AR+D Publishing

Meredith Miller: Detroit Reassembly Plant threaded so many themes together that we had developed individually. It was very exciting for us to see how the work came together. But regarding the mechanics of how we operate as a four-principal office—there are things that are hugely inefficient in terms of time management. We all like to be involved in the conceptual phase of our projects. It’s what we enjoy the most, and we’re at our best when we’re sitting around a table, sketching and talking. With four of us, there’s a lot of input. For the sake of efficiency, as a project moves forward, we divide tasks and responsibilities, but most of the work cycles through all four of us.

As a collaborative, what does it mean to practice architecture?

Meredith: There are so many models for what an architecture practice can be—which makes it both exciting and daunting to forge our own approach. For us, practice is synonymous with relationships. We each have our own history and thinking when it comes to design, but to practice architecture as T+E+A+M is to interact with other T+E+A+M members and the people with whom we do projects. Projects unfold incrementally as different groupings of people interact at different intervals with specific aims all organized under a larger purpose. Structuring those incremental efforts and interactions in a way that makes room for the core ideas and values that run through our collaboration is its own design challenge.