APPROACH
As practitioners of the built environment, we understand that the works of architecture outlives its creators and its inhabitants while having a profound impact on the quality of human lives and experiences.
Our acknowledgement of social responsibility that we shape our environments to well beyond our times has helped us build a conscious and mature design practice. The realization that people inhabit shared built and non-built environments has created our commitment and sensitivity to culture, climate and a deep sense of place.
Our goal is to create spaces that are more responsive to the users, environment and builds upon a sustainable ecology.
Sustainability
Chelsea West employs an interdisciplinary approach to “Green Building/ Social Responsibility.” We strive to create environments that are conducive to user’s well-being, have low environmental impact and generate economic return. Our collective goal is to improve users’ health and well-being while maximizing environmental performance and economic return. We employ both established standards, innovative technologies and renewable practices (such as solar, wind and water harvesting or the use of biodegradable materials) to achieve low energy sustainable structures.
Context
Every place, every site comes with a history and a potential that yearns to be molded into an“ architecture of the place”. We enjoy the challenge of exploring the morphology and typology of building elements that are responsive to its location and context. Through analyses and client interaction, the creative concepts and design possibilities are assembled for shared review and response. This analytical and thoughtful approach to building creates a structure emblematic of the place and respectful of the “genius loci”. Our watchword is “location, location”-- that is, reverence for place.
Efficiency
Functional innovation, integrated high-performing systems and intelligent design solutions are explored and implemented in each of our projects. Programmatic and financial requirements are fundamental parameters. We focus energetically on opportunities to maximize the functionality of the project through efficient, sophisticated and realizable design ideas.
Elegance
We strive for design solutions that are pragmatic, simple and well-coordinated. Cohesively with the surroundings, structural symphony and interweaved services help us create a well-rounded design experience for the users. We plan buildings so that their evident simplicity disguises the full complexity of their challenging programmatic or environmental constraints.
Our Methodology
Research
We undertake extensive and focused investigation at the beginning of each project cumulating the local, regional& global expressions to the program. Our commitment is to go beyond the satisfactory and expand the dialogue in all spheres of context, function, materiality and technology.
Documentation and Information Exchange
From presenting design concepts to producing construction documents, we take great care and pride in the clear and concise documentation for all of our projects with highly crafted drawings and superior specifications. Further documents are routinely generated during the course of every project including Meeting Minutes; response to RFIs, Cost Estimates; Technical Reports; Remedial Strategies and Progress Reports.
Collaboration & Team Building
Community and/or stakeholder involvement is a vital component at the beginning of the design process. We schedule preliminary workshops to collate information from each stakeholder, end-user, maintenance entity and any other interested party to understand each collective ‘vision’ of the project and to confirm project objectives. Such workshops are aimed to refine the design, create positive information exchange and finally, to promote team building and achieve consensus.
Schedules & cost controls
To confirm the maintenance of the project schedule and to manage the workflow, the team utilizes both macro and micro scheduling tools. Where significant deviations from the planned schedule& budget occur, the CWA Team prepares a recovery plan, identifying where remedial action is required to get the Project back on schedule& cost.
Iterative Designing
We take up the design process with an integrative approach to the level of urban region, site, building and detail. A host of tangible and intangible factors contribute, we define and explore the subset of combinations that respond most appropriately to project goals.
Interagency Coordination & Commissioning
Effective interagency coordination is a key component of maintaining the project schedule. The CWA Team is forthright in describing what is needed, and when, to deliver the project by the project completion date. We make sure that the building’s processes operate according to the client’s project requirements