In her latest essay on Substack, Chu-Gooding founding principal Annie Chu reflects on how she looks at architecture as a system of families: layered, responsive, and deeply human. Where structure, language, and curiosity shape the work as much as the designer.

“An architectural education afforded me a way of thinking that begins with observation, analysis, and emotional response. These, in turn, suggest possible trajectories for design development. Much like characters in a story begin to take shape, these “characters” are what I call families. Like families, there are genetic similarities and behavioral patterns that define their members. Each member has a role, a range of variations that guides its development throughout the design process.

As an architect, I can also refer to these as systems. Architecture is a layered, woven, reactive, compliant, and rigorous orchestration of such systems. Much like an orchestral score, these families and systems play their parts within the limits and range of their abilities, but most importantly, they play together.“

Read the full article on her substack, It Starts With a Sketch.