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Something Together is a creative studio focused on presenting architecture and design in an intelligent and accessible way through the design, curation and production of exhibitions, events and publications.TRANSCRIPT
Something Together is a creative studio focused onpresenting architecture and design in an intelligent andaccessible way through the design, curation andproduction of exhibitions, events and publications.
Fleur Watson and Martyn Hook are committed to the ideathat architecture and design should be a critical part ofthe Australian cultural landscape.
Something Together is concerned with effectivecommunication of ideas about architecture and design tothe general public or a trade specific audience in a waythat is clear, direct and when necessary educational.
Something Together with MARCH Studio
Design Discussion Club at Aesop_ State of Design 2009
Something Together with MARCH Studio
Installation at eg etal_ LMFF2010
Something TogetherAmanda Levete, Established & Sons Exhibition_ LMFF2009
Something Together with MARCH StudioMAKE CHANGE Exhibition_ Asia Pacific Design Triennale 2010
Something Together with MARCH StudioPen Plan Parlour _ Asia Pacific Design Triennale 2010
FREESampleMaterial
CONVERSATIONS WITH ARCHITECTS
ABOUT A TROUBLED RELATIONSHIP
YAEL REISNER WITH FLEUR WATSON
ArchitectureandBeauty
This edition first published 2010
© 2010 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
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Executive Commissioning Editor: Helen Castle
Project Editor: Miriam Swift
Assistant Editor: Calver Lezama
ISBN 978-0-470-99784-0 (hb)
978-0-470-84792-3 (pb)
Cover design, page design and layouts by Jeremy Tilston, The Oak Studio Ltd
Printed in Italy by Printer Trento Srl
DEDICATION8 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS9
INTRODUCTION11
FRANK GEHRY30 ZVI HECKER44
PETER COOK58 JUHANI PALLASMAA74
LEBBEUS WOODS86 GAETANO PESCE102
WOLF PRIX114 THOM MAYNE130
ERIC OWEN MOSS146 WILL ALSOP158
ZAHA HADID172 ODILE DECQ186
MARK GOULTHORPE200 GREG LYNN216
KOLATAN-MACDONALD232
HERNAN DIAZ ALONSO244
SUGGESTED READING259 INDEX260
PICTURE CREDITS264
contents
Will Alsop
PURSUIT OF PLEASURE‘ARCHITECTURE IS ART!’,’ exclaims British architect Will Alsop. ‘It is the most public of
arts.’ Educated at the renowned Architectural Association (AA) in London during the
late 1960s and imbued with the school’s commitment to creative process, Alsop is
disparaging of the notion of ‘objectivism’ within architecture. As he suggests: ‘The only
thing we have is our individuality. That’s what we have to give to the world.’1
Alsop also believes a fundamental aspect of the architect’s role is to improve the
quality of people’s lives. He explains that the content of his work is embedded in a
process of speculation that aspires to create spaces of delight and beauty for the ‘man
on the street’. To this end, he actively engages the community in the design process
for his public projects, inviting them to share their thoughts and desires for the kind of
spaces they would like to inhabit.
At the age of 60, Alsop is a jovial, relaxed Englishman who loves his garden and a glass
of good wine, is comfortable in his own skin and open to discussing a wide range of
topics and ideas. Despite this generosity of spirit, he is also a man with strong
convictions who is prepared to fight arduous battles for the acceptance of his
architecture. He embodies a strong sense of justice and is not afraid to confront his
contemporaries if he feels they are politically conservative and in breech of their
positions of power – such is his passion for a diverse and inspiring architectural culture.
Will Alsop knew from a very young age that he wanted to become an architect. While
still at school, he began working for a local firm and balanced this practical experience
by attending art school to gain inspiration and creative skills, and even considered
painting as an alternative career. ‘I went to art school because I felt I needed
“deprogramming” from my early pragmatic architectural experience and so I could begin
to put myself somewhere else creatively,’ he explains. The experience proved an
extremely positive one and propelled him to apply to study at London’s prestigious
FIG.1 HÔTEL DU DÉPARTEMENT DES BOUCHES- DU- RHÔNE, MARSEILLES, FRANCE, 1994
Alsop is disparaging of the notion of ‘objectivism’within architecture. He suggests: ‘The only thing wehave is our individuality. That’s what we have to giveto the world ... I think an architect has to have thecourage to go wherever [their process] seems to begoing rather than trying to pull it back to somethingfamiliar. So I always return to this notion that theunfamiliar is more interesting to me than the familiar. Ifeel happy not knowing quite where a project is going.’
W I L L A L S O P 159
Architectural Association: ‘I only wanted to go to the AA so I never applied for anywhere
else. I began studying there in 1968 and, at that time, it was almost completely
dominated by Archigram members. I'd seen the absurd magazines Archigram produced
which genuinely excited me and it was one of the reasons I wanted to go to there – there
was a genuine sense that you could do anything.’
Through the 1960s and 1970s, initially under the direction of John Lloyd and then Alvin
Boyarsky, the AA encouraged students to pursue their individual talents and take time to
pursue a personalised expression through their studies. As Alsop recalls: ‘There was a
genuine feeling that as an architect you could change the way people lived, or more
importantly that you could change the way people thought about how they could live;
that was interesting to me and it still is today.’
After graduating, Alsop went to work for Cedric Price2 – an experience that he remembers
as concurrently bewildering and rewarding: ‘I found Cedric very confusing and it became
clear to me early on that he wasn’t interested in buildings at all. He was much more
engaged in projects that he had invented and so I spent a long time researching such
things as how to provide a truck park with security, facilities for the drivers to have a
decent night's sleep, and where they could wash and have a good breakfast. But if you
were in the right mood you could make a very beautiful truck park!’. While Alsop
appreciated Price’s ethical approach, he felt he lacked a direct engagement with
designing buildings. Looking to his other great passion of art to fill the void, he began
teaching sculpture after- hours at St Martins College. Eventually, however, it became clear
to Alsop that his desire to build architecture meant he needed to move on: ‘There was a
lot going on in Price’s office at the time, but I became frustrated because although the
work was interesting I knew that, within myself, there was something deeply missing.’
After establishing his own practice in 1981, Alsop discovered that – like many emerging
architects from the UK – it was much easier to gain commissions to build his architecture
abroad, and over time he gained a reputation as an internationally significant architect
for his vibrant and expressive buildings constructed all over the world. Examples include
his first major international commission, Le Grand Bleu, the seat of the regional
government of Bouches- du- Rhône in Marseille (1994); the Cardiff Bay Visitor Centre in
Wales (1990); Peckham Library, London (1999); the Almere Urban Entertainment Centre,
Amsterdam (2004); Alsop Toronto Sales Centre, Toronto (2006); Zhang Jia Bang: Street of
Culture, Shanghai (2006) and the Trubnaya office building in Moscow (2007), with many
others soon to be completed.
Although Alsop embraces technology, he departs from his ‘High- Tech’ contemporaries3
FIG.2 HÔTEL DU DÉPARTEMENT DES BOUCHES- DU- RHÔNE, MARSEILLES, FRANCE, 1994
Alsop is well known for the large- scale paintings thatinform his work, however he is adamant that they arenot an integral part of his process, claiming instead thatthey influence his work in a more oblique way.‘Painting is a release,’ he explains, ‘I'm actually makingmarks on a piece of paper or piece of canvas in orderto take myself somewhere new. I'm not trying toconfirm anything; I'm trying to open the situation up.’
FIG.3 HÔTEL DU DÉPARTEMENT DES BOUCHES- DU- RHÔNE, MARSEILLES, FRANCE, 1994
Alsop studied at the Architectural Association (AA) inLondon through the 1960s and 1970s, initially underthe direction of John Lloyd and then Alvin Boyarsky. TheAA encouraged students to pursue their individualtalents and take time to craft their personalarchitectural expression through their studies. As Alsoprecalls: ‘There was a genuine feeling that as anarchitect you could change the way people lived, ormore importantly that you could change the waypeople thought about how they could live; that wasinteresting to me and it still is today.’
A R C H I T E C T U R E A N D B E A U T Y160 W I L L A L S O P 161
bells on a Sunday evening echoing down the valley – all is well with the world. Those
moments exist, but how could you design those moments? Could you create those
moments somewhere else where you weren't expecting them? That interests me a lot.’
It’s a thought process that Alsop regularly puts into practice within his public projects,
such as the masterplan for the rejuvenation of the centre of Bradford, Barnsley in
Yorkshire and New Islington in Manchester. As he explains: ‘We have a lot of public clients
and that means that we need to engage with the wider community. For example, when
you're dealing with the centre of Bradford then essentially all the people who live there
are also clients. I'm very interested in tapping into their imagination. Therefore I don't talk
with them about design; I speak about discovering what it could be. If you talk about a
voyage of discovery then that automatically allows other people to contribute.’ He
expands: ‘So it's about how to disrupt what we've been taught in the past by putting
noise into the system. And I’ve found that if “the man in the street” is given half a
chance, he is actually quite imaginative.’
While advocating that this collaborative strategy removes the process from a singular
personal vision, Alsop also acknowledges that it is a journey that evolves from a macro
with his belief that technology ‘helps to get things done’ rather than generating the
design itself: ‘I'm a big fan of the computer, of course, but I think it has its place. I think
that what can be explored with the computer is a limited dialogue.’ Instead, his
architectural process is embedded in the immediacy of a ‘hand- eye’ conversation:
‘Sketches make things immediately evident and that gives me the confidence that I can
draw anything. In my studio cupboard I have a load of sketchbooks. I know that if I'm
trying to discover what something might be, it’s quicker in a sketchbook than on the
computer. And it's not about the expression, it's about moving very quickly through a
number of ideas. So if you have a nice quiet hour and you're in the right mood, you can
arrive at somewhere that you could never have predicted. An hour on the laptop won't
give you the same result because you get locked into the system of the computer.’
The role of beauty4 within architecture is also not a topic that Alsop shies away from –
once again marking out a stark point of difference to many of his contemporaries. ‘Is it
possible to take things to an extreme and to make something extremely beautiful that
has no function at all, but actually has an effect on people?’ he ponders. ‘After all, we're
talking about making life better for people – that's our job – whichever direction you
come at, so what’s the role of the idea of beauty within that?’ He continues: ‘We know
from experience that people do respond to beauty. For example, if I think of the River
Ouse, running through Bedfordshire in May – it's delightful and secure. There are church
FIG.4 PECKHAM LIBRARY, PECKHAM, LONDON, 1999
Alsop’s architecture utilises a great diversity ofmaterials and a rich palette of colour and forms, yet heresists any notion of an underlying conceptual ideologyapart from a desire to do things differently with eachnew project. He explains: ‘Why do architects or artistswant to write a manifesto?7 I think there's only oneanswer to that question – they believe they are rightand they want everyone else to do it the same way. Idon't want to do that.’
A R C H I T E C T U R E A N D B E A U T Y162 W I L L A L S O P 163
FIG.5 PECKHAM LIBRARY, PECKHAM, LONDON, 1999
Alsop insists a fundamental aspect of the architect’srole is to improve the quality of people’s lives. Heexplains that the content of his work is embedded in aprocess of speculation – a process that aspires to createspaces of delight and beauty for the ‘man on thestreet’. To this end, he actively engages the communityin the design process for his public projects, invitingthem to share their thoughts and desires for the kindsof spaces they would like to inhabit.
Publishing April 2010Hardback
IABN: 978-0-470-99784-0£50.00
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Something Together with MONUMENT Magazine Editor in Chief 2001-2007
Something Together with Chen LuMONUMENT stand at DesignEx
Something Together with Buro NorthMONUMENT ‘Latitude’ Stand at DesignEx
Something Together with State of Design
Curator_ Design for Everyone Public Program 2008 &2009_ (image Urban Interior)
Something Together with State of Design
3tonne o’ space
Something Together with State of Design
My Patch My City
Something Together with State of Design
Material BY-Product
Something Together with State of Design
Peter Bennetts Photography Exhibition
Something Together with State of Design
Is Not Magazine
Something Together with State of Design
Envelope_Grace Tan & Peter Lee
Something Together with State of Design
Iron Designer _Studio Binocular
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Jacques Herzog, Herzog & de Meuron