Essays
ImagesVisions of Creatives / En Kyano
Before the First Mark
Essays
We’ve always known place-making starts with deep strategic work that most projects skip.
In most projects, the drawings come first—the architect’s line, the floor plan, the elevation. Foundational, but not the foundation. Form describes what a building is, but cannot define who it serves, why it matters, or how it should feel.
We begin differently, in the space where nothing’s decided and everything matters. Before any line is drawn, there’s discovery. We learn the place’s culture, rituals, rhythms, and how people gather and live. We define who it’s for, not just demographics, but real human needs and desires. What do they seek? What do they truly need? There’s research into journey and experience. How should arrival feel? What defines the emotional arc of a day? When do people crave solitude or connection? Where should interactions happen, and where should they have freedom to simply be? How do service flows support this without being visible?
There’s translation work—making abstract ideas tangible, turning emotional intelligence into buildable decisions. Sometimes it works in reverse: finding depth and meaning within operational realities, financial constraints, and the practical demands of running a property. Every project is different. The questions shift, the emphasis changes, the discoveries take unexpected paths. But this foundational depth of thinking is always needed. Without it, projects lack centre.
Brilliant architecture can feel incoherent. Expensive materials are applied to experiences no one imagined. Staff struggle because the building’s logic fights operational flow. Spaces photograph beautifully but feel forgettable in person. Our studies capture this work; the cultural, operational, and emotional intelligence that gives teams a shared frequency to work from. When this foundation exists, decisions become faster and more confident. Seamless experiences emerge because someone thought about how service, space, and emotion intersect. The project develops its own internal logic. Everyone speaks the same language.
We protect this phase. Hold space for uncomfortable questions. Resist drawing before we understand the depth beneath the surface. Because once you skip this foundation, you spend the rest of the project trying to find your way back.
Before the first mark comes the strategic work—the discovery, research, and definition that grounds everything that follows. That’s where meaning lives. That’s where we begin.
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The Long View is a series exploring how design becomes a vessel for longevity and meaning.