Surprise, Arizona

Prior to the involvement of Suite 6 in master planning and character development for Prasada, Westcor’s branding consultant had developed a series of precepts through which the community character could evolve.  Embracing more than 3,500 acres of residential and commercial master-planned community, the strong, yet simple name Prasada  emerged – a sanskrit word meaning “grace” or “peace”.  With this unique name came three main precepts: serenity, movement  and refreshment.  A storyline linking these words spoke to the calming effects of water on the human psyche, and of the need for residents of this new community to experience living in a place of tranquility and balance.

Suite 6 was given the opportunity to further develop this foundation into a community-wide vocabulary of architecture and environmental design concepts.  Beginning with an intense image-building exercise involving the developers, project consultants and marketing team, Suite 6 began to provide substance to the abstract ideas through notions of color, shape, pattern, texture and scale based on natural elements under the influence of water.  As the region is a desert, and thus scarce with this resource, a vocabulary was developed that included water forms (bubbles, swirls, waves), sedimentary (water-layered) rocks, and abstracted plant structures (leaves, branches).  These image references have subsequently influenced many of the physical properties of planning and vertical development, site walls, signage, and material selection.