TECHNE: the Art of Making
Who We Are
We are studioTECHNE, a firm founded upon the idea that people and places matter. The term ‘tékʰnɛ’ (techne) is defined as the rational method that is followed in artistic making.
We design for people and the ethos of shared values and positive communication. Through our systemic knowledge, our meaningful interactions with our clients, and our intentional design, we hope to create spaces that allow people to develop authentic relationships and community. Our firm is comprised of a passionate group of makers + problem solvers who apply creativity, thoughtfulness, and strategic analysis to invent spaces that are dynamic and foster a culture of collaboration + innovation.
Our Beginnings: It All Started with a Monastery in Michigan
Our commercial architecture firm was founded in and is still located in Cleveland, Ohio. In the early stages of our firm’s existence, we worked on a masterplan and dining hall project for a Roman Orthodox monastery in central Michigan. Although this was one of our beginning projects, it was also a foundational and profound project because with this project, we developed our firm’s process and guiding set of principles.
We were anxious for a number of reasons, a main concern being a language barrier between us and our clients. To add even more pressure, we were introduced to six-hundred of their donors as the architects (or as the Abbess affectionately referred to us, “the boys”) entrusted to guide them in the development of their monastic community. We spent the rest of the day eating, meeting donors, walking the grounds, reviewing the existing buildings, and eating more food. At the end of the day, we were sent back to Cleveland with more homemade food and bread than we could have imagined eating.
Many thoughts reverberated through our minds; there were many angles to consider. Besides the language barrier, we needed to understand the root of their problems, design in a way that supported their community and reflected the hundreds of years of monastic traditions, but still transcend time. At the center of everything, we used the guiding question, “will our design result in artful making, (also known as tékʰnɛ)?”
In developing a response, we first learned about who they were and immersed ourselves in their history and traditions to ensure our design was intentional and meaningful. We incorporated their ideal that ‘every act is prayer’. Having developed the basic concepts, we went to the monastery to present our ideas. In the middle of our presentation, we were interrupted (if we learned anything, do not interrupt a nun) by sixty people excitedly speaking in a foreign language. We realized and learned that our clients were successfully able to understand our drawings, models and concepts and were proud to take ownership of the design and embrace it as theirs -- our design reflected our core ideal: tékʰnɛ.
Flash Forward: 24 Years Later…
The success of our driving force, Tékʰnɛ, has allowed us to continue to thrive twenty-four years later. Tékʰnɛ continues to be the foundation upon which we build relationships with our clients. It allows us to develop a comprehensive understanding of each project through which we authentically collaborate with our clients to reinforce their culture, improve their personal interactions, and create unique environments specific to their goals.