"Techne Kraft" has existed since 1987.  Techne is Greek and means "the art and skill of";  and Kraft is German for :strength".  It is a unique sole Architectural Design Studio for the practicing of making ideas realizable as space-place-habitat.  I strive, seek, and search to find affordable, fully accessible, and understandable building solutions for anyone to use, live and work well.  These designs, on occasion, become more than just buildings.  Occasionally, they cross the membrane of historical experience to be an object of Architecture.  Saying a building is Architecture, is like saying "I think, therefore I am."  Is thinking it, much like a design competition enough!?

When all is said and done, when all of the water has passed beneath the bridge of experience, and as the journey approaches the crossing again and again, doing the work or problem-solving is half the effort of an Architect.  Meeting the expectations of the client, program, and budget is another 25%.  The remaining quarter is expressionism.  Not the minimalist art movement of the 1900's, but rather what comes from the artist in us!?  What cues, what memories, what emotions if you will, set our sense of place, to be in order with our expectations of it?  This is intent and motive and it must be squared.

As to my purpose, you can call it freelance, self-employed, looking-for-employment, most-of-the-time part-time, or a lifetime-JOB ... it is real.  It is not for the lonely, the timid, or the weary.  Its commitment entails envisioning, drawing, and building 'places with space' for those who wish to live and be well, even if a virtual project like a competition.  It seems that "existing well" is a choice.  And if we venture towards setting the stage for this existence to take root, by use of three famous edicts of Mass; Surface; and the PLAN; and still further we water it by use of order, compass, and regulating line ... we make the prospect easier and more purposeful.  An architecture if it is done carefully, as in much of my work (remember I said above, not all we do crosses the membrane to Architecture), can make the difference between a space that can uplift the spirit or lower our sometimes anxious mood, to a precious calm.  Is it an accident that the White House is "white?"  Or that a Movie Theater or Radio City Music Hall includes stagecraft sets, reds, and flashing lights?  Would you enter a large glass box, that was not clear, by the advertising of what it was, is!?

Good Architecture, space that has within it thought and purposeful connections, can provide that place, as a membrane or skin to contain or bring forth the memories that mark our existence well and to which we might mention to a friend in passing, go see this place.  Sometimes, it is not important to have your name on the marquee or the footnotes, just to know that people notice your "moves in time and space."

I think Le Corbusier was more towards the better in saying:   'You employ stone, wood and concrete, and with these materials you build houses and palaces. That is construction. Ingenuity is at work.  But suddenly you touch my heart, you do me good, I am happy and I say: "This is beautiful." That is Architecture. Art enters in.'

And I would add, if I may be so bold, "for the purpose of existing and making us safe, connected, and well."

In Him, by "US", and through Supreme Confidence, be safe, stay connected, and strive to live well.

Jeff

PS - Yes, we all construct and think!  It does not ever have to be said, and it should never be required to be so, though it must be expressed in some fashion, our works.  It is human to think, express, design objects, build projects, or think of graceful manifestations!  This could be a poem, a tree house, a kid's bathroom (unlike few others), a grassy-paver driveway (absolutely like no other), or a cafe-noire you build, name, and design for a best friend on a shoe-string budget.  Creations, some according to"oaths and vows" are not ours to control alone, but the problem-solving is often left to a single mind or person's thoughts, whom talent and belief matters, is not how much is built, or how much money made or expended to achieve, but what is gained in the thinking.  The stuff of human importance we have as a result of this thinking, to most is just building, but to an architect, it can often times be a well built piece of art called Architecture!?