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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

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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


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.’


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)


3tonne o’ space


My Patch My City


Material BY-Product


Peter Bennetts Photography Exhibition


Is Not Magazine


Envelope_Grace Tan & Peter Lee


Iron Designer _Studio Binocular

“Is there a form of presentation thatcaptivates visitors, mobilizes their entireattention and all their perceptivefacilities? Is it possible to create a placein an exhibition space that like an actualbuilding outside would be a reality in itsown right, and at the same time, wouldreflect the reality of the work it wasdocumenting?”

Jacques Herzog, Herzog & de Meuron

Documents

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