For Ryue Nishizawa and Kazuyo Sejima, principals of the Pritzker Prize-winning firm SANAA, innovation can occur long before a building is designed. The program for Grace Farms (which opened last weekend in New Canaan, Connecticut) required just such creativity.

“It’s got a large place for eating, but it’s not a restaurant,” Sejima said. “It’s got a gym, but it’s not a sports center. It’s got rooms for reading, but it’s not a library. It’s a new kind of public space.”