harmony by design
Concordia's mission is to support and cultivate interconnected communities through joyful and equitable design collaboration. For over 40 years, our practice has served a broad range of public, private, institutional, civic, and non-profit clients across the globe. With every project, we seek to align with the visions of our clients, the sensitivities of place, and the needs of everyday users. Once these factors are understood, we approach the planning and design process through the following lenses:
In our experience, it is often a combination of timeless and new that inspires and uplifts. At Concordia, we use Common Edge, a design approach to intentionally create at the intersection of cutting-edge innovation and time-honored design principles. To help advance and articulate this philosophy, Concordia teamed up with architectural critic Martin Pederson (former editor of Metropolis) to create a web-based planning and design blog called Common Edge Collaborative. To date, more than 500 designers, journalists, and experts have contributed to exploring, challenging and articulating their own ideas and perspectives through this unique, open-source platform.
Common Edge Design
Whether we are designing a building, planning a neighborhood park or developing a citywide master plan, we use our Nexus framework as a guide. Nexus is Concordia's planning and design framework for interconnecting policies, programs, and places that support an equitable and holistic community life. The goal is to plan and design for not only the physical environment, but also the cultural, social, economic, organizational, and educational opportunities as well. With our extensive experience working at all scales of planning and design, Concordia can help clients to think holistically, considering both immediate and long-term costs and benefits, as well as preparing for resilience and adaptation to inevitable changes promised by an uncertain future.
Nexus
Concordia Roundtable
Our work is fueled by collaboration with our clients, and importantly, guided by the needs and desires of our client’s clients. Since its founding in 1983, Concordia has been recognized as a pioneer in the field of resident-centered community engagement. Our community engagement process, called the Concordia Roundtable, is a carefully structured program that invites building users, neighbors, community leaders, and other key stakeholders to participate in "co-design" workshops, using Concordia's Nexus framework. For Concordia, co-design is the joyful approach to solving a shared problem, by working collaboratively, intentionally seeking and amplifying diverse lived experiences. Roundtable teaches how to do just that.