The first view upon entering the studio of SHoP Architects is a wall full of model airplanes. These airplanes visualize the firm’s overarching philosophy of “performance-based design”, in which form maximizes the capabilities of a building. While performance-based design is second-nature in the aviation and automotive industries, it is a rare stance amongst architecture firms.

Hangil Book House, Seoul, Korea

SHoP Architects, a New York-based firm founded in 1996, had their first big break in 2000, winning the inaugural PS.1/MoMA’s young architects program. Since then, their projects have become increasingly complex. They are currently developing a two-mile waterfront park along New York’s East River and a campus center for the Fashion Institute of Technology.

One of the five SHoP principles, George Pasquarelli discusses the fundamental difference in SHoP’s approach, starting with drawings. Traditional plan, section and elevation drawings ignore the fourth dimension–time. Instead, SHoP works with the temporal, investigating how the building grows into being.

Mitchell Park-Camera Obscura, Greenport, NY

Using this exciting concept of organic building, SHoP generates design based upon how a building is actually made. Pre-fabrication–oft a cringe factor of surburban sprawl– is actually part of the process. For their Mitchell Park, Camera Obscura project, each piece of the structure is developed and cut by computers, then delivered to contractors. The computers hit such an accuracy that any misfitting pieces on the construction site are due to errors that can be systematically traced back to the moment of slippage. From this stance, SHoP’s drawings actually teach contractors how to build.

FIT C2 Building, New York, NY

They’re also at the forefront of building technology, partnering with the US Department of Energy and universities. For example, the firm is working on an active prototype for energy collection where solar panels would not be expanses of heavy panels, but would be transparent and used for the entire skin of a building. When they use this technology in the FIT project, the building’s energy performance would soar. Their studio continually questions conventional architectural wisdom.

“Facades are lazy,” challenges Principal Gregg Pasquarelli. “What will architecture look like if a facade is active?”

The use of technology in construction and pre-fab has incredibly exciting implications for the future of building. Complete kits for shelters could be deployed by UNHCR for displaced peoples, by war or natural disasters. Hospitals templates could be created and then customized depending on the climate and needs of a place. The best news? Their research, while costly at the onset, actually leads to lower construction rates than conventional methods, says Jonathan Mallie, one of the five principals of SHoP. Progressive building depends on the forward-thinking firms such as SHoP.

On March 8th, 2010, SHoP’s Barclays Center will break ground for construction along Atlantic and Flatbush avenues in Brooklyn, site of one of the busiest interchanges in the city.