Crafting Values

Craft v : to make with care, skill, and ingenuity 

Values n : define what is important in our lives 

When we craft anything, we decide how it will look and function, what materials to use, how to fabricate it. Consciously or unconsciously, those decisions are informed by our values. To knit a scarf I might consider the wearer and climate, should it be made of natural or synthetic materials, where will those materials be sourced and by whom. Each choice reveals concerns, beliefs, and aspirations that comprise our values.  

For us—New Canaan Library and the community, Centerbrook Architects, Turner Construction, MillerKnoll, and Design for Freedom—crafting values meant designing a structure that fosters lifelong learning, social connection, and inclusion, and building and appointing it in a way that embodies our ideals.  

This art assemblage breaks down how we got there. 

Crafting 

Panels appear sequentially from design through construction. Development was sometimes nonlinear. 

Idea and inspiration – Listen, imagine, have fun. 

Research and analysis – Search, study, think critically. 

Test and refine – Try, fail, try again.  

Build – Make it whole, piece by piece.  

Values  

Each panel relates to at least one guiding value. Most are intertwined. 

Craft – Make with care, inspire us to think differently.  

Lifelong learning – Forever explore and grow.  

Community – Be an inviting, effective platform for the public.   

Inclusion – Make room for all, value our contributions. 

Sustainability – Follow the triple bottom line: environmental soundness, social equity, economic feasibility.