What is a project language?

A Project Language is a detailed description of an architectural project through words and rough sketches. It is derived from the dreams and wishes of the project’s stakeholders, which are articulated into a series of design patterns and the interconnections between them, but without yet committing to design specifics and technical drawings. The use of words evokes the character and feeling of the place, of the elements included in it and of the relationships between them. Sketches provide a loose visualization of the intended atmosphere and experience of the place without committing to a particular design solution.

A clearly developed Project Language provides a stable point of reference for unfolding the design according to its intended vision, as well as a means of coordinating and maintaining the spirit of the project among all who have a stake in the process of its realization and construction. Ultimately, a Project Language functions like a poem: technical in its grammatical construction, and full of feeling and life in the experience it provides. The goal of the ensuing design process, then, is to turn this poem from words to matter, while maintaining its underlying feeling.

A Project Language is a living document – it keeps evolving alongside the evolution of the project, adapting to the project’s stakeholder responses as well as to the realities of bringing a project to realization. In that sense, a Project Language is never finished.