Landscape Lines, Belynda Henry 2018
Last week at the opening of the beautifull exhibition of paintings and sculptures by artist Belynda Henry, I was chatting to her husband Michael about Belynda’s paintings. I am in awe of her talent and love the intuitive way she paints. The landscapes are evocative of physical regions yet represent more of an abstraction and emotional response filled with colour, form and line .
I met Belynda a couple of years ago at one of her exhibition openings and then we struck up an Instagram friendship when I bought on of her watercolours. Following this I was delighted when Mick and Belynda engaged me to be their Architect. We have been working on the design of their new home #elemental_house since last year and construction has commenced on site. You can watch out for it on Grand Designs next year.
While Belynda was quietly working on her exhibition I was working with Michael on the house design. As my previous post talked of people and passion, there was no shortage of this in our dicussions. Michael and Belynda have built a house together before and woked on many projects, however this was their first time working with an Architect. At the Gallery as Michael and I discussed the paintings around us he declared that Architecture too was an Art. I was not overcome by modesty when I explained that I didn't think it was, however the conversation really started a train of thought and questioning that has been formulating for some time.
A Degree in Architecture typically takes six years to complete and then several more years in practice before you can register and officially call yourself an Architect. It is typically not until the later years of study that you learn professional practice and the huge responsibility an Architect takes on during the building process. Professional Indemnity , a legal requirement for a practicing Architect minimises that risk, yet there are countless examples of legal proceedings involving Architects.
By this stage at University you have invested so much of your time learning about the many aspects of Architecture it would be pointless not to forge ahead and complete your studies to become an Architect, despite the very daunting thought of being sued for your negligence.
For this very reason I find it a stretch to call Architecture an Art. Yes, an incredible well designed building can have sculptural qualities both internally and externally, it can heighten the senses and be a visual treat, yet the process from concept to completion differs so vastly from that of an artist completing an artwork.
Design for me is a wonderfull process. Developing a concept that responds to a site and a brief is truly a gift. If the scheme is well received by the client , the joy continues. The solution is always within a framework , governed not just by the Client , but by Council controls, environmental factors and budget.
Yes drawings and models are produced, they are the language of an Architect, yet they are the pattern upon which the built form evolves. They are static pieces of information that are developed over time to incorporate the work of the many people who contribute to the process until finally the Builder interprets the drawings and creates the built form envisioned many months, even years prior.
Exhibitions like the Venice Biennale or the Serpentine Pavillion in London transform Architecture into an Art in the manner of engaging a broad audience while simultaneously responding to a brief and a context. The Vatican chapel by Souto de Moura at this years Biennale appeared to be aethetically beautiful, yet also to transcend the physical while eliciting a sense of the spiritual. When a building or space can achieve this, then Architecture can become an Art, enjoyed for the purity of form, space and light so well conceived and executed in the manner of a great painting or sculpture.
Many years ago when I starting working part- time in an Architectural Practice one of the first things my boss Andrew said to me was that he thought I should have been a nurse. I was completely shocked by this statement as I was in my fifth year of studying Architecture at University and I had been hired for my presentation and design skills to work on one of Sydney's most prestigious projects.
Prior to taking this position I had been working as a student in one of the largest commercial practices in Sydney and after some time became the person that work experience students were sent to for guidance and advice.
Why begin this post here ? What is the point ? I think the point that I am trying to get to is not that I have pursued the wrong career, rather my natural affinity for caring and understanding people are important qualities for an Architect. Designing a new home or an alteration to a home for a client is an intensely personal and emotional process. The better the communication and understanding, the better the outcome.
Looking back now to Andrew's statement and his words resonate, not as criticism, rather encouragement and insight that I certainly didn't appreciate at the time.
Our project was an apartment development designed in collaboration with Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW) and Lend Lease Design Group. The Macquarie Apartments project comprised 62 apartments and 2 penthouses. I was involved in the documentation of all the apartment and public area interiors working with a small yet passionate team.
A pivotal project, both for the City of Sydney and my professional experience, as working on this project led to work on many apartment development projects. I found these projects challenging and incredibly rewarding as they are complex to design and document, often involving a large design and consultant team. However I always found that I enjoyed working on the smaller house projects where immediate contact with the client led to an intimacy and immediacy not afforded on the larger projects.
To understand how a client/ clients want to live in their home, their dreams, inspirations and passions leads to many conversations. To say I enjoy a chat may be an understatement.
Trying to ascertain a clients vision for their new home can be challenging, yet always vital regardless of the scale. Assumptions can never be made and good communication takes time and consideration. Often a client will say they have no idea of what they want or their brief is very prescriptive in terms of function, not form. Drawing out the elements in a home they value can be a wonderfull process of discovery.
Architecture really is about people. Designing spaces and places for people to inhabit. When the space can stimulate and heighten the emotions it can become transformative. The best results both in process and outcome are driven by passion and commitment. Projects can take years to complete, involving many forms of communication. A good relationship is vital to the success of the project where process is equally as important as outcome.
Good architecture does not save lives, but it can certainly help improve them. Blind optimism plays a vital role in delivering a result that is in the hands of many. Without passion the experience can become a mere transaction. Our designs are pragmatic and we do not overly intellectualise our work, yet a singular concept drives every design, aligned to the aspirations of the people we are lucky enough to call our clients.
Trumper Park, Paddington
The land surrounding Sydney Harbour with it's topography of sandstone hills and valleys has created a unique landscape upon which our city and suburbs have grown.
To have a city on the harbour with bushland at it's edges creates many opportunities to explore our connection with nature, both in the public and private realm. It is so wonderfull to still have remnants of the pre-historic landscape that existed well before white man settled ( invaded ) the land.
Vestiges of a temperate rainforest exist in the low lying regions, close to natural waterways that formed through the sedimentary rock over the years. On the plateaus bushland of native eucalypts remain intact, in some areas re-introduced to create a tree canopy after development has cleared the land.
Having experienced a childhood on the edge of the bush on the North Shore of Sydney and now living close to a valley of remnant rainforest in the Eastern Suburbs, the connection to this natural environment was and is a huge part of my daily life.
Currently Sydney is experiencing unprecedented growth with new developments shaping our city, for the better and for the worse. A couple of years ago I was involved with the editorial direction of the Bulletin, examining this growth and focusing on this incredibly important work of Barbara Shaffer, Landscape Architect for the Office of the Government Architect : Architecture Bulletin Winter 2015 - The Green Grid.
I also interviewed Sacha Coles, Landscape Architect, director of Aspect Studios, responsible for many award winning public spaces in the city . Architecture Bulletin Winter 2015- The Goods Line designed by Aspect Studios
Many years ago I collaborated with Sacha and his team on a number of smaller landscape projects that formed part of the design for houses and apartment buildings I was working on during my time as a Graduate at Turner Associates. The process of working with a Landscape Architect or designer is one I value greatly.
When designing a new home or alteration and addition, how we can connect the living spaces to the natural environment drives every concept. Terrace Houses, semi-detached homes and free-standing Federation bungalows were typically not designed with outdoor living in mind. The rear courtyards and gardens are often disconnected and under-utilised spaces. In a climate like the one we experience in Sydney, with endless summer days and mostly cool clear winter ones, we can take advantage of outdoor living and the benefits of being in nature.
In climates that are mostly tropical the courtyard typology for a house allows for the lines between indoor and outdoor to be constantly blurred and there are lessons for living in Sydney that can be adopted from these houses. My Byera Hadley research into new housing exemplars in Vietnam uncovered unique ways of living with nature, based on traditional shop house layouts and building methods.
Courtyards, voids and roof gardens bring greenery into the centre of the home and create a private sanctuary quite different to the typical suburban backyard or urban courtyard that are typical to Sydney. An article was published about this research on the The Fifth Estate.
We are currently designing a large country home for an Australian artist and her family. We named the project "Elemental House" to describe both the formal concept for the house, a series of spaces contained between singular elements and the use materials that are derived from the earth.
Views of the landscape are contained and framed, in the manner of Belynda's incredible mountain paintings. Her latest exhibition at Australian Galleries can be previewed here: Landscape Lines
From the Catalogue: Landscape Lines presents a series of recent works on canvas and works on paper which, like the hills, grasses, trees and mountains they portray, arouse in the viewer the exquisite sense of what it is to behold the beauty of the world around us, breathtaking, exhilarating and serene.
This beautiful description summarises why connection to nature is so important, both within the public realm, the spaces we share as well as a in the private spaces we retreat to.
I often sit on this park bench and marvel at the beauty of the bush as it frames the outline of the city on the horizon while the light filters gently through the trees.