vision

"The bridge swings over the stream 'with ease and power.'  It does not just connect banks that are already there.  The banks emerge as banks only as the bridge crosses the stream.  The bridge expressly causes them to lie across from each other.  One side is set off against the other by the bridge.  Nor do the banks stretch along the stream as indifferent boarder strips of dry land.   With the banks, the bridge brings to the stream the one and the other expanse of the landscape lying behind them.  It brings stream and bank and land into each other's neighborhood.  The bridge gathers the earth as landscape around the stream.  Thus it guides and attends the stream through the meadows.  Resting upright in the stream's bed, the bridge-piers bear the swing of the arches that leave the stream's waters to run their course.  The waters may wander on quiet and gay, the sky's floods from storm or thaw may shoot past the piers in torrential waves - the bridge is ready for the sky's weather and its fickle nature.  Even where the bridge covers the stream, it holds its flow up to the sky by taking it for a moment under the vaulted gateway and then setting it free once more."

Martin Heidegger, "Building Dwelling Thinking"

Symposium on Man in Space, Darmstadt, 1951

Mankind’s primordial purpose for building is shelter.  Shelter provides man with cover or protection.  However, shelter does not merely provide cover or protection from the elements, other men, other dangers, etcetera; shelter also provides man with a refuge; a haven. A refuge is a source of help, relief, or comfort.  A haven is a harbor, an anchorage, a sanctuary; a sacred place; a meaningful place.

Architecture is about Place Making.   Architects are charged with the creation of private realms for solitude and public realms for human interaction, defining order in a chaotic world, and placing one within the cosmos.  Our design process includes studies in building performance, the built context and natural environment, and client culture, underpinning place making and innovation at the intersection of tectonic form, building ecology, and the human senses. 

Based in Dallas, Texas, ALBERT MARICHAL ARCHITECT, PLLC is an award winning design firm specializing in architecture, landscape, and urban design.