Think! is a Brooklyn based architecture firm committed to designing buildings and spaces for our clients that are just right.
Each Think! project is unique because no two clients are the same. With our clients we strive to discover solutions and opportunities that are just right for them through a process that doesn’t presume to know beforehand the answers to their questions or preconceive a notion of who they are or where an architectural project will take them. We have learned from experience that every successful project defines its own rules so we trust ingenuity more than stock solutions because we know that no solution is good twice and every creative solution contributes to the next. Our specialty, if we have one, lies in the act and art of designing buildings and spaces that are just right for our clients’ needs and constraints—their dreams and aspirations.
Design is the alchemy that takes functional needs, space requirements, employee counts and other dry (but necessary) statistics and transforms them into spaces and buildings that inspire and work holistically.
Every day we apply our experience, talents and energies to create buildings and spaces that are just right – buildings that strive to balance all of the inevitable competing project needs, requirements, aspirations, resources and constraints to create elegant solutions that truly work.
We strive to balance the ordinary with the extraordinary, the necessary with the desirable, the desire to stand out with the responsibility to fit in, the needs of the building with its effect on the environment, the pragmatic with the poetic, the down-to- earth with the blue sky, and ambition with reality.
This isn’t easy, but we have found, when done with careful planning and thorough research coupled with an open and collaborative approach to design, the just right solutions begin to appear as almost inevitable.
A building that is relentlessly extraordinary is exhausting and, in the end, self-defeating whereas a relentlessly ordinary building is dull and oppressive.
The Ordinary & The Extraordinary
The ordinary and the extraordinary reinforce and help define each other. When the ordinary and the extraordinary are in balance they are both made better by the comparison. Different projects require different balances but every project needs some of each.
The success of every project is directly proportional to the extent to which we have uncovered and satisfied our clients’ needs and requirements.
The Necessary & The Desirable
We have found that projects that only fulfill our clients’ needs without addressing their wants leaves them exhausted from the process and, ultimately, dissatisfied with the result. At Think! we create a balance between needs and wants by obliterating the distinction between the two – needs satisfied creatively and wants delivered practically.
Each project is unique, but every well designed and thoughtful project has a considered and intentional relationship with its context.
The Desire to Stand Out & The Responsibility to Fit In
We strive to design buildings that are singular expressions of our clients’ image and individuality which at the same time carefully consider their impact on their neighbors, the street and their neighborhood. Some buildings should stand out, others should step back a bit, most are a mixture of both – finding the fine line between the two is an essential ingredient of a quality design.
A building project is ambition by definition—it is bold just by its very act.
Ambition & Reality
Building without ambition is like sleeping without dreaming, you get through the night but you are not renewed. Reality conspires against ambition in countless ways; from budget constraints to zoning restrictions from to code requirements to decisions by committee just to name a few. Creativity and commitment are the qualities that turn constraints into opportunities and restrictions into possibilities and these are the qualities that we bring to each and every one of our projects.