Architectureof quietconsequence
The Studio
01We are an architecture practice working between building and landscape. Our work is slow, material and specific to its place — we would rather make one careful thing than ten loud ones.
Philosophy
02Build less. Build longer.
Every building is a subtraction from a landscape. We start from that debt.
We work with a short list of materials and we leave them as they are — concrete unfinished, stone unpolished, timber unpainted. Surfaces that record weather and time look better in twenty years than on the day they are handed over.
Light is the only decoration we allow ourselves. It is free, it changes all day, and it is the one material that cannot be specified.
Site before form
The ground decides the plan. We survey light, wind and water before drawing a line.
Few materials, well used
A short palette, honestly detailed, ages better than a broad one.
Space over surface
Proportion and daylight do the work that finishes cannot.
Build for the long term
We detail for fifty years, not for the photograph.
Courtyard House
The plan is the oldest one there is: rooms wrapped around a void.
Project Index
06About
05
A small studio, deliberately
ĀM Studio was founded in Beirut in 2012. We are fourteen people and we intend to stay roughly that size, because the alternative is delegating the part of the work that matters.
Every project is run by one of the founding architects from first sketch to final handover. There is no separate design team and delivery team. The person who drew it is the person on site.
Approach
04How we work
Listening
We start with a long conversation and a longer walk around the site. Most briefs change once we have both.
Testing
Physical models at 1:200 and 1:50. We build the idea before we draw it, because models do not lie about proportion.
Drawing
A single coordinated set. We detail every junction ourselves rather than leaving it to the contractor to resolve.
Building
We are on site weekly. Architecture is decided at 1:1, in the moment a wall is poured.
Have a sitein mind?
We take on a small number of projects each year. Tell us about yours.
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