Frederick Fisher and Partners (FFP) addresses each project as an important and long-term contribution to its community and landscape. The collaborative nature of the designers and architects at FFP leads to engagement on the part of clients, owners, stakeholders, and creative partners. Throughout each project, FFP is guided by a four-part design philosophy based on Process, Context, Function, and Aesthetics. Successful projects strike a balance among these “four pillars” of architectural design in a way that each principle leads inevitably to the next, resulting in a true understanding of a project’s purpose and relevance.

PROCESS
An open, inclusive, and investigatory method of working results in designs that carefully address issues of economy, functionality, and acceptance so that the project can be realized. The ultimate goal to build the project is paramount from the beginning of the process, as FFP develops a program of consistency, completeness, flexibility, and feasibility for each client.

CONTEXT
Whether natural or urban, the immediate setting is a strong determinant of the character—either complementary or contrasting—of FFP’s buildings. Striving for a sense of long-term harmony between the building and the environment, FFP nevertheless strikes a design balance between uniqueness and integration.

FUNCTION
FFP seeks to understand the broadest as well as the most intimate ways in which a building is used. Projects are developed to consider how users and uses change through time in order to give the buildings a long life and to minimize functional obsolescence. Materials, technology, and systems are used in economic and sustainable ways to make projects usable, flexible, and buildable.

AESTHETICS
Inspired by process, context, and function, the aesthetic character of FFP’s work integrates these principles with a profound understanding of both art and buildability. Attention to use and a belief in the power of elemental forms result in an aesthetic direction whose strength is the ability to deliver a project beyond the client’s vision and expectations.