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In need of some inspiration? You might find it at a Sydney culture hub (pictured) that is giving the city a breath of fresh air. Plus: we head to a California pottery studio that’s proving to be a budding success and hit the deck to enjoy the last of the summer sun from the view of a 1980s Italian patio set. But first, Nic Monisse with a word for the wise ahead of The Monocle Quality of Life Conference.
Opinion / Nic Monisse
“I’m always trying to teach students how to talk to people who aren’t architects,” says Manuel Cervantes. “It can be difficult to empathise with clients and many architects struggle to properly discuss their work.” The Mexican architect mentioned this to me over the phone in the build-up to Monocle’s Quality of Life Conference, which takes place in Munich this week. We were musing on the topic that he would like to cover in his presentation at the event and ultimately settled on the question: “How can architects have better conversations about our built environment?”
He’s not alone in wondering this. In recent years, industry heavyweights such as Pritzker Prize-winner Rem Koolhaas and commentators including the critic Tom Dyckhoff have talked about the need for architects to better communicate with the people that they’re working for. Dyckhoff’s suggestion was for designers to lose words like spatiality, interrogation, materiality and praxis from their vocabulary. I’m not suggesting that architects shouldn’t use technical language when talking to one another – it is a complex and specialist discipline and such talk is necessary in studios. The issue arises when these same words are used to present an idea or solution to the public or a client.
It’s a necessary shift; the role of the architect is no longer unilateral. Today, for a project to be successful – to suit its setting, serve the end user and be built to last, among other traits – it’s essential that the right dialogue is had with everyone from city hall and developers to the general public and community leaders. The key to talking to someone and not at them is speaking in a way that doesn’t confound them with specialist language.
Architecture, at its core, is about people and serving those who use buildings. As such, architects need to be able to converse with the people they are designing for. For a lesson on how to do so, join us in Munich this Friday.
Nic Monisse is Monocle’s design editor. For more from Monocle’s Quality of Life Conference, tune in to Monocle Radio this Friday.
Design news / Heath Clay Studio, USA
Anyone who has picked up one of Heath Ceramics’s bud vases will appreciate the simplicity and presence of this California icon. Now the 75-year-old homeware company wants to show the world how it’s done: the Heath Clay Studio has just opened in the brand’s production facility in San Francisco, complete with a public space to watch its potters at work. Visitors can also learn how to throw and glaze their own bud vase.
“Our products are widely available these days, especially online, so to share an understanding of our region and local manufacturing is priceless for us,” says master potter Tung Chiang, director of the studio. “It’s important to connect the product with the makers.” Showing the work that goes into each piece channels the spirit of the company’s original co-founder, Edith Heath, who kept her pottery wheel and latest experiments out in public, even as the brand grew. Chiang explains that having an audience while he is throwing clay can be inspiring. “Sometimes, just watching how a customer interacts with our products, whispering as they look at them, excites me.”
heathceramics.com
The project / Phive, Australia
Located in Parramatta Square, a commercial hub in sprawling western Sydney, a new building designed by Paris-based Manuelle Gautrand Architecture (in partnership with Australian architecture firms Lacoste + Stevenson Architects and DesignInc) blends a library, community and exhibition space together with a council chamber for the local authority. Called Phive, its aim is to provide the city with a new civic and cultural heart, including offices for local officials, a dedicated space for displaying and preserving local Indigenous artefacts and a research lab for the council’s cultural heritage collection.
The building has been designed to harness the benefits of sunlight and wind with a curved roof that functions as both a ceiling and façade, as well as a natural ventilation system. Its spire-like form naturally extracts hot and polluted air with operable louvres that ensure that air conditioning is only needed in extreme weather events. Phive’s strength lies in its ability to combine these environmental considerations with functional and aesthetic features: not only does its façade-cum-ceiling provide heat protection but its hundreds of folded-glass panels also gently filter natural light into the space. The structure’s sloping form creates a welcoming public space in front of the building, which has become a new focal point for the community.
manuelle-gautrand.com
For more on Phive, pick up a copy of Monocle’s September issue, which includes a list of the most inspiring design-minded events and projects to visit before the end of 2023.
Words with... / Tosin Oshinowo, Nigeria
Tosin Oshinowo founded her Lagos-based design practice, cmDesign Atelier, in 2012. Now she is one of the leading architects in West Africa, has worked as co-curator of the Lagos Biennial and will oversee the Sharjah Architecture Triennial later this year. The Nigerian designer will also be joining Monocle’s Quality of Life Conference in Munich this week, an event that will be broadcast on Monocle Radio this Friday. Here, Oshinowo speaks about the importance of keeping the customer at the heart of any project.
What are some of the principles that define your work?
First, I consider the experience of the project’s end user. When you curate your spaces by thinking about what someone will feel inside of them, you end up creating beautiful architecture with an aura. The user might not understand why they feel calm and comfortable but it’s because you have made intentional choices. I feel fortunate to have worked across projects with different cost implications, such as a waterfront home in Lagos for a wealthy family and a village for those displaced by Boko Haram. Thinking about the end user at both extremes is very powerful.
How does your approach to architecture compare with designing furniture for your brand, Ilé Ilà?
There’s the immediate gratification of having a finished product with furniture design. At Ilé Ilà we work with local fabrics and clients who are very involved in the whole process, particularly as Nigeria hasn’t had much advancement by way of industrialisation and upholstery. Using these materials means that we have an interesting relationship with the consumer as they can better customise the product to suit their vision. As an architect and a designer, it’s like using the two different sides of my brain. Ilé Ilà chairs, for example, come in striking colours but the build itself is more neutral. I really enjoy letting the end user take on their own meaning. I’m working with the best of both worlds.
As a curator, you work closely with a host of different designers. What do you want other architects to take away from your work?
Many solutions to real-world problems are technology-based but there was a time when we were living in harmony with the natural world. Architecture and design are opportunities to push for optimism. People used to try to balance their work with the environment and we need to bring this back. It’s about having a consciousness of scarcity. I trained with the illusion of surplus [and thought it was necessary] to create beautiful architecture. But you can find good design anywhere. You don’t need to have an abundance of materials and objects.
For more from Tosin Oshinowo, tune in to Monocle Radio this Friday, where the architect will broadcast live from Monocle’s Quality of Life Conference in Munich.
From the archive / Patio set by Emu, Italy
While the season for outdoor dinners is coming to a close for some, there is still plenty of time to enjoy a quick alfresco aperitivo. This 1980s patio set from Italian brand Emu would be the right balcony furniture for savouring such occasions. Directly attached to the glass-topped table are two curved chairs with armrests that also double as supports so that there is only need for one additional leg.
Emu was founded in Umbria in 1951, in the wake of the Second World War, and initially made transmission equipment for military use. Soon enough, the demand for radars and walkie-talkies slowed and Emu pivoted to making outdoor furniture for increasingly affluent and leisurely Italians. The company still manufactures many of the country’s most popular patio designs in Umbria but its offering has turned a little more staid. Bringing back some cheerful, inventive pieces from its archives would be the right move to keep up with the times.
Around the house / Base Stool, UK
Designed by Giles Pearson for UK-based furniture brand Origin, this stool is a minimalist and geometric take on its ubiquitous plastic counterpart. Pearson’s careful refinement of a well-known form ensures that the perch is suited to a range of indoor and outdoor environments. Thanks to its lightweight and stackable design, it can also be readily deployed for last-minute attendees at your summer party (including Monocle’s: we picked up a few Base Stools at London’s SCP furniture).
originfurniture.com; scp.co.uk
For more sunny terrace furniture, pick up a copy of ‘Mediterraneo’, Monocle’s seasonal newspaper, via The Monocle Shop.
In the picture / ‘After Life’, Germany
Archivorum was founded earlier this year to support artists with residences, research spaces and archive establishment. The Berlin-based organisation is also making a foray into publishing books by artists from around the world. The series, called Archivorum x M, hopes to disseminate art in an everyday context as an object of common use.
After Life, its fifth book this year, was designed by New York-based creative Sam Falls and published by DCV Books. Artists who work with Archivorum are given total freedom in terms of the subject, format and size of publications. For Falls, this meant letting nature take over, using water-reactive dry pigments and plant parts on canvas, aluminium or tiles to create different effects when exposed to the sun, rain and wind. Through this playful practice, Falls captures the transitory nature of existence – a feeling that may linger long after you finish reading.
archivorum.org
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