To design with and not for.
Good design and architecture works with the land it shares and works with the people that interact with and inhabit it. Sometimes this thinking can become confused: "I designed this house for..." but it it is the buildings that include rather than exclude that create lasting space of joy. The difference is listening. There are many aspects to designing and building that need to be taken into account and we can get most of the way there by previous knowledge, intuition and skill. What makes a great building is having a process that asks questions and listens to the result. Listening requires an open mind and to not have a preconceived idea of what the outcome will be. Often I'll see buildings that clearly the architects had an image of what they wanted to design before they understood the property or its occupants and the result looks out of place, dropped in from somewhere else. Ask your clients what they truly want, how they want to live and what isn't working for them right now. Listen to what your clients are saying and keep asking questions. A good design relationship is built on listening and understanding. Listen to the property, where the wind comes from, where the water flow, to all the factors that make up a unique property. It is not hard to design a building but it requires effort to design a good building and listening is a step in the right direction.
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From a young age I have loved making things, my earliest memory of this was building ships in the backyard with my Dad or go-karts from scrap plywood and disassembled bicycles. As I grew older I started building tree-houses (my earliest architecture next to the sofa fort) and more elaborate boats and go-karts. I enjoyed making Warhammer and scale models and in my teen years I discovered the possibilities of Balsa Wood and how to make my own aeroplanes.
When I studied in Denmark I was exposed to a new depth of skills, material, tools and ways of thinking. We were taught that architecture did no belong just on the page and that to communicate we must also bring with us our ideas made physical. At the Aarhus School of Architecture there were incredibly skilled technicians, some who had spent years as professional furniture makers and all who brought patience and knowledge to any project I brought to them. I learned in the workshops there that my ideas could find new ways of expressing themselves through wood and metal and clay, in a more responsive way than paper or on a computer. I learned that there was no line between what was considered furniture or architecture, that all designs exists on the same spectrum of idea manifest in the physical world. Today with my architecture practice, my making skills are how I interact with the buildings I design. I do not see it that there is a point where my role stops and an interior designer or furniture store takes over. My ideas for space have strength and structure because I have thought of the objects that go inside them. It was true in the past that an Architect was a master craftsman and I wish to return that notion of craft and making intersecting with design and architecture. |
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