Seeking the in-between

http://www.hargreaves.com/

firm´s philosophy:

Hargreaves Associates has at its core a single overriding concern: connection -- connection between culture and the environment, connection between the land and its people.

Our work acknowledges the simple truth that 'made' landscapes can never be natural. With increasing frequency our work deals with land which has been made and re-made.

Through manipulation and amplification of environmental phenomena such as light, shadow, water, wind; residual environmental and industrial remnants; and topography and habitat, we strive to foster an awareness and understanding of the structural components of natural systems by direct interaction.
This direct interaction is in contrast to the insular experience of a replication or restoration of 'nature.' In this way the experience of these built landscapes may indeed be more real in their impact on people than landscapes of preservation or re-creation.

In other instances, these landscapes may accentuate past, present and future fusions of culture and environment. Whether reductive or rich, highly programmed or passive, culturally interpretive or teeming with the phenomena of nature's own systems, these built landscapes seek the power of connection to our day-to-day lives.