Envisioning

Every place has a history and a community before a project begins. Its character is written into the geology of the site and the ways it has been shaped over time. Envisioning is where OBMI uncovers that character, through cultural and environmental research and close work with clients. From that picture, we define what a place is and what it could become.

“The first question is, what is this site about? How does it speak to us? The geography, the history, the traces we can see, the cultural elements. Those are the roots of the storytelling.”

Liora Haymann,

Principal

Sometimes what that research uncovers overturns the first instinct. Our team may arrive with a direction in mind and then find that the place is asking for something else.

OBMI translates what emerges into a narrative and visual framework, a document presented to the client that carries the identity of the site and becomes the reference point for the decisions that follow. It establishes who the project is for and what stands in the way, so that constraints become part of the story rather than obstacles to it. The design factors all of this in, and becomes the resolution.

Without this, a project has nothing to measure itself against. Decisions get made in isolation, disciplines pull in different directions, and the work drifts from the idea that started it. The framework is what a project returns to when those decisions are difficult. It is specific enough to guide spatial choices and robust enough to hold through construction.

Envisioning underpins every other discipline OBMI practices. A client comes away with a story that is genuinely theirs, and a direction to move a project forward.