Graeme Mann & Patricia Capua Mann

Today's techniques and technologies are subject to rapid change. Fortunately, advances in architecture occur at a much slower pace, primarily when it comes to the use of new construction techniques and technologies but also in terms of the relationship between the art of constructing and materials. The greatest architectural inventions essentially focus on a new definition of the "art de vivre", on the interpretation of a theme or a programme, on the quest for new spatiality. There is a history of the evolution of techniques but there is also a history of the method in which space is appropriated.

Our role as architects is to understand that creativity must be part of an architectural continuity if it is to make sense. Architecture must understand the very essence of the sources and links between social realities, then translate them to arrive at a coherence in architectural form and language. In this climate of evolving tradition and form, we feel the need to give meaning to the processes of change in which we inevitably participate. Our responsibility derives from the encouragement to change, from the integration of innovating elements and the recognition of their quality.

Graeme Mann & Patricia Capua Mann, 2008