Contemporary Design

Making outdoor places that work.

As a visitor / user you should feel instinctively that you know where you are and how the site would like you to use it – e.g. the journey from arrival to ‘the main attraction’; if there is a trail where would it start?; in public realm does the space have a purpose – should you pause & sit on a bench?; listen to water….watch people; if it is a sometime public performance space how does it feel when there are no people in it?

DCLA believe that the design language of a new outdoor place should be recognisable in relation to its context, e.g. at the Eden Project the man-made landscape references its past use as an open-cast china clay quarry.

We believe that good contemporary design requires recognition of the “OLD” and beautifully crafted introduction of “NEW” to make the site work for us as twentieth century users.