WHR is an acknowledged leader in what has become known as Evidence-Based Design. We think of it as an integral part of knowledge-seeking design process. In our view, clients deserve a process that substantiates design recommendations on the most dependable data available. We define Evidence-Based Design in the following manner:
Evidence-based design is a process for the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence from research and practice in making critical decisions, together with an informed client, about the design of each individual and unique project.
D. Kirk Hamilton, 2003
David Watkins, Chairman and Founder of WHR and Kirk Hamilton, former Senior Principal, have long advocated for a more rigorous, less intuitive approach to architectural design. For us, this means we need to be using the most credible evidence from a variety of sources: fields typically unaffiliated with the practice of architecture and collaborative research with our clients, universities and others. We must also recruit different kinds of expertise than has been customarily found within architectural practice and maintain readily available data-bases to better inform our designers.
This approach does not mean complying with rigid rules and standards or eliminating creativity from design. Instead, it means we can more easily point to design options, offer evidence to suggest why one option might be preferable to another and, most importantly, better guide our client’s decision-making process.
This emphasis on raising the quality of design decision-making and imposing more discipline on the process of design has led us to become engaged in research projects involving our clients and their institutions, creating an accessible data-base of research applicable to our work and seeking our new staff resources to guide our knowledge-driven design process.
For us, design decisions based on increasingly better information is what clients should expect from their architect and interior designer.
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