Living Design

Design for life.

Since 1935, we’ve been on a mission to create beautiful spaces that inspire. To respect and restore our natural world. To foster feelings of belonging and holistic well-being in the built environment. To relentlessly pursue knowledge and innovation.

As the world grapples with increasingly complex social issues, climate challenges, and threats to biodiversity, we’re turning our aspirations into action. Through a holistic approach we call Living Design, we treat every project as an opportunity to make the world a better, healthier place.

A concept designed by our Denmark studio, Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects, Vridsløselille aims to lay the foundation for a healthy and social lifestyle through a variety of community spaces and intertwining parks.

Vridsløselille, Denmark

Our Approach

Whether it’s an office, campus, neighborhood, public park, or entire city, Living Design is the philosophy that guides our work. We carefully evaluate every project through seven lenses, or design drivers: Poetics & Beauty, Conceptual Clarity, Research & Innovation, Technology & Tectonics, Community & Inclusion, Resilience & Regeneration, and Health & Well-being.

The Living Design Framework

Our design drivers are carefully crafted to best serve our clients and the whole of life: that is, every living species and the habitats they depend on. Each driver is measured by key performance indicators that assess qualitative or performance-based impact. By being more intentional in our process and purposeful in our outcomes, we’re doing our part to create a healthier world.

The headquarters for HMTX Industries is an exemplar of regenerative design. The building’s operation is zero carbon and net-positive energy, meaning that it produces more energy than it consumes.

Norwalk, Connecticut

Designed in partnership with Indigenous architect Eladia Smoke, Dawes Road Library elegantly pays homage to local Indigenous culture with a facade reminiscent of a star blanket, a traditional gift in some Indigenous communities.

Toronto, Ontario

Design Drivers

Conceptual Clarity: Context, design intent, and reasoned position.

Research & Innovation: Exploration and discovery that lead to new knowledge, pushing beyond the limitations of today to solve the most complex problems of tomorrow.

Technology & Tectonics: The seamless assembly of the many disparate parts of a built environment into a cohesive, elegant, and well-crafted place.

Community & Inclusion: Empathy and compassion nourish our culture of justice, equity, and inclusion, and bring diverse voices to the process. Design has the power to touch lives, make memories, and bring people together around a common vision.

Resilience & Regeneration: Design solutions that protect, restore, and enhance the functioning of natural systems and a diversity of life—a must in a rapidly changing world with finite resources.

Health & Well-being: Design that promotes physical, mental, emotional, and social vitality for life in all its many forms, resulting in a thriving and diverse ecosystem.

Poetics & Beauty: Enduring design that is aesthetically moving and imbued with meaning.

Our vision for the University of Utah Research Park seamlessly combines accessible public transportation, environmentally conscious urban planning, and sustainable infrastructure to create a resilient, economically viable, and inclusive community.

Salt Lake City, Utah