August 29, 2025 • 56 mins
The path to finding your architectural voice isn't a straight line—it's a series of experiments, failures, resets, and breakthroughs. Sam Brown, founding director of Arête Architects, takes us on a candid journey through his evolution as a designer and the growth of his practice.
Starting with foundational experiences at Victoria University, Mason Wales, and Foster Melville Architects, Sam reveals how these early influences shaped his approach before launching his own practice in 2021. Rather than immediately establishing a signature style, Arête began with experimentation, allowing real-world projects to guide their development. The breakthrough came when budget constraints forced them to rethink conventional approaches, leading to a deep exploration of modular design using structurally insulated panels (SIPs).
What makes Sam's perspective particularly valuable is his willingness to recognize when a design direction has run its course. After successfully developing a family of modular projects—from the Restricted Section to The Dart—Arête deliberately sought new challenges rather than continuing to refine a proven formula. This strategic reset prevents creative stagnation and pigeonholing, allowing the practice to maintain versatility while building a diverse portfolio.
Beyond their bespoke work, Arête developed SIPtris, a series of high-performance modular homes available as products—asking what if warm, dry, energy-efficient homes weren't a premium option but the default for everyone? Throughout their various explorations, one principle remains constant: the integration of performance and aesthetics from day one.
Sam's approach offers a powerful metaphor: your design mind is like a muscle that requires varied exercise. By embracing experimentation, learning from failures, and knowing when to reset, architects can build practices that remain fresh, relevant, and deeply connected to both client needs and environmental responsibilities. What design muscle are you exercising today?
Video link with slides here - https://youtu.be/auPJcFL_FcM
https://www.aretearchitects.co.nz/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Congratulations to our sponsor, parrot Dog, for
having two beers named in thetop 25 at the New World Beer and
Cider Awards this year.
Limited release 24, a CoconutHazy IPA, has been re-released
due to its win, and yourfavourite Thunderbird Bright IPA
has also gained a nod.
Grab them now from your localNew World and enjoy something
nice.
This week's episode is a bit ofa different one.
(00:23):
A few weeks ago I gave a TULUtalk on the growth of myself as
a designer and of ourarchitectural practice, arret
Architects.
This is a bit of more of avisual medium.
It does have slides that doaccompany the conversation,
which will be available in thepod notes, or you can head over
to our YouTube channel and seethe whole thing synced up.
(00:44):
Or, alternatively, for your cpdpoints, head over to teulu
talks and the recording isavailable there.
I dive into my growth fromuniversity all the way through
various architectural practicesto where we are now and touch on
finding a line of design,inquiry, running that out and
how to reset as a designer andfind something new, fresh and
(01:07):
exciting.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Our presenter today is Sam Brown from Arit
Architects.
Sam's past experiences anddesire for social and
environmental betterment havegiven him the focus to push
architecture beyond theboundaries of the everyday.
His engaging personality andability to learn and adapt
quickly make him a dynamicarchitect who has spent his
career refining his craft.
Over the years, Sam hasdeveloped his passion for the
vernacular into a strong driverin his design approach.
(01:55):
Whether it be challenging theconcept of a place or engaging
with specialists, specificgroups and the environment,
knowledge of the immediate isparamount in his design
consideration.
Over to you, Sam.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Thank you All right, tēnā koutou katoa Kia tātou a te
one Kia ora.
E nā koutou.
Tēnā koutou Tēnā tātou katoaKia ora.
Like Diane said, my name is SamBrown, director, founder and
Architect at Architects, basedout of Wellington and central
(02:30):
Otago here in New Zealand.
We're a studio rooted in realworld outcomes, passionate about
architecture that is bothbeautiful and conscientious
ancients.
Coming to you today fromWellington, a dreary old day,
and when asked about what I'dlike to discuss for this Tūla
(02:51):
talk, I thought that it would bea good idea to talk about our
growth through the design as apractice, and myself more
personally as well.
Today's talk is going to be adiscussion about architecture,
um, but it will likely kind ofjourney around design in general
, um, and kind of broadly,broadly cover a few topics um
(03:16):
around design process, um linesof design inquiry and also when
to reset your line of designinquiry or when to reset your
image.
So, without further ado, we'llsort of dive in.
To give you guys a bit of abackground, I think any story
(03:37):
like this or any presentationlike this, you need a little bit
of background.
So my architectural journeystarted here in Victoria, well,
in Wellington, victoriaUniversity School of
Architecture, where I graduatedin 2014, I think, and that was
(03:57):
really the foundation of myselfas a designer and I imagine for
a lot of us that have gonethrough that tertiary channel,
it's the main foundation ofwhere we sort of begin to find
our design voice and the firstchance that we really get to
sort of start to flex our designmuscles and do so with ultimate
(04:19):
freedom, and you know it's rarein your career to ever have
that opportunity again.
So for those of you that arestill studying and are listening
, I'd make the most of your timewhile you can.
But in saying that, there is apoint in our career where you
know, the dream becomes a bit ofa reality, and for me that was
(04:41):
during my study, actually, andwhen I spent a bit of time
working with Mason Wales, anarchitecture firm New Zealand's
oldest architecture firmactually out in Dunedin, and
this was my first realexperience in practice.
And it can be a bit of a shock,because you go from these big
pie in the sky ideas to a bit ofreality.
(05:02):
This project here, the SinclairHouse the reason that I'm
showing you this is this was myfirst ever chance to play in the
real world and working on thisproject, although none of this
was actually my design outcome,but I was given the opportunity
to kind of play with compositionfor the first time.
I was tasked with making thefacade tell a story, and it was
(05:29):
this sort of early teaching thatstarted to really resonate,
start to build a little bit of adesign voice for myself.
From here I sought a little bitof experience further abroad
and spent a short period workingfor Hopkins Architects in Dubai
a pretty large internationalscale firm that do massive
(05:52):
projects everywhere, fromairports and sports stadiums
through to entire city blocksand it was here that I started
to understand the internationalscene of architecture a little
bit more and how bigarchitecture can be, not just
physically but also the socialand environmental impacts that
it could have.
And it was the learnings here,despite that being a very short
(06:14):
period of my architecturalcareer, that I sort of started
to bring home with me into thework that I do later on in my
career.
I then spent, oh, I think, aboutsix or seven years working at
Foster Melville Architects inWellington, and this was the
this was the probably the mostformative period of my
(06:35):
architectural journey.
It's where I got to start towork in the real world as an
architect as well.
I gained my registrationthrough working there and my
growth as a designer reallyoccurred.
And I was fortunate enough towork under two great mentors and
Michael Melville and AngelaFoster there, and they really
focused on fostering that nextgeneration of architects and
(06:55):
wanting to leave the professionin good hands, and it was that
sort of fostering nature thatgave us design freedom.
Now, to say all of this,there's a lot of sort of
background experience that yougain through this period, but up
until this point you're stillkind of working under somebody
else or you know you're workingwith someone else's vision or
(07:18):
someone else's design view, andit's not until you start to do
your own thing that you reallyget to express who you are
personally as a designer.
So in 2021, at the back of COVID, I made the very difficult
(07:38):
decision to to start my ownpractice.
And I say a difficult decisionbecause at the time I wasn't
even sure if I wanted to doarchitecture anymore.
I'd sort of become a little bitjaded with the work that I'd
been doing and not to say thatthe work that Foster Melville
were doing wasn't good, but Ijust kind of felt like I wanted
(07:59):
to explore something else.
I'd spent a lot of timeoverseas prior to COVID and
really wanted to undertake workthat had a little bit more of a
holistic approach and was, youknow, responded really strongly
and positively to theenvironment and wanting to look
(08:21):
at ways to marry performance andaesthetics together, and this
was the chance to really blazemy own architectural path, and
that was the major catalyst instarting the practice.
Now, when you do start apractice, it's interesting
because your influence is purelyfrom everything that comes
(08:44):
before you.
And for those of you that arelistening that are either
thinking about doing this orhave just recently done this, or
even if you have people thatare working for you that are
thinking about doing this, it'ssomething to keep in mind
because we don't want anarchitectural realm full of
copycats.
But it's kind of like thatinitially, um, because you don't
(09:05):
you haven't really had thatopportunity for a lot of us
anyway to really expressyourself personally, um, through
the work that you do.
So you and also you kind ofstart your own thing, although
with a different view and adifferent vision, heavily
influenced from everything thathas come before.
And in saying that, that goesbeyond just the architecture
(09:32):
that you're doing, but it goesbeyond your architectural image
as well, your brand or yourimage or who you are as a
practice, which, in my opinion,I think is just as important as
the work that you produce,because that is the reason
people come to you.
It's that personal nature, it'swhat you can offer the
profession, and that evolutionthrough design is not just a
(09:55):
building one, it's not just aphysical one, it's also an image
one as well.
And you can see here where westarted four years ago with the
RET architects and what we'veevolved into now.
And it's been a reallyinteresting process for myself,
and I'm speaking about my ownexperiences here, but it's worth
also noting that RET's not justme, it's also Johnny Fletcher,
(10:19):
my co-director, and the otherstuff that we have as well my
co-director and and the otherstuff that we have as well.
And you know, over the fouryears we've started to really
find our voice and find ourvision and you want to try and
change your outward um image toto match that and to marry that
um.
And that's why, where we'velanded and the following slides
(10:42):
and the rest of the talk, I'mgoing to kind of take you guys
through how we got there or howwe got to where we are today and
also where we may evolve intoin the future.
But I think it's a good placeto start with who we are as a
practice and, you know, wantingto align our identity with the
work that we have evolved intoproducing.
(11:04):
So over the years we've sort ofgone from having an image of
what we wanted to be into beinga practice that has produced a
lot of work and wanting to alignthat practice view with the
work that we've done.
So at Aret, you know, wepassionately create spaces that
balance aesthetics withenvironmental responsibility,
(11:26):
even with clear guidingprinciples.
We've found growth often comesnot from a linear process but
from deliberate moments ofreflection and resetting, and
that's something that I'm goingto try and touch on today.
I'm going to share with youguys how our practice has
embraced iteration as one of thekey principles in our design
drive and how we've also startedto look at strategic resets and
(11:48):
this rebranding is one of thoseexamples and how that
significantly shapes ourarchitectural identity.
So I want to start you guys atthe beginning, because that's
where all creative endeavorsstart.
So four years ago and this iswhere I found myself four years
ago, four and a half years ago,the blank canvas, a lump of clay
(12:12):
, you could say, or maybe a fewcooking ingredients in a kitchen
.
And you sort of sit there andyou think, what do I do now?
And in an architect's case thisis often a piece of butter
paper, maybe masking tape to atable, pencil in hand, client
brief in the other, and you'rewondering what to do.
And this is where you reallystart to lean on those past
(12:34):
influences, because initiallyyou don't have a lot else to go
on.
So this is what we did.
We sort of thought about allthe learnings that we'd taken on
in our career and we started toapply that to the work that we
(12:54):
do.
And you can see here, in theearly days it was all about
experimentation, but it wasexperimentation with a clear
driver behind it.
And through these images, theseare sort of three of the early
projects that we undertook inthe studio.
(13:15):
And you can see through theseimages you know the clear
influence from architecturefirms like Bjarke Ingels Group
and their you know their conceptsketching, where they really
focus on the function, unifyingwith form and creating an
architectural outcome.
And when you're given thatfreedom to design for the first
time, you sort of go okay, whatcan I take from the past, what
(13:39):
can I take from my influence andlearning and how can I apply it
to my own work?
And you sort of do this processof regurgitation in a way, but
with your own vision.
And the beautiful thing aboutthose early stages is you get to
start to experiment with allthe ideas that you have either
(14:00):
had rejected or haven't beenable to voice or haven't been
accepted by clients in the past.
And the great thing is you thenget to try and influence or try
and push that into the workthat you do.
And it was through thisexperiment, experimentation
process, that we began to startto form a bit of an idea of how
(14:23):
we would work.
And in the early days we didn'tnecessarily or we didn't have an
architectural style, and thereason for that being is we were
still testing things out.
We were seeing what worked forus, what didn't.
And these are three examplesthat you can see up here on the
screen of the early work that wedid and how varied it is.
(14:45):
You know you wouldn'tnecessarily look at these three
projects and think that they allcame from the same
architectural studio, and Ithink that that is okay.
I think that is also quiteimportant because in those early
stages you're trying to findout who you are and so you're
really trying to play with ideas, express yourself creatively.
(15:07):
Um, there could be failures.
There could be wins.
Um, I'd say that we've beenrelatively fortunate and that
haven't been too many failures,um, although in saying that they
are always there, that's alittle bit more hidden behind
those things.
And, like I said, this is thefirst chance to really start to
express yourself.
(15:29):
And in the early days, ourpractice didn't necessarily
evolve from a singular vision,but it started to evolve through
repeated testing, throughprojects, through reality in a
way, and it's been really.
You know, it's quite aninteresting process to test
through reality because it'shigh stakes, but at the same
(15:50):
time, you know, you'reresponding to different climates
, budgets, briefs, sites, allthose sort of things.
So it's a great testing ground.
It was through thisexperimentation that we started
to understand or started to forma little bit of an idea of what
works for us as a practice andthe architectural direction that
(16:16):
we were ultimately interestedin pursuing Through these
initial projects.
You know, we started to findthat what really interested us,
or what was really important tous, was that marrying of
performance and aesthetic.
(16:38):
But in those early stages we'restill not quite sure in how to
implement that into reality inour work.
So we continued to test, andthese are some more examples
here of the Hill House here inWellington and Karaka Tower in
Eastbourne, of where thatmarriage of performance and
(17:00):
aesthetics started to come toplay, but with very different
outcomes.
And it wasn't until we sort oftook a step back and reflected
on this work post-completionreally that we understood that's
what we were doing at the time.
So I implore you as a designer,while you're working through
(17:20):
these early stages of yourcareer, or even if you're later
in a career and you're goingthrough a bit of an
architectural reset or trying tofind a different architectural
direction, to think criticallyabout the work that you're doing
at the time.
It's a beautiful opportunity tobe able to reflect on work and
take the lessons from that.
But equally, I think it's justas important to be able to
(17:44):
reflect in the moment and letthat help shape your
architectural vision.
Now I've talked, all have apretty clear picture in your
(18:07):
mind of what their architecturelooks like, and early in the
career, early in your career,you won't necessarily have that
architectural identity.
You won't have that image thatpeople associate with the work
that you do.
And you know, you're often askedwhat is your architectural
(18:29):
style, particularly early onwhen you're, when you're
engaging with clients, and thehonest answer is we didn't have
one, we don't know.
We don't know what ours is, butwe have a process.
You know, and you sort of sellthe idea on the process like
this is how we approacharchitecture, this is what we're
looking to achieve, um, and theaesthetic come, comes later.
You know, the, the architecturethat we do is born from context
(18:52):
, constraints and conversations,rather than um, an
architectural image, um, andthat's why we try to avoid
prescribing forms too early inthe design and instead lean into
that iterative process as acreative tool to create varied
outcomes.
In saying that, though, I'mabout to take you through a few
(19:20):
of our projects where we didstart to create a bit of an
architectural identity, where wedid start to sort of really
focus in, with a little bit morelaser focus on a line of design
inquiry that helped shape us asan architecture firm and helped
create, you know, an identityfor us that we were then able to
(19:40):
use as a foundation for ourarchitecture and our
architectural growth movingforward.
So it was about a year into ourpractice that we were given the
first opportunity to start toput this into play, and I'll
take you through that processnow.
(20:02):
So at the end of our first yearof practice, we were fortunate
enough to be engaged by a youngfamily to design them a new home
in a Wellington suburb.
They had a small budget but bigaspirations of wanting to live
in a warm, dry, healthy home andwe started our usual design
(20:23):
process that we'd done up untilthat point and realised quite
quickly that we needed torethink the way that we were
approaching architecture.
The sort of fly-by, you know,experimental every idea is a
good idea, seat of your pantsthing worked early on.
But when we were given sort ofsuch a constrained brief, we
(20:47):
realised that we sort of had todial in a little bit more and
move away from our entrenchedmethods and begin to look at the
design of a home with a littlebit more of a critical lens.
And this led us to the ideas ofmodulation, materiality,
resilience, orientation you knowthe list went on and we started
(21:10):
to find effective solutions tosolving these challenges.
And through all of this a newline of design inquiry was born
and for us this started with theuse of, like I said earlier, a
modulation.
That was probably the key thingthat started to drive this new
(21:32):
direction in architecture for usand what we could do with
modules, how flexible and howcreative we could basically be
with a grid of 1,200 by 2,400.
And one of the leadingmaterials that sort of went on
(21:52):
this journey with us wasstructurally insulated panels or
SIPs.
So you could almost say thatthis initial line of design
inquiry was how can we create,you know, beautiful holistic
architecture and make it asefficient as possible?
So the first project that wewere able to experiment with
that was the restricted section.
(22:14):
This was a project that wasspearheaded by Johnny Fletcher
in our studio and it really is abeautiful example of what you
can do with a 1200 grid.
Essentially and you can see thatexpressed throughout the
architecture as well and it wassomething that we really wanted
to play with was not hiding.
(22:35):
Not hiding the constructivenature of the module, the
constructive nature of thematerial, and really kind of
expressing that, but expressingit beautifully.
So it didn't feel, you know,too constructed or it didn't
feel too what's the word I'mlooking for raw or industrial.
(23:00):
It was still a warm, invitinghome and that warm, inviting
nature was something that wasreally critical for us to be
able to bring across.
Despite trying to focus on thisnew line of inquiry, the house
has been, by all intents andpurposes, a raging success and
(23:22):
it was a really beautifuljumping-off point because of how
well it was received and howmuch we enjoyed that process of
constraining ourselves but alsooffering design freedom and
really kind of landing ornailing the client's brief, of
making this thing that wasaffordable but also, you know,
ticking all those performanceboxes.
(23:43):
We were like, okay, great, thisis a solution or this is a way
forward in architecture that wereally want to continue to
explore and experiment withreally.
So from this project we continueto grow, we continue to explore
(24:06):
and refine that line of designinquiry, and the next project in
the lineage of this was the TeU Studio.
It's actually my own home downin Lake Hawiwa.
This was essentially just acontinuation of what we had done
at the restricted section butbecause of it being my own home,
(24:32):
I was able to be a little bitmore experimental.
So we started to kind of throwideas around what would happen
if you combine stick framingwith modulation.
Would you find cost benefits inthat?
How do you?
Um better run services througha site?
How do you better plan smallerspaces?
You know the the footprint ofthe restricted section is about
110 square metres, whereas herewe're condensed down to only 36
(24:55):
square metres of livable space.
And you know it was a real testin planning and how to kind of
develop small spaces.
And the reason for that scalethat became what became a real
focus for us in this line ofdesign inquiry was efficiency,
efficiency and plan efficiencyand material and efficiency with
(25:17):
budget.
You know, if a client comes toyou and says I have six hundred
thousand dollars, you know Iwant, but I want 180 square
meter house.
I'm like, well, what program doyou want in that home?
And when you start to boil itdown, you realize pretty quickly
that you know they want 180square meters because that's how
big they think the house needsto be or how big the neighbor's
house might be.
But when you really start tofocus on good, clear planning,
(25:41):
which we've done through thisprocess you realize that you can
condense that programbeautifully into a much smaller
footprint and it operates justas well.
Um, and that's what the TUstudio is.
It's a it's a real test ofcondensing uh program into into
a small area.
There's also a chance for us toplay with, like I said,
(26:02):
different ways of approachingthe use of the SIP.
Um, you know, we we really liketo focus on leaving that
exposed, but the exposing of theSIP kind of leaves you with a
little few issues in terms ofrunning services and things like
that.
So you know, it was a chance totest the waters with service
dados, as you can see underneaththat window there, and kind of
(26:24):
more modulation of otherbuilding elements as well.
So with the restrictor section,you know, the modulation was
more focused on the structure,whereas we started to move into
the tu studio and modulationcame into things like the
joinery as well, as you can see,with the modular kitchen, steel
kitchen there as well.
Um, as a final final image ofsomething as well of sorry, of
(26:46):
the tu studio as well.
And the thing, uh, that we'reable to start to play with here
again was was form,immateriality, stretching the
use of the of the sit um and,like I said earlier, that
combination of of it with otherconstruction methodologies.
So you know, within thisoverhang there's steel and
things like that, and wanting toensure that we can kind of
(27:07):
create architectural intrigueand merit and not be constrained
by the module, and that wassomething that we brought
forward into the third projectin this final design inquiry is
our growth as a practice, andyou can probably see it through
the design of these, how westart to evolve and mature um in
(27:31):
our design.
And the next project in thatline was the village.
Now the village is sort of the,the combination I'd say of of.
You know it's a mash-up of thetv studio, um and the restricted
section.
We're fortunate enough to begiven a brief where the client
was looking for for two homes ona single site with a big focus
(27:55):
on intergenerational living, sowe're able to play with that
idea of scale, interaction froman architectural planning
perspective, but then also stillbring in all that learning
earlier in terms of performanceand modulation and things like
that um, and I think as well,like I just said, you can see a
real maturation in our designlanguage and our and our design
(28:21):
skill.
You know that the time frameacross these projects is is
about 18 months to two years, um, but in saying that, none of
the projects had been completedbefore the others started, so it
was a growth and it was alearning process through design,
more so than through acompleted project or through a
(28:44):
completed thing.
And that's important and I'lltouch on that in a second, why
that growth through the designprocess I feel is a little bit
more important than growththrough that final image.
So again, the village wasanother chance to kind of
express that.
You can see that, the expressionof the constructive nature of
(29:07):
the modulation you know that wasbrought all the way back from
the restricted section, butagain it's a little bit more of
a mature use of the palette inthis project and, you know, a
little bit more play on lightand volume and things like that,
and also a chance to start toplay with different forms.
You know we'd lent on the monopitch for quite a while because
(29:31):
it was an easy way ofconstructing with SIP panels but
we wanted to be a little bitmore creative and try different
things.
So we're looking atinterlinking gables here.
You know the way that these twoforms interact and interlink
started to kind of like test ourability to develop interesting
(29:53):
architecture rather than kind ofgeneric architecture with the
SIPs, and then that has all sortof culminated in what I kind of
see is the end of the line, ofthis line of design inquiry
anyway, or not necessarily afull stop, but it's certainly a
bit of a line in in the sand.
And this is a project that wehave on the drawing board at the
(30:16):
moment.
It's actually just goingthrough tender and hopefully
starting on site site very soondown in queensbury, uh, in
central otago, this project wecall the dart and and the dart
is, um, yeah, like I said, I sit, I kind of see is the the end
of the stylistic journey.
It's taking all of thelearnings from before, um,
(30:36):
evolving them.
You know, the roof form it'skind of hard to see in this, in
this image, but it's far moredynamic than anything we've done
before with with panels, um,but we're able to kind of take
all the learnings from previousprojects and apply it to
something aesthetically verysimilar.
They're clearly in the samelineage, but but a little bit
more intriguing and dynamic.
(30:59):
And how do we and you might askus, uh, how do we know that
we've reached the end?
Um, we don't, um, but after awhile, you know, you kind of
grow a little bit, notnecessarily tired of the work
that you're doing, but you know,a line of design inquiry kind
of peters out a little bit in mymind and we, as a practice,
(31:21):
always looking for something newand exciting that not only
challenges us as designers butalso ensures that the
architecture that we'regenerating never becomes too
samey.
You know, if we kind ofcontinued to produce buildings
that looked all the same, thenwe'd become very known for just
(31:42):
one style of building, and Ithink there's there's a bit of a
risk to that for architecturalpractice, um, showing showing a
lack of adaptability.
I think you kind of end uppigeonholing yourself in the
corner of a market andpigeonholing yourself as a bit
of a designer if people keepcoming back to you for the same
thing, and you know that canbecome a little bit tiresome at
(32:04):
the end of the day.
All of that to say, though,adjacent to this iterative
process, we've also been youalso been designing and refining
high performance, modular, offthe shelf designs.
Now, after developing fourdeeply personal homes, we saw a
(32:25):
pattern through everything thatwe were doing in each project
how to lessen that we thoughtwas worth sharing, and citrus is
our answer to that pattern.
It's a product, but it's also aprovocation.
You know we wanted to ask whatif warm, dry, energy efficient
homes weren't a premium optionbut rather a default for
(32:49):
everybody?
So, using that same line ofdesign inquiry and the learnings
that we took from doing thebespoke homes, we produced a
series of architectural outcomesseven homes that can be easily
regurgitated and are essentiallya product available to the
market.
We realised that scalabilityand simplicity was key to the
(33:10):
work that group home builders do, but architectural merit was
lacking and also performance waslacking in the work that they
provide.
So what we want to do is tryand unlock the housing market,
you know, and provide anarchitectural outcome that sort
of ticked all of those boxes.
And alongside the work thatwe've sort of done here with
(33:31):
Citrus, you know, you've seenthings like the work that RTA
Studio has been doing in thesame space, and I think that
architectures and architectshave a lot to offer through all
of this.
After a while, though, like Isaid, you sort of start to
become a little bit, not tired,but you know, doing the same
(33:53):
work over and over and again, orsimilar work over and over
again, kind of stops scratchingthat itch of what else.
So you know, it can be time toreset, and after a while, you
know, especially if a uniquebrief prevents itself, you, you
(34:13):
know, you feel the need to trysomething new, or maybe not
necessarily new, but one ofthose many ideas that you've
played around back in thebeginning of your career or in
the beginning of your designjourney comes back to you and
you realize that there's an itchthere that you haven't quite
scratched.
And some of you might thinkwell, with this approach, are
you just throwing awayeverything that you've carefully
(34:35):
cultivated in the past?
Um, but I think that you know,on the contrary to that, you're
you're building a richer, deeperum and more diverse portfolio
that ultimately showcases yourability, um and flexibility as
an architect.
Um, and you know we, we at Arid, have always said that we
design with both aesthetics andthe environment in mind.
(34:57):
We don't want to try and crowbarone into the other.
You know, it's not about makinggreen buildings look good or
good-looking buildingssustainable.
It's about integrating from dayone.
And you know, what we took fromthe previous line of design
inquiry, with SIPs andmodulation, is that design
(35:19):
driver.
It's about integration, it'sabout the holistic nature of
architecture and that's whatwe're looking to carry through
all of our work, regardless ofstyle or aesthetic or brief now,
moving into the future.
That's the unifying factor ofus as an architectural practice.
You know that we're looking toevolve and adapt rather than
find one formula and stick withit.
(35:40):
Although you know, if somebodycame back to us and said, can we
have a SIP home in the lineageof the work that you've done
before, we certainly probablywouldn't say no, we just may
look to develop it a little bitdifferently.
So, on that reset, I just wantto talk to you about a couple of
projects that we've got on thedrawing board and where we've
(36:03):
sort of tried to really test ortest that reset concept.
And this is a conscious effort.
You know, spur Ridge Rise thisproject here in Queenstown, you
know, marks an evolution on howwe address site budget
constraints and the environment.
You know it's a testament toembracing difficulty, really
(36:25):
turning perceived obstacles intoarchitectural opportunity.
And you know this is a projectthat we're hoping to, you know,
blend seamlessly into itssurroundings and really enhance
the natural features of the siteand the surrounding area, while
creating functional anddramatic living spaces within.
Now, although this is certainlyan aesthetic evolution of design
(36:53):
style, one thing that is trueto all the architecture that
we've done in the past.
We're doing now and I hope thatwe will do in the future, is
that that focus on marryingperformance and aesthetics is
always there.
Now it's interesting becausethe two projects that I'm going
(37:16):
to talk to here they're sort ofthe start of the next line of
design inquiry.
Now one, both or neither ofthese could continue, could
start a new, new aestheticlineage, but it's exciting to
kind of be working on somethingnew that has that potential to
grow and evolve into a differentarchitectural style that we as
(37:40):
a practice can deliver.
And this is the other projectthat we're working on, currently
a bit of an evolution.
This is the Oculus House, wherewe're starting to kind of like
delve into architectural clarityand precision and develop an
architecture that's like deeplyrooted in the local history of
the place, um, and you know,looking at illustrating the way
(38:02):
that we can kind of interplaybetween history, place,
contemporary living, um.
And this is a design wherewe've done a lot of research, um
, and made a lot of decisionsbased on authenticity, material
honesty and contextualresponsiveness as well.
And these sort of like newquestions and new lines of
design inquiry are quiteexciting because they're helping
(38:23):
us grow the work that we do,the work that we produce and the
direction forward.
But all of this to say thateverything is still underlined
by that focus on creatingholistic architecture.
One thing that I just want tokind of touch on is when you
(38:48):
have made that reset or when youhave made that move, you know
what if a client comes to you,or what if you start to ask
yourself maybe I'll go back?
Or a client comes to you sayingI want a replica of something
that you've done before.
Have you moved on?
And sometimes I can find this alittle bit of a tricky question
and I don't think we'venecessarily been working in
practice long enough to betested in this.
(39:11):
But my approach would be tohear them out and then, you know
, possibly steer them in a bitof a new direction.
It could create a new line ofdesign inquiry for you as well.
Take the best bits that they seein the projects that you've
done before, talk to them aboutit.
How can you integrate them intothis new line of design inquiry
(39:32):
?
And think about what haven'tyou scratched yet or what do you
want to sort of address orexplore as an architect or as a
designer?
And voila, you know, you mighthave just generated a new
direction and we had this withSpur Ridge, and I didn't show
the imagery there, necessarily,but we developed two concepts
(39:54):
for the clients there, vastlydifferent concepts.
And you know, through thatprocess and the presentation of
that process, the clients cameback to us and sort of said, oh,
we really like this.
From there, you know these,this.
From there, you know theseaspects from this concept and
these aspects from that concept.
Can you mash them up?
And we, you know, and in doingso we created a completely new
(40:18):
thing, you know.
So sort of three completelydifferent looking buildings,
same brief, um, but you know, aninteresting, interesting thing
is like they, all of those ideasand everything there could stem
a new line of design inquirythat we may look to explore, you
know, in future projects.
(40:38):
Um, I just want to kind of touchon something that gerard
dombroski, you know, one of myco-hosts on the design principle
spot, um, said, uh, as a bit ofa closing statement or closing
remark.
But you know, I think it'sworth through all of this and
everything that I've kind oftalked about in this brief
(40:59):
discussion today is your designmind.
It's like a muscle, you have towork it out and you know, I
take this analogy a little bitfurther, in that, you know, if
you just continue to work thatsame muscle out, do the same
thing over and, over and overagain, you're going to end up
looking like this guy here onthe on the right um, and I don't
(41:19):
know about you guys, but wouldyou rather have one giant arm or
would you rather be, you know,the perfect beast, um, that is,
that is arnie over there.
You know, I think it'simportant that we, you know,
continue to work our designmuscles out, but change the
muscles in that design mindconstantly to create, you know,
a better, more well-roundedarchitectural offering for
(41:44):
clients and for yourselves aswell, because ultimately, you
know, we are designing forpeople, but we also are
designing for ourselves.
So, you know, although we are arelatively new and young firm,
I feel like we've started ourjourney with the right mindset,
a flexible one, you know, that'sallowing us to grow, develop
(42:04):
and adapt and deliver beautifularchitecture and different and
interesting architecture acrossthe board.
You know, we all entered thedesign profession to design, uh.
So let's keep doing that andkeep being hungry for something,
something new, something odd,something exciting, or even
something that doesn't worksometimes, because if you, you
know, if you don't test it andyou don't know, then you don't
(42:25):
grow.
Um, so I just want to thank youall for for joining this
conversation and, you know,let's continue striving for
evolving architecture thatthoughtfully responds and
responsibly performs and deeplyresonates.
No mihi me te ora.
Thank you.
In a world where design speakslouder than words, what story
(42:45):
does your space tell?
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awesome.
Speaker 2 (43:22):
Thank you for joining us today, sam um, thank you
very much that you uh touched onsome uh topics that are very
deep and meaningful to me, suchas, uh, a healthy home, a warm,
dry home.
It should be the expectation,not a, not a luxury, in a house
so great.
Uh, we have some questions foryou.
(43:43):
Cool, so you speak about how apractice evolves through
real-world iterations.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
Can you share an example of a project that
fundamentally changed the wayyour practice approaches design?
Yeah, and I think I touched onthat when I was running through
the project examples that I hadthere the restricted section
would be the project that wasprobably the catalyst for change
for us.
I think it was the first timewhere we actually really looked
critically at the work that wewere doing and the work that we
were producing and, like I said,it was that starting point for
(44:21):
that very strong line of designinquiry that was sort of
explored over the last three tofour years.
So I'd say, yeah, that was thereal project that started it all
in a way.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
Yeah, yeah.
So this end point you mentionedreaching an end point in a
design inquiry.
Can you touch on what thatmoment felt like for you as a
designer and how do you knowwhen it's time to start fresh?
Speaker 1 (44:47):
Yeah, it's an interesting one.
I don't want to speaknegatively on it because
obviously, you know, we'rereally happy with the
architecture that we've producedand the end point you know, the
DART for me would be the endpoint in a way for that line of
design inquiry, although I canalso see us doing similar work
(45:07):
in that same space.
But I think, although I lovethat project and I love what we
produced, upon completion of thedesign of it I sort of had a
little bit of fatigue, I guess,for want of a better term of
tackling things the way that wehad there.
And I think I really love thedirt dart project and really
(45:28):
love what we produce, and to meit just kind of seems like a
natural um finishing point inthat in that line of design
inquiry.
And equally, you know, you'reconstantly being influenced by
new projects and new things andnew ideas, and for me it just
felt like time to try somethingnew, really Okay.
Speaker 2 (45:48):
So process over product is a central theme of
your talk.
How do you communicate thevalue of process to clients, who
are maybe more focused onoutcomes?
Speaker 1 (46:00):
Yeah, it's a difficult one.
We sort of the way that wediscuss it with clients is when
we're kind of setting up theinitial engagement or the
initial, you know, offer aservice and things we clearly
express to them that we frontload a lot of our fee ultimately
(46:21):
because that's what you knowthey're wanting to see initially
fee ultimately because that'swhat you know they're wanting to
see initially um in the conceptdesign stage and we we say to
them the reason for that beingis it offers us the opportunity
to play and explore um.
I think if you limit yourself inthose very early stages of the
project which often you know,which I think we did a little
bit in the past um from a feepoint of view you don't offer
(46:44):
yourself the time um to to playin those early stages um, then
you know you're kind of doingthe project a little bit of a
disservice and we try andexpress that to clients as best
as possible.
You know we want to exploreevery avenue for you um and try
and kind of give you a lot ofsolutions to your brief, rather
(47:05):
than just trying to like land onit day one and then that being
it.
So most of the time they'repretty responsive to that, I'd
say, because, you know,ultimately they realise that
they're going to get the bestout of the project with that
approach.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
Excellent.
So your bio references a strongcommitment to social and
environmental betterment.
So how do these values show upin your day-to-day design
decisions?
Speaker 1 (47:33):
yeah, I'd say.
I mean, like I said, throughthe process, well, you know,
through the work that we do, weI use the term holistic
architecture um, and the reasonthat I use that term is I think
the architecture that we striveto produce or design and develop
kind of ticks every box.
It's, you know, it's bothaesthetically beautiful but it's
also, you know, it performswell, it has low environmental
(47:56):
impact.
We consider embodied carbon,you know all of those sort of
things and we want to producebuildings that are obviously for
the client.
But ultimately, you know you,you hope that your building's
still here 100 years later andmost of the time, well, you know
, unless it's crazy advances inmedicine, your clients might not
be here anymore, you know.
So we want those projects tocontinue to have a positive
(48:19):
influence.
Um, you know, sociallythroughout their life, um, and I
kind of I guess that all hassort of culminated.
You know, we, sociallythroughout their life, and I
kind of guess that all has sortof culminated.
You know we get thatopportunity to do that.
You know, one-on-one withclients for bespoke projects.
But that was a big reason forus developing Citrus was being
able to offer housing or housingsolutions, that sort of scratch
(48:42):
that itch or you know that hadthat positive social outcome.
But that's available toeveryone.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
Yeah, that was very special to me.
I did enjoy that part of thepresentation.
Actually, I enjoyed the wholepart of the presentation, all of
it.
So you've developed a passionfor the vernacular.
How do you balance respectinglocal context with the desire to
innovate or challengeconventional forms?
Speaker 1 (49:10):
I think you can do that easily.
To be honest, you know we takea lot of influence from the
immediate environment that ourprojects exist within.
But you've got so muchflexibility in how you interpret
that and it could be everythingfrom you know, like a real, a
(49:34):
real design, you know, or a realdesign driver, say you're
trying to mimic the forms of themountains around you or
something, or it could besomething a little bit more
spiritual or nuanced.
You know the history of placeor you know something like that.
So I think you can respondvernacularly if that's a word to
the site but still have, youknow, complete design freedom to
(49:56):
produce a solution andultimately sometimes that leads
the design.
But I'd also say you know, I'vegot to be honest, we as
architects are pretty good atpost-rationalisation and
sometimes design epiphanieshappen and you come up with a
solution.
But you can often and I try tooften bring it back to something
(50:16):
contextually that sort ofanchors that project and it
makes it special to thatparticular site.
Speaker 2 (50:24):
So young practices In your experience.
What are the key challenges forthese young practices in
finding their design identity?
Speaker 1 (50:37):
I think and this is speaking from experience I think
one of the biggest challengesis not feeling like a fraud, but
early on, particularly whenyou're starting out as an
architect and as a youngpractice, if there's a
collective or a group of you,it's having confidence in who
you are and having confidence inthe work that you do.
(50:59):
And it took us um, I don't know.
I felt that it's taken usseveral years to kind of have
that confidence and have thatcomfort and the work that we
produce and and like I mentionedthrough my talk, we went
through numerous designiterations and and followed
(51:21):
lines of design inquiry to findthat comfort.
So I'd say that's probably thebiggest challenge is, yeah,
being comfortable in your ownskin in a way.
Speaker 2 (51:30):
Yeah, you've got to be paid.
You've got to pay the bills,but you've also got to find your
design voice within that, don'tyou?
Yeah, yeah.
So you mentioned engaging withspecialists and specific groups
as part of your process.
How does this collaborativeapproach shape the final design,
and what has it taught youalong the way?
Speaker 1 (51:49):
Yeah, it's something that's pretty dear to our hearts
.
We find that architecture inisolation is very, really
successful.
So we try and we think of thewhole project as basically it's
a team effort.
We're one member of that team,so we try and build the team, or
build that project team, veryearly on in the process.
(52:12):
So everybody from the client,contractor, other consultants
and ourselves are all strivingtowards that one goal and that's
been a real success in the waythat we approach our
architecture and I think itultimately leads to a great
result and less conflict andissues later down the track.
So I think that is, if you canafford yourselves that and if
(52:35):
you have a team that you trustaround you, then you're
ultimately going to get a betteroutcome.
Speaker 2 (52:40):
Great.
So we've got a couple morequestions.
What role does failure play inthe growth of a design practice,
and can you share any momentswhere something didn't go to
plan and how it shaped yourfuture approach?
Speaker 1 (52:54):
Was that failure?
Where does failure play?
Yeah, so, funnily enough, it'shappened very recently to us.
So the Oculus House that Ishowed you, we spent a lot of
time really diving into theclient's brief and researching
the site and place and, I think,developed a really beautiful
(53:18):
architectural outcome.
But, for whatever reason, theclients had a very different
vision in their mind which theydidn't quite express or bring
across to us through theirbriefing document or the time
that we spent with them, and so,upon presenting it to them, it
kind of fell pretty flat, uh,disappointingly, um, which you
know can be a little bit of ahit to the ego.
(53:40):
But, um, what, I think it's youknow.
Upon reflection now, I've beenlike, okay, well, nothing's lost
there, and I think that's youknow.
Upon reflection now, I've beenlike, okay, well, nothing's lost
there, and I think that's thelesson to take from a failure is
nothing's lost.
You've still produced thatbeautiful design, whatever that
may be, and, okay, it might notwork on this site or in this,
you know, or in this situationfor these clients, but it's
still sitting there in thebackground.
(54:00):
It's something that you candraw upon again in the future
and for other projects.
So I'd say, you know, fromfailures and from real failures.
You know, don't get toodisheartened I mean you will
initially, but look at thesilver linings and look at the
positives and look at thelearnings that you can take from
that into future work.
Speaker 2 (54:18):
Nice, okay, and last question, looking ahead how do
you see the next phase of yourpractice evolving?
Are there new directions orchallenges you're particularly
excited about?
Speaker 1 (54:31):
Yeah, I think for us, I think for something that I'm
really excited about is findingthat next line of design inquiry
I really like although I talkedabout resetting and, you know,
coming to the end of somethingand then starting again the
actual process of developingting, and, you know, coming to the
end of something and thenstarting again the actual
process of developingarchitecture.
You know, creating a bit of anarchitectural family tree and
the work that you've done reallyexcites me and so I'm quite
(54:55):
excited to see where some ofthese projects that we've got on
the drawing board at the moment, how they are going to
influence more projects cominginto the practice and how we
sort of start to create a bitmore of a diverse design voice
with those.
And I kind of like the idea ofyou know, in the future looking
back and having these many kindof like architectural trees and
(55:17):
seeing, oh, these all projectsrelate, these all projects
relate, these projects relate,and I like that idea.
So, yeah, I guess I'm excitedfor the next line of design
inquiry and where that will leadus.
Speaker 2 (55:28):
That's awesome.
Thanks, Sam.
Do you have any final words forour audience out there?
Speaker 1 (55:37):
Yeah, I guess the last thing you know.
To sign off, I'd just say beexperimental, you know, and
don't be afraid to keep testingyourself as an architect.
It can be hard out there.
We all know that the industryis pretty tough at the moment,
but try and find the joy and thefun in the work that you do and
ultimately your work willsucceed because of it.
(55:59):
So yeah, Nice.
Speaker 2 (56:02):
Great Thanks again, Sam, and have a great rest of
your day.
Speaker 1 (56:06):
Thanks very much and thanks everybody for tuning in
Used to through the podcast aswell.
You probably heard my voicesome of you before on the design
principles part.
I'm kind of used to thebackwards and forwards
conversational format sohopefully monologuing wasn't too
droning for you all.
Thank you, thank you again.
Speaker 2 (56:28):
Great presentation, thanks.
Sam format, so hopefullymonologuing wasn't too, too
droning for you all.
Speaker 1 (56:38):
Thank you, thank you again.
Great presentation, thanks, sam.
Congratulations to our sponsor, parrot Dog, for
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Grab them now from your localNew World and enjoy something
nice.
This week's episode is a bit ofa different one.
(00:23):
A few weeks ago I gave a TULUtalk on the growth of myself as
a designer and of ourarchitectural practice, arret
Architects.
This is a bit of more of avisual medium.
It does have slides that doaccompany the conversation,
which will be available in thepod notes, or you can head over
to our YouTube channel and seethe whole thing synced up.
(00:44):
Or, alternatively, for your cpdpoints, head over to teulu
talks and the recording isavailable there.
I dive into my growth fromuniversity all the way through
various architectural practicesto where we are now and touch on
finding a line of design,inquiry, running that out and
how to reset as a designer andfind something new, fresh and
(01:07):
exciting.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Our presenter today is Sam Brown from Arit
Architects.
Sam's past experiences anddesire for social and
environmental betterment havegiven him the focus to push
architecture beyond theboundaries of the everyday.
His engaging personality andability to learn and adapt
quickly make him a dynamicarchitect who has spent his
career refining his craft.
Over the years, Sam hasdeveloped his passion for the
vernacular into a strong driverin his design approach.
(01:55):
Whether it be challenging theconcept of a place or engaging
with specialists, specificgroups and the environment,
knowledge of the immediate isparamount in his design
consideration.
Over to you, Sam.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Thank you All right, tēnā koutou katoa Kia tātou a te
one Kia ora.
E nā koutou.
Tēnā koutou Tēnā tātou katoaKia ora.
Like Diane said, my name is SamBrown, director, founder and
Architect at Architects, basedout of Wellington and central
(02:30):
Otago here in New Zealand.
We're a studio rooted in realworld outcomes, passionate about
architecture that is bothbeautiful and conscientious
ancients.
Coming to you today fromWellington, a dreary old day,
and when asked about what I'dlike to discuss for this Tūla
(02:51):
talk, I thought that it would bea good idea to talk about our
growth through the design as apractice, and myself more
personally as well.
Today's talk is going to be adiscussion about architecture,
um, but it will likely kind ofjourney around design in general
, um, and kind of broadly,broadly cover a few topics um
(03:16):
around design process, um linesof design inquiry and also when
to reset your line of designinquiry or when to reset your
image.
So, without further ado, we'llsort of dive in.
To give you guys a bit of abackground, I think any story
(03:37):
like this or any presentationlike this, you need a little bit
of background.
So my architectural journeystarted here in Victoria, well,
in Wellington, victoriaUniversity School of
Architecture, where I graduatedin 2014, I think, and that was
(03:57):
really the foundation of myselfas a designer and I imagine for
a lot of us that have gonethrough that tertiary channel,
it's the main foundation ofwhere we sort of begin to find
our design voice and the firstchance that we really get to
sort of start to flex our designmuscles and do so with ultimate
(04:19):
freedom, and you know it's rarein your career to ever have
that opportunity again.
So for those of you that arestill studying and are listening
, I'd make the most of your timewhile you can.
But in saying that, there is apoint in our career where you
know, the dream becomes a bit ofa reality, and for me that was
(04:41):
during my study, actually, andwhen I spent a bit of time
working with Mason Wales, anarchitecture firm New Zealand's
oldest architecture firmactually out in Dunedin, and
this was my first realexperience in practice.
And it can be a bit of a shock,because you go from these big
pie in the sky ideas to a bit ofreality.
(05:02):
This project here, the SinclairHouse the reason that I'm
showing you this is this was myfirst ever chance to play in the
real world and working on thisproject, although none of this
was actually my design outcome,but I was given the opportunity
to kind of play with compositionfor the first time.
I was tasked with making thefacade tell a story, and it was
(05:29):
this sort of early teaching thatstarted to really resonate,
start to build a little bit of adesign voice for myself.
From here I sought a little bitof experience further abroad
and spent a short period workingfor Hopkins Architects in Dubai
a pretty large internationalscale firm that do massive
(05:52):
projects everywhere, fromairports and sports stadiums
through to entire city blocksand it was here that I started
to understand the internationalscene of architecture a little
bit more and how bigarchitecture can be, not just
physically but also the socialand environmental impacts that
it could have.
And it was the learnings here,despite that being a very short
(06:14):
period of my architecturalcareer, that I sort of started
to bring home with me into thework that I do later on in my
career.
I then spent, oh, I think, aboutsix or seven years working at
Foster Melville Architects inWellington, and this was the
this was the probably the mostformative period of my
(06:35):
architectural journey.
It's where I got to start towork in the real world as an
architect as well.
I gained my registrationthrough working there and my
growth as a designer reallyoccurred.
And I was fortunate enough towork under two great mentors and
Michael Melville and AngelaFoster there, and they really
focused on fostering that nextgeneration of architects and
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wanting to leave the professionin good hands, and it was that
sort of fostering nature thatgave us design freedom.
Now, to say all of this,there's a lot of sort of
background experience that yougain through this period, but up
until this point you're stillkind of working under somebody
else or you know you're workingwith someone else's vision or
(07:18):
someone else's design view, andit's not until you start to do
your own thing that you reallyget to express who you are
personally as a designer.
So in 2021, at the back of COVID, I made the very difficult
(07:38):
decision to to start my ownpractice.
And I say a difficult decisionbecause at the time I wasn't
even sure if I wanted to doarchitecture anymore.
I'd sort of become a little bitjaded with the work that I'd
been doing and not to say thatthe work that Foster Melville
were doing wasn't good, but Ijust kind of felt like I wanted
(07:59):
to explore something else.
I'd spent a lot of timeoverseas prior to COVID and
really wanted to undertake workthat had a little bit more of a
holistic approach and was, youknow, responded really strongly
and positively to theenvironment and wanting to look
(08:21):
at ways to marry performance andaesthetics together, and this
was the chance to really blazemy own architectural path, and
that was the major catalyst instarting the practice.
Now, when you do start apractice, it's interesting
because your influence is purelyfrom everything that comes
(08:44):
before you.
And for those of you that arelistening that are either
thinking about doing this orhave just recently done this, or
even if you have people thatare working for you that are
thinking about doing this, it'ssomething to keep in mind
because we don't want anarchitectural realm full of
copycats.
But it's kind of like thatinitially, um, because you don't
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you haven't really had thatopportunity for a lot of us
anyway to really expressyourself personally, um, through
the work that you do.
So you and also you kind ofstart your own thing, although
with a different view and adifferent vision, heavily
influenced from everything thathas come before.
And in saying that, that goesbeyond just the architecture
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that you're doing, but it goesbeyond your architectural image
as well, your brand or yourimage or who you are as a
practice, which, in my opinion,I think is just as important as
the work that you produce,because that is the reason
people come to you.
It's that personal nature, it'swhat you can offer the
profession, and that evolutionthrough design is not just a
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building one, it's not just aphysical one, it's also an image
one as well.
And you can see here where westarted four years ago with the
RET architects and what we'veevolved into now.
And it's been a reallyinteresting process for myself,
and I'm speaking about my ownexperiences here, but it's worth
also noting that RET's not justme, it's also Johnny Fletcher,
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my co-director, and the otherstuff that we have as well my
co-director and and the otherstuff that we have as well.
And you know, over the fouryears we've started to really
find our voice and find ourvision and you want to try and
change your outward um image toto match that and to marry that
um.
And that's why, where we'velanded and the following slides
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and the rest of the talk, I'mgoing to kind of take you guys
through how we got there or howwe got to where we are today and
also where we may evolve intoin the future.
But I think it's a good placeto start with who we are as a
practice and, you know, wantingto align our identity with the
work that we have evolved intoproducing.
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So over the years we've sort ofgone from having an image of
what we wanted to be into beinga practice that has produced a
lot of work and wanting to alignthat practice view with the
work that we've done.
So at Aret, you know, wepassionately create spaces that
balance aesthetics withenvironmental responsibility,
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even with clear guidingprinciples.
We've found growth often comesnot from a linear process but
from deliberate moments ofreflection and resetting, and
that's something that I'm goingto try and touch on today.
I'm going to share with youguys how our practice has
embraced iteration as one of thekey principles in our design
drive and how we've also startedto look at strategic resets and
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this rebranding is one of thoseexamples and how that
significantly shapes ourarchitectural identity.
So I want to start you guys atthe beginning, because that's
where all creative endeavorsstart.
So four years ago and this iswhere I found myself four years
ago, four and a half years ago,the blank canvas, a lump of clay
(12:12):
, you could say, or maybe a fewcooking ingredients in a kitchen
.
And you sort of sit there andyou think, what do I do now?
And in an architect's case thisis often a piece of butter
paper, maybe masking tape to atable, pencil in hand, client
brief in the other, and you'rewondering what to do.
And this is where you reallystart to lean on those past
(12:34):
influences, because initiallyyou don't have a lot else to go
on.
So this is what we did.
We sort of thought about allthe learnings that we'd taken on
in our career and we started toapply that to the work that we
(12:54):
do.
And you can see here, in theearly days it was all about
experimentation, but it wasexperimentation with a clear
driver behind it.
And through these images, theseare sort of three of the early
projects that we undertook inthe studio.
(13:15):
And you can see through theseimages you know the clear
influence from architecturefirms like Bjarke Ingels Group
and their you know their conceptsketching, where they really
focus on the function, unifyingwith form and creating an
architectural outcome.
And when you're given thatfreedom to design for the first
time, you sort of go okay, whatcan I take from the past, what
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can I take from my influence andlearning and how can I apply it
to my own work?
And you sort of do this processof regurgitation in a way, but
with your own vision.
And the beautiful thing aboutthose early stages is you get to
start to experiment with allthe ideas that you have either
(14:00):
had rejected or haven't beenable to voice or haven't been
accepted by clients in the past.
And the great thing is you thenget to try and influence or try
and push that into the workthat you do.
And it was through thisexperiment, experimentation
process, that we began to startto form a bit of an idea of how
(14:23):
we would work.
And in the early days we didn'tnecessarily or we didn't have an
architectural style, and thereason for that being is we were
still testing things out.
We were seeing what worked forus, what didn't.
And these are three examplesthat you can see up here on the
screen of the early work that wedid and how varied it is.
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You know you wouldn'tnecessarily look at these three
projects and think that they allcame from the same
architectural studio, and Ithink that that is okay.
I think that is also quiteimportant because in those early
stages you're trying to findout who you are and so you're
really trying to play with ideas, express yourself creatively.
(15:07):
Um, there could be failures.
There could be wins.
Um, I'd say that we've beenrelatively fortunate and that
haven't been too many failures,um, although in saying that they
are always there, that's alittle bit more hidden behind
those things.
And, like I said, this is thefirst chance to really start to
express yourself.
(15:29):
And in the early days, ourpractice didn't necessarily
evolve from a singular vision,but it started to evolve through
repeated testing, throughprojects, through reality in a
way, and it's been really.
You know, it's quite aninteresting process to test
through reality because it'shigh stakes, but at the same
(15:50):
time, you know, you'reresponding to different climates
, budgets, briefs, sites, allthose sort of things.
So it's a great testing ground.
It was through thisexperimentation that we started
to understand or started to forma little bit of an idea of what
works for us as a practice andthe architectural direction that
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we were ultimately interestedin pursuing Through these
initial projects.
You know, we started to findthat what really interested us,
or what was really important tous, was that marrying of
performance and aesthetic.
(16:38):
But in those early stages we'restill not quite sure in how to
implement that into reality inour work.
So we continued to test, andthese are some more examples
here of the Hill House here inWellington and Karaka Tower in
Eastbourne, of where thatmarriage of performance and
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aesthetics started to come toplay, but with very different
outcomes.
And it wasn't until we sort oftook a step back and reflected
on this work post-completionreally that we understood that's
what we were doing at the time.
So I implore you as a designer,while you're working through
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these early stages of yourcareer, or even if you're later
in a career and you're goingthrough a bit of an
architectural reset or trying tofind a different architectural
direction, to think criticallyabout the work that you're doing
at the time.
It's a beautiful opportunity tobe able to reflect on work and
take the lessons from that.
But equally, I think it's justas important to be able to
(17:44):
reflect in the moment and letthat help shape your
architectural vision.
Now I've talked, all have apretty clear picture in your
(18:07):
mind of what their architecturelooks like, and early in the
career, early in your career,you won't necessarily have that
architectural identity.
You won't have that image thatpeople associate with the work
that you do.
And you know, you're often askedwhat is your architectural
(18:29):
style, particularly early onwhen you're, when you're
engaging with clients, and thehonest answer is we didn't have
one, we don't know.
We don't know what ours is, butwe have a process.
You know, and you sort of sellthe idea on the process like
this is how we approacharchitecture, this is what we're
looking to achieve, um, and theaesthetic come, comes later.
You know, the, the architecturethat we do is born from context
(18:52):
, constraints and conversations,rather than um, an
architectural image, um, andthat's why we try to avoid
prescribing forms too early inthe design and instead lean into
that iterative process as acreative tool to create varied
outcomes.
In saying that, though, I'mabout to take you through a few
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of our projects where we didstart to create a bit of an
architectural identity, where wedid start to sort of really
focus in, with a little bit morelaser focus on a line of design
inquiry that helped shape us asan architecture firm and helped
create, you know, an identityfor us that we were then able to
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use as a foundation for ourarchitecture and our
architectural growth movingforward.
So it was about a year into ourpractice that we were given the
first opportunity to start toput this into play, and I'll
take you through that processnow.
(20:02):
So at the end of our first yearof practice, we were fortunate
enough to be engaged by a youngfamily to design them a new home
in a Wellington suburb.
They had a small budget but bigaspirations of wanting to live
in a warm, dry, healthy home andwe started our usual design
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process that we'd done up untilthat point and realised quite
quickly that we needed torethink the way that we were
approaching architecture.
The sort of fly-by, you know,experimental every idea is a
good idea, seat of your pantsthing worked early on.
But when we were given sort ofsuch a constrained brief, we
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realised that we sort of had todial in a little bit more and
move away from our entrenchedmethods and begin to look at the
design of a home with a littlebit more of a critical lens.
And this led us to the ideas ofmodulation, materiality,
resilience, orientation you knowthe list went on and we started
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to find effective solutions tosolving these challenges.
And through all of this a newline of design inquiry was born
and for us this started with theuse of, like I said earlier, a
modulation.
That was probably the key thingthat started to drive this new
(21:32):
direction in architecture for usand what we could do with
modules, how flexible and howcreative we could basically be
with a grid of 1,200 by 2,400.
And one of the leadingmaterials that sort of went on
(21:52):
this journey with us wasstructurally insulated panels or
SIPs.
So you could almost say thatthis initial line of design
inquiry was how can we create,you know, beautiful holistic
architecture and make it asefficient as possible?
So the first project that wewere able to experiment with
that was the restricted section.
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This was a project that wasspearheaded by Johnny Fletcher
in our studio and it really is abeautiful example of what you
can do with a 1200 grid.
Essentially and you can see thatexpressed throughout the
architecture as well and it wassomething that we really wanted
to play with was not hiding.
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Not hiding the constructivenature of the module, the
constructive nature of thematerial, and really kind of
expressing that, but expressingit beautifully.
So it didn't feel, you know,too constructed or it didn't
feel too what's the word I'mlooking for raw or industrial.
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It was still a warm, invitinghome and that warm, inviting
nature was something that wasreally critical for us to be
able to bring across.
Despite trying to focus on thisnew line of inquiry, the house
has been, by all intents andpurposes, a raging success and
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it was a really beautifuljumping-off point because of how
well it was received and howmuch we enjoyed that process of
constraining ourselves but alsooffering design freedom and
really kind of landing ornailing the client's brief, of
making this thing that wasaffordable but also, you know,
ticking all those performanceboxes.
(23:43):
We were like, okay, great, thisis a solution or this is a way
forward in architecture that wereally want to continue to
explore and experiment withreally.
So from this project we continueto grow, we continue to explore
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and refine that line of designinquiry, and the next project in
the lineage of this was the TeU Studio.
It's actually my own home downin Lake Hawiwa.
This was essentially just acontinuation of what we had done
at the restricted section butbecause of it being my own home,
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I was able to be a little bitmore experimental.
So we started to kind of throwideas around what would happen
if you combine stick framingwith modulation.
Would you find cost benefits inthat?
How do you?
Um better run services througha site?
How do you better plan smallerspaces?
You know the the footprint ofthe restricted section is about
110 square metres, whereas herewe're condensed down to only 36
(24:55):
square metres of livable space.
And you know it was a real testin planning and how to kind of
develop small spaces.
And the reason for that scalethat became what became a real
focus for us in this line ofdesign inquiry was efficiency,
efficiency and plan efficiencyand material and efficiency with
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budget.
You know, if a client comes toyou and says I have six hundred
thousand dollars, you know Iwant, but I want 180 square
meter house.
I'm like, well, what program doyou want in that home?
And when you start to boil itdown, you realize pretty quickly
that you know they want 180square meters because that's how
big they think the house needsto be or how big the neighbor's
house might be.
But when you really start tofocus on good, clear planning,
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which we've done through thisprocess you realize that you can
condense that programbeautifully into a much smaller
footprint and it operates justas well.
Um, and that's what the TUstudio is.
It's a it's a real test ofcondensing uh program into into
a small area.
There's also a chance for us toplay with, like I said,
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different ways of approachingthe use of the SIP.
Um, you know, we we really liketo focus on leaving that
exposed, but the exposing of theSIP kind of leaves you with a
little few issues in terms ofrunning services and things like
that.
So you know, it was a chance totest the waters with service
dados, as you can see underneaththat window there, and kind of
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more modulation of otherbuilding elements as well.
So with the restrictor section,you know, the modulation was
more focused on the structure,whereas we started to move into
the tu studio and modulationcame into things like the
joinery as well, as you can see,with the modular kitchen, steel
kitchen there as well.
Um, as a final final image ofsomething as well of sorry, of
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the tu studio as well.
And the thing, uh, that we'reable to start to play with here
again was was form,immateriality, stretching the
use of the of the sit um and,like I said earlier, that
combination of of it with otherconstruction methodologies.
So you know, within thisoverhang there's steel and
things like that, and wanting toensure that we can kind of
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create architectural intrigueand merit and not be constrained
by the module, and that wassomething that we brought
forward into the third projectin this final design inquiry is
our growth as a practice, andyou can probably see it through
the design of these, how westart to evolve and mature um in
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our design.
And the next project in thatline was the village.
Now the village is sort of the,the combination I'd say of of.
You know it's a mash-up of thetv studio, um and the restricted
section.
We're fortunate enough to begiven a brief where the client
was looking for for two homes ona single site with a big focus
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on intergenerational living, sowe're able to play with that
idea of scale, interaction froman architectural planning
perspective, but then also stillbring in all that learning
earlier in terms of performanceand modulation and things like
that um, and I think as well,like I just said, you can see a
real maturation in our designlanguage and our and our design
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skill.
You know that the time frameacross these projects is is
about 18 months to two years, um, but in saying that, none of
the projects had been completedbefore the others started, so it
was a growth and it was alearning process through design,
more so than through acompleted project or through a
(28:44):
completed thing.
And that's important and I'lltouch on that in a second, why
that growth through the designprocess I feel is a little bit
more important than growththrough that final image.
So again, the village wasanother chance to kind of
express that.
You can see that, the expressionof the constructive nature of
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the modulation you know that wasbrought all the way back from
the restricted section, butagain it's a little bit more of
a mature use of the palette inthis project and, you know, a
little bit more play on lightand volume and things like that,
and also a chance to start toplay with different forms.
You know we'd lent on the monopitch for quite a while because
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it was an easy way ofconstructing with SIP panels but
we wanted to be a little bitmore creative and try different
things.
So we're looking atinterlinking gables here.
You know the way that these twoforms interact and interlink
started to kind of like test ourability to develop interesting
(29:53):
architecture rather than kind ofgeneric architecture with the
SIPs, and then that has all sortof culminated in what I kind of
see is the end of the line, ofthis line of design inquiry
anyway, or not necessarily afull stop, but it's certainly a
bit of a line in in the sand.
And this is a project that wehave on the drawing board at the
(30:16):
moment.
It's actually just goingthrough tender and hopefully
starting on site site very soondown in queensbury, uh, in
central otago, this project wecall the dart and and the dart
is, um, yeah, like I said, I sit, I kind of see is the the end
of the stylistic journey.
It's taking all of thelearnings from before, um,
(30:36):
evolving them.
You know, the roof form it'skind of hard to see in this, in
this image, but it's far moredynamic than anything we've done
before with with panels, um,but we're able to kind of take
all the learnings from previousprojects and apply it to
something aesthetically verysimilar.
They're clearly in the samelineage, but but a little bit
more intriguing and dynamic.
(30:59):
And how do we and you might askus, uh, how do we know that
we've reached the end?
Um, we don't, um, but after awhile, you know, you kind of
grow a little bit, notnecessarily tired of the work
that you're doing, but you know,a line of design inquiry kind
of peters out a little bit in mymind and we, as a practice,
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always looking for something newand exciting that not only
challenges us as designers butalso ensures that the
architecture that we'regenerating never becomes too
samey.
You know, if we kind ofcontinued to produce buildings
that looked all the same, thenwe'd become very known for just
(31:42):
one style of building, and Ithink there's there's a bit of a
risk to that for architecturalpractice, um, showing showing a
lack of adaptability.
I think you kind of end uppigeonholing yourself in the
corner of a market andpigeonholing yourself as a bit
of a designer if people keepcoming back to you for the same
thing, and you know that canbecome a little bit tiresome at
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the end of the day.
All of that to say, though,adjacent to this iterative
process, we've also been youalso been designing and refining
high performance, modular, offthe shelf designs.
Now, after developing fourdeeply personal homes, we saw a
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pattern through everything thatwe were doing in each project
how to lessen that we thoughtwas worth sharing, and citrus is
our answer to that pattern.
It's a product, but it's also aprovocation.
You know we wanted to ask whatif warm, dry, energy efficient
homes weren't a premium optionbut rather a default for
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everybody?
So, using that same line ofdesign inquiry and the learnings
that we took from doing thebespoke homes, we produced a
series of architectural outcomesseven homes that can be easily
regurgitated and are essentiallya product available to the
market.
We realised that scalabilityand simplicity was key to the
(33:10):
work that group home builders do, but architectural merit was
lacking and also performance waslacking in the work that they
provide.
So what we want to do is tryand unlock the housing market,
you know, and provide anarchitectural outcome that sort
of ticked all of those boxes.
And alongside the work thatwe've sort of done here with
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Citrus, you know, you've seenthings like the work that RTA
Studio has been doing in thesame space, and I think that
architectures and architectshave a lot to offer through all
of this.
After a while, though, like Isaid, you sort of start to
become a little bit, not tired,but you know, doing the same
(33:53):
work over and over and again, orsimilar work over and over
again, kind of stops scratchingthat itch of what else.
So you know, it can be time toreset, and after a while, you
know, especially if a uniquebrief prevents itself, you, you
(34:13):
know, you feel the need to trysomething new, or maybe not
necessarily new, but one ofthose many ideas that you've
played around back in thebeginning of your career or in
the beginning of your designjourney comes back to you and
you realize that there's an itchthere that you haven't quite
scratched.
And some of you might thinkwell, with this approach, are
you just throwing awayeverything that you've carefully
(34:35):
cultivated in the past?
Um, but I think that you know,on the contrary to that, you're
you're building a richer, deeperum and more diverse portfolio
that ultimately showcases yourability, um and flexibility as
an architect.
Um, and you know we, we at Arid, have always said that we
design with both aesthetics andthe environment in mind.
(34:57):
We don't want to try and crowbarone into the other.
You know, it's not about makinggreen buildings look good or
good-looking buildingssustainable.
It's about integrating from dayone.
And you know, what we took fromthe previous line of design
inquiry, with SIPs andmodulation, is that design
(35:19):
driver.
It's about integration, it'sabout the holistic nature of
architecture and that's whatwe're looking to carry through
all of our work, regardless ofstyle or aesthetic or brief now,
moving into the future.
That's the unifying factor ofus as an architectural practice.
You know that we're looking toevolve and adapt rather than
find one formula and stick withit.
(35:40):
Although you know, if somebodycame back to us and said, can we
have a SIP home in the lineageof the work that you've done
before, we certainly probablywouldn't say no, we just may
look to develop it a little bitdifferently.
So, on that reset, I just wantto talk to you about a couple of
projects that we've got on thedrawing board and where we've
(36:03):
sort of tried to really test ortest that reset concept.
And this is a conscious effort.
You know, spur Ridge Rise thisproject here in Queenstown, you
know, marks an evolution on howwe address site budget
constraints and the environment.
You know it's a testament toembracing difficulty, really
(36:25):
turning perceived obstacles intoarchitectural opportunity.
And you know this is a projectthat we're hoping to, you know,
blend seamlessly into itssurroundings and really enhance
the natural features of the siteand the surrounding area, while
creating functional anddramatic living spaces within.
Now, although this is certainlyan aesthetic evolution of design
(36:53):
style, one thing that is trueto all the architecture that
we've done in the past.
We're doing now and I hope thatwe will do in the future, is
that that focus on marryingperformance and aesthetics is
always there.
Now it's interesting becausethe two projects that I'm going
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to talk to here they're sort ofthe start of the next line of
design inquiry.
Now one, both or neither ofthese could continue, could
start a new, new aestheticlineage, but it's exciting to
kind of be working on somethingnew that has that potential to
grow and evolve into a differentarchitectural style that we as
(37:40):
a practice can deliver.
And this is the other projectthat we're working on, currently
a bit of an evolution.
This is the Oculus House, wherewe're starting to kind of like
delve into architectural clarityand precision and develop an
architecture that's like deeplyrooted in the local history of
the place, um, and you know,looking at illustrating the way
(38:02):
that we can kind of interplaybetween history, place,
contemporary living, um.
And this is a design wherewe've done a lot of research, um
, and made a lot of decisionsbased on authenticity, material
honesty and contextualresponsiveness as well.
And these sort of like newquestions and new lines of
design inquiry are quiteexciting because they're helping
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us grow the work that we do,the work that we produce and the
direction forward.
But all of this to say thateverything is still underlined
by that focus on creatingholistic architecture.
One thing that I just want tokind of touch on is when you
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have made that reset or when youhave made that move, you know
what if a client comes to you,or what if you start to ask
yourself maybe I'll go back?
Or a client comes to you sayingI want a replica of something
that you've done before.
Have you moved on?
And sometimes I can find this alittle bit of a tricky question
and I don't think we'venecessarily been working in
practice long enough to betested in this.
(39:11):
But my approach would be tohear them out and then, you know
, possibly steer them in a bitof a new direction.
It could create a new line ofdesign inquiry for you as well.
Take the best bits that they seein the projects that you've
done before, talk to them aboutit.
How can you integrate them intothis new line of design inquiry
(39:32):
?
And think about what haven'tyou scratched yet or what do you
want to sort of address orexplore as an architect or as a
designer?
And voila, you know, you mighthave just generated a new
direction and we had this withSpur Ridge, and I didn't show
the imagery there, necessarily,but we developed two concepts
(39:54):
for the clients there, vastlydifferent concepts.
And you know, through thatprocess and the presentation of
that process, the clients cameback to us and sort of said, oh,
we really like this.
From there, you know these,this.
From there, you know theseaspects from this concept and
these aspects from that concept.
Can you mash them up?
And we, you know, and in doingso we created a completely new
(40:18):
thing, you know.
So sort of three completelydifferent looking buildings,
same brief, um, but you know, aninteresting, interesting thing
is like they, all of those ideasand everything there could stem
a new line of design inquirythat we may look to explore, you
know, in future projects.
(40:38):
Um, I just want to kind of touchon something that gerard
dombroski, you know, one of myco-hosts on the design principle
spot, um, said, uh, as a bit ofa closing statement or closing
remark.
But you know, I think it'sworth through all of this and
everything that I've kind oftalked about in this brief
(40:59):
discussion today is your designmind.
It's like a muscle, you have towork it out and you know, I
take this analogy a little bitfurther, in that, you know, if
you just continue to work thatsame muscle out, do the same
thing over and, over and overagain, you're going to end up
looking like this guy here onthe on the right um, and I don't
(41:19):
know about you guys, but wouldyou rather have one giant arm or
would you rather be, you know,the perfect beast, um, that is,
that is arnie over there.
You know, I think it'simportant that we, you know,
continue to work our designmuscles out, but change the
muscles in that design mindconstantly to create, you know,
a better, more well-roundedarchitectural offering for
(41:44):
clients and for yourselves aswell, because ultimately, you
know, we are designing forpeople, but we also are
designing for ourselves.
So, you know, although we are arelatively new and young firm,
I feel like we've started ourjourney with the right mindset,
a flexible one, you know, that'sallowing us to grow, develop
(42:04):
and adapt and deliver beautifularchitecture and different and
interesting architecture acrossthe board.
You know, we all entered thedesign profession to design, uh.
So let's keep doing that andkeep being hungry for something,
something new, something odd,something exciting, or even
something that doesn't worksometimes, because if you, you
know, if you don't test it andyou don't know, then you don't
(42:25):
grow.
Um, so I just want to thank youall for for joining this
conversation and, you know,let's continue striving for
evolving architecture thatthoughtfully responds and
responsibly performs and deeplyresonates.
No mihi me te ora.
Thank you.
In a world where design speakslouder than words, what story
(42:45):
does your space tell?
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Every product they createstrikes a perfect balance
between form, function andsustainability.
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From using recycled materialsto pioneering carbon negative
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(43:07):
inspire people and respect theplanet.
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awesome.
Speaker 2 (43:22):
Thank you for joining us today, sam um, thank you
very much that you uh touched onsome uh topics that are very
deep and meaningful to me, suchas, uh, a healthy home, a warm,
dry home.
It should be the expectation,not a, not a luxury, in a house
so great.
Uh, we have some questions foryou.
(43:43):
Cool, so you speak about how apractice evolves through
real-world iterations.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
Can you share an example of a project that
fundamentally changed the wayyour practice approaches design?
Yeah, and I think I touched onthat when I was running through
the project examples that I hadthere the restricted section
would be the project that wasprobably the catalyst for change
for us.
I think it was the first timewhere we actually really looked
critically at the work that wewere doing and the work that we
were producing and, like I said,it was that starting point for
(44:21):
that very strong line of designinquiry that was sort of
explored over the last three tofour years.
So I'd say, yeah, that was thereal project that started it all
in a way.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
Yeah, yeah.
So this end point you mentionedreaching an end point in a
design inquiry.
Can you touch on what thatmoment felt like for you as a
designer and how do you knowwhen it's time to start fresh?
Speaker 1 (44:47):
Yeah, it's an interesting one.
I don't want to speaknegatively on it because
obviously, you know, we'rereally happy with the
architecture that we've producedand the end point you know, the
DART for me would be the endpoint in a way for that line of
design inquiry, although I canalso see us doing similar work
(45:07):
in that same space.
But I think, although I lovethat project and I love what we
produced, upon completion of thedesign of it I sort of had a
little bit of fatigue, I guess,for want of a better term of
tackling things the way that wehad there.
And I think I really love thedirt dart project and really
(45:28):
love what we produce, and to meit just kind of seems like a
natural um finishing point inthat in that line of design
inquiry.
And equally, you know, you'reconstantly being influenced by
new projects and new things andnew ideas, and for me it just
felt like time to try somethingnew, really Okay.
Speaker 2 (45:48):
So process over product is a central theme of
your talk.
How do you communicate thevalue of process to clients, who
are maybe more focused onoutcomes?
Speaker 1 (46:00):
Yeah, it's a difficult one.
We sort of the way that wediscuss it with clients is when
we're kind of setting up theinitial engagement or the
initial, you know, offer aservice and things we clearly
express to them that we frontload a lot of our fee ultimately
(46:21):
because that's what you knowthey're wanting to see initially
fee ultimately because that'swhat you know they're wanting to
see initially um in the conceptdesign stage and we we say to
them the reason for that beingis it offers us the opportunity
to play and explore um.
I think if you limit yourself inthose very early stages of the
project which often you know,which I think we did a little
bit in the past um from a feepoint of view you don't offer
(46:44):
yourself the time um to to playin those early stages um, then
you know you're kind of doingthe project a little bit of a
disservice and we try andexpress that to clients as best
as possible.
You know we want to exploreevery avenue for you um and try
and kind of give you a lot ofsolutions to your brief, rather
(47:05):
than just trying to like land onit day one and then that being
it.
So most of the time they'repretty responsive to that, I'd
say, because, you know,ultimately they realise that
they're going to get the bestout of the project with that
approach.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
Excellent.
So your bio references a strongcommitment to social and
environmental betterment.
So how do these values show upin your day-to-day design
decisions?
Speaker 1 (47:33):
yeah, I'd say.
I mean, like I said, throughthe process, well, you know,
through the work that we do, weI use the term holistic
architecture um, and the reasonthat I use that term is I think
the architecture that we striveto produce or design and develop
kind of ticks every box.
It's, you know, it's bothaesthetically beautiful but it's
also, you know, it performswell, it has low environmental
(47:56):
impact.
We consider embodied carbon,you know all of those sort of
things and we want to producebuildings that are obviously for
the client.
But ultimately, you know you,you hope that your building's
still here 100 years later andmost of the time, well, you know
, unless it's crazy advances inmedicine, your clients might not
be here anymore, you know.
So we want those projects tocontinue to have a positive
(48:19):
influence.
Um, you know, sociallythroughout their life, um, and I
kind of I guess that all hassort of culminated.
You know, we, sociallythroughout their life, and I
kind of guess that all has sortof culminated.
You know we get thatopportunity to do that.
You know, one-on-one withclients for bespoke projects.
But that was a big reason forus developing Citrus was being
able to offer housing or housingsolutions, that sort of scratch
(48:42):
that itch or you know that hadthat positive social outcome.
But that's available toeveryone.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
Yeah, that was very special to me.
I did enjoy that part of thepresentation.
Actually, I enjoyed the wholepart of the presentation, all of
it.
So you've developed a passionfor the vernacular.
How do you balance respectinglocal context with the desire to
innovate or challengeconventional forms?
Speaker 1 (49:10):
I think you can do that easily.
To be honest, you know we takea lot of influence from the
immediate environment that ourprojects exist within.
But you've got so muchflexibility in how you interpret
that and it could be everythingfrom you know, like a real, a
(49:34):
real design, you know, or a realdesign driver, say you're
trying to mimic the forms of themountains around you or
something, or it could besomething a little bit more
spiritual or nuanced.
You know the history of placeor you know something like that.
So I think you can respondvernacularly if that's a word to
the site but still have, youknow, complete design freedom to
(49:56):
produce a solution andultimately sometimes that leads
the design.
But I'd also say you know, I'vegot to be honest, we as
architects are pretty good atpost-rationalisation and
sometimes design epiphanieshappen and you come up with a
solution.
But you can often and I try tooften bring it back to something
(50:16):
contextually that sort ofanchors that project and it
makes it special to thatparticular site.
Speaker 2 (50:24):
So young practices In your experience.
What are the key challenges forthese young practices in
finding their design identity?
Speaker 1 (50:37):
I think and this is speaking from experience I think
one of the biggest challengesis not feeling like a fraud, but
early on, particularly whenyou're starting out as an
architect and as a youngpractice, if there's a
collective or a group of you,it's having confidence in who
you are and having confidence inthe work that you do.
(50:59):
And it took us um, I don't know.
I felt that it's taken usseveral years to kind of have
that confidence and have thatcomfort and the work that we
produce and and like I mentionedthrough my talk, we went
through numerous designiterations and and followed
(51:21):
lines of design inquiry to findthat comfort.
So I'd say that's probably thebiggest challenge is, yeah,
being comfortable in your ownskin in a way.
Speaker 2 (51:30):
Yeah, you've got to be paid.
You've got to pay the bills,but you've also got to find your
design voice within that, don'tyou?
Yeah, yeah.
So you mentioned engaging withspecialists and specific groups
as part of your process.
How does this collaborativeapproach shape the final design,
and what has it taught youalong the way?
Speaker 1 (51:49):
Yeah, it's something that's pretty dear to our hearts
.
We find that architecture inisolation is very, really
successful.
So we try and we think of thewhole project as basically it's
a team effort.
We're one member of that team,so we try and build the team, or
build that project team, veryearly on in the process.
(52:12):
So everybody from the client,contractor, other consultants
and ourselves are all strivingtowards that one goal and that's
been a real success in the waythat we approach our
architecture and I think itultimately leads to a great
result and less conflict andissues later down the track.
So I think that is, if you canafford yourselves that and if
(52:35):
you have a team that you trustaround you, then you're
ultimately going to get a betteroutcome.
Speaker 2 (52:40):
Great.
So we've got a couple morequestions.
What role does failure play inthe growth of a design practice,
and can you share any momentswhere something didn't go to
plan and how it shaped yourfuture approach?
Speaker 1 (52:54):
Was that failure?
Where does failure play?
Yeah, so, funnily enough, it'shappened very recently to us.
So the Oculus House that Ishowed you, we spent a lot of
time really diving into theclient's brief and researching
the site and place and, I think,developed a really beautiful
(53:18):
architectural outcome.
But, for whatever reason, theclients had a very different
vision in their mind which theydidn't quite express or bring
across to us through theirbriefing document or the time
that we spent with them, and so,upon presenting it to them, it
kind of fell pretty flat, uh,disappointingly, um, which you
know can be a little bit of ahit to the ego.
(53:40):
But, um, what, I think it's youknow.
Upon reflection now, I've beenlike, okay, well, nothing's lost
there, and I think that's youknow.
Upon reflection now, I've beenlike, okay, well, nothing's lost
there, and I think that's thelesson to take from a failure is
nothing's lost.
You've still produced thatbeautiful design, whatever that
may be, and, okay, it might notwork on this site or in this,
you know, or in this situationfor these clients, but it's
still sitting there in thebackground.
(54:00):
It's something that you candraw upon again in the future
and for other projects.
So I'd say, you know, fromfailures and from real failures.
You know, don't get toodisheartened I mean you will
initially, but look at thesilver linings and look at the
positives and look at thelearnings that you can take from
that into future work.
Speaker 2 (54:18):
Nice, okay, and last question, looking ahead how do
you see the next phase of yourpractice evolving?
Are there new directions orchallenges you're particularly
excited about?
Speaker 1 (54:31):
Yeah, I think for us, I think for something that I'm
really excited about is findingthat next line of design inquiry
I really like although I talkedabout resetting and, you know,
coming to the end of somethingand then starting again the
actual process of developingting, and, you know, coming to the
end of something and thenstarting again the actual
process of developingarchitecture.
You know, creating a bit of anarchitectural family tree and
the work that you've done reallyexcites me and so I'm quite
(54:55):
excited to see where some ofthese projects that we've got on
the drawing board at the moment, how they are going to
influence more projects cominginto the practice and how we
sort of start to create a bitmore of a diverse design voice
with those.
And I kind of like the idea ofyou know, in the future looking
back and having these many kindof like architectural trees and
(55:17):
seeing, oh, these all projectsrelate, these all projects
relate, these projects relate,and I like that idea.
So, yeah, I guess I'm excitedfor the next line of design
inquiry and where that will leadus.
Speaker 2 (55:28):
That's awesome.
Thanks, Sam.
Do you have any final words forour audience out there?
Speaker 1 (55:37):
Yeah, I guess the last thing you know.
To sign off, I'd just say beexperimental, you know, and
don't be afraid to keep testingyourself as an architect.
It can be hard out there.
We all know that the industryis pretty tough at the moment,
but try and find the joy and thefun in the work that you do and
ultimately your work willsucceed because of it.
(55:59):
So yeah, Nice.
Speaker 2 (56:02):
Great Thanks again, Sam, and have a great rest of
your day.
Speaker 1 (56:06):
Thanks very much and thanks everybody for tuning in
Used to through the podcast aswell.
You probably heard my voicesome of you before on the design
principles part.
I'm kind of used to thebackwards and forwards
conversational format sohopefully monologuing wasn't too
droning for you all.
Thank you, thank you again.
Speaker 2 (56:28):
Great presentation, thanks.
Sam format, so hopefullymonologuing wasn't too, too
droning for you all.
Speaker 1 (56:38):
Thank you, thank you again.
Great presentation, thanks, sam.
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