The process of designing a building is very goal-oriented.  There are typical tasks to be performed, a budget to meet, and a schedule to meet.  

In this oft-repeated process, it is easy to set one’s sights on the goal, and thereby miss the journey!  At RWA, we enjoy the journey as well as the destination.  There may be an un-selected scheme, a sketch, an object, a material, a system, an idea, a website, a place, a detail, a sound, or a person – some discovery that is made along the way which excites us, or inspires us, or is just plain fun. 

For us it’s a matter of keeping our eyes and ears open for surprises, and also to work in a way which engenders discovery – take the path less traveled and discoveries are sure to be made.

Below you will find just a sampling of the discoveries we’ve made while on our journey.

Leaves of a fig tree against a window screen, casting a shadow which in turn creates a transparent viewing port devoid of glare.

 

On a rural Texas site, as the sun rose on the Summer Solstice, morning light illuminated hundreds of spider webs almost simultaneously, webs which only minutes earlier had not even been visible.  The trick was to hold the camera still while the heart was pounding, and to take photographs quickly before the defining dew evaporated!

 

This curious object was in the lay-down yard at a project of ours.  We have no idea what it is, but there was something intriguing about its presumed functionality, and the shadow play on the curved surfaces.  OK, so we tricked it up in PhotoShop for fun!

 

Detoured from the interstate while on the way to a small Texas town in the piney woods, we found this dam and thing-a-majig, reminding us again of the power of scale and utility.