begins — often producing two or three full alternative drawing sets per stage.
Nothing goes to a builder until it has failed at least once on paper, in a model, or in a mock-up.
Build
Construction is supervised directly by the design team, with weekly site visits and a standing rule that any detail failing on site is corrected in the drawing set the same week, not deferred to the next project.
We visit site weekly during construction, not monthly — most of the decisions that matter happen after the drawings are finished.
