The Timeless Power of a Parti

Space is the canvas. Time is the ink.

Early in my career, I was introduced to a word that has stayed with me: parti.

From the French parti pris, it means "a decision taken."

In architecture, it is the big idea, the fundamental concept that organizes the work. Everything else is secondary: the walls, the details, the furniture. They can bend and shift.

The parti endures.

Life deserves a parti too.

A decision taken at the deepest level.

Not rigid,

not fixed,

but an orientation of spirit,

a true north that survives the storms of change.

Every project unfolds in phases.

They are as inevitable as the seasons.

Ignore them, and the work resists you.

Respect them, and time itself becomes your ally, not only in architecture but in the way a life takes shape.

In the concept stage, the idea is only a sketch, fragile and fluid. In life, it is the first stirring of purpose, like a thought in meditation, bright and fleeting, gone if you fail to notice.

The parti is the thread that carries that spark forward.

Next is design, when walls shift, drawings multiply, and details evolve.

The parti holds the center.

In life, this is where intentions solidify, where choices begin to close doors and open others.

Move too fast and you stumble.

Wait too long and the window closes.

Balance is the art here, the middle way between haste and hesitation.

Then comes construction, when the ground resists, and time becomes unforgiving.

Weather interrupts,

materials delay,

reality pushes back.

In life, the same truth emerges: plans meet resistance.

Zen teaches us not to cling to how we thought it should unfold, but to bend without breaking. If the parti is true, you can adjust without losing your center.

And in use, the building does not end, it begins.

It settles, ages, adapts.

Paint fades, furniture shifts, people come and go.

Nothing remains untouched.

In life, too, impermanence shapes us. What endures is not the detail but the essence, the decision taken, the parti of your being.

And so it is in life:

Decide your parti, then let time do its work.

Details will shift.

Plans will falter.

But the big idea, the decision taken, must hold.

Field Note:

The details can change. The phases can bend. But without a true parti, neither a building nor a life will stand the test of time.