Design | Building | Community

We believe good design is a tool for building healthy, connected communities.

Sketch of tower architecture - Peter Johannknecht

Collaborating with our clients, our project teams, and our local community, we create functional, sustainable spaces that elevate daily life, connect to the natural world, and raise the spirit.

Based in Victoria, Canada, the studio was founded in 2012 by Principals Peter Johannknecht and Gregory Damant, who lead a team of skilled architects, technologists, designers and creators in creating a range of award-winning projects, including large-scale residential and commercial developments, private custom homes, interior design, educational, healthcare, and cultural spaces.

Building Performance & Sustainability

Building performance is an integral element of our design criteria and creating projects that use sustainable design and construction methods is important to us. We use PassiveHouse and LEED methodologies, and we collaborate across professions to create solutions that are right within the budget, context, and location. Our goal is to bring design and sustainability together on every project.

Successful, good architecture enhances people's lives, but should also not damage the environment. We must think in years and decades.
Peter Johannknecht, Principal

Community

We work with the community at each stage of our projects, including stakeholders, neighbours, councils, designers, artists, and craftspeople, to rigorously design projects that are truly linked to their location and reflect the local culture. We build spaces that people will use for generations.

Our Manifesto

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Beautiful surroundings enhance our daily lives, and we believe in the potential of architecture to make a difference, to enlighten, and to enrich the human experience.
It is the role of the architect to weave together the needs and resources of the client, community, and the natural environment to create spaces that are elegantly functional and uplifting.
We are interested in working in new ways: learning and collaborating across traditional professional boundaries to create the best projects possible.
We recognize our responsibility to address the climate crisis through our work and collaborations towards a carbon neutral future.
We welcome conversations about architecture and reconciliation and how our work can become part of the process.

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Our Team