Mead Quin, founder of Mead Quin Design sat down with William Duff and Jim Westover to talk about designing with a sense of purpose, the importance of firm culture for a design practice and more for her design blog Haven.

This is a summary of the interview by Mead Quin Design.

‘As we stepped into 2022, we asked ourselves a series of questions as we thought about our practice, our approach and how we can continue to bring intentionality to our lives and work. With each of our Haven posts this year, we’ve embraced one of those questions in conversations with our colleagues. Today we ask ourselves: how do we begin to make a cultural shift from consuming and doing to investing and being?

How can residential architecture best promote a shift from consuming and doing to investing and being?

Duffer: The primary answer is to build with care and craft, to design things to last. This is true for products and for structures. Our contribution is to craft architecture that will remain, that is sustainable and sustaining.

A shift from consuming and doing to investing and being leaves financial and heartspace for generosity. How do you promote a culture of generosity at WDA?

Jim: We promote generosity and philanthropy, but we tend to be hands-on in the way we give back, whether it’s through Chairity, (where volunteers auction off their designs to raise money for the community), or the art camps we host to expose high school students to architecture.’

To read more about their conversation (and learn some fun facts about William and Jim!), click here.