Straight from the horse’s mouth
As a journalist, I’m fortunate to find myself in far-flung locations talking to the world’s leading creatives on an almost weekly basis. Often, for larger reports, I’ll spend days with a designer who is, at the outset, a complete stranger. But, over multiple meals and visits to sites and studios, a closer bond forms. While they’re still very much a subject, I do find myself in moments of quasi-friendship with such designers, picking up anecdotes and insights that I wouldn’t if I were merely scheduled for an hour-long interview.
This was an experience I enjoyed with Richard England, the octogenarian architect whose work has come to define the architectural style of his native Malta. I trailed him for a week this summer, bouncing between his works but gleaning insights and hearing tales that went beyond mere explanations of bricks and mortar. From England’s terrace with a glass of white wine in hand, he told of the time he spent with Victor Pasmore, one of the UK’s finest mid-century abstract artists, and how he imparted to England the ability to deal with creative hardship. “In 1994, one of his early paintings had been sold for £70,000 and I asked him, over lunch, how he felt about the sale and the dealer who made the profit.” Pasmore said: “I sold that work for £10, so I feel a little bit like a horse that won a race but is now watching the jockey get the cup.” Equally, England talked in an off-hand way about drinking “vodka like a fish” with government officials in Astana before unveiling a project, having Argentine-American architect César Pelli support his opposition to tall buildings in Malta and meeting the nuns responsible for protecting Luis Barragán’s work in Mexico. All of this, England says, inadvertently affected his outlook and approach to his work.
The downside to such experiences is the fact that, as an editor, you have to distil these tales down to a fine spirit. Much of what is told to you, no matter how brilliant, ends up on the cutting-room floor – as was the case for these aforementioned anecdotes. So why bring this up? First, because it was a way for me to squeeze another couple of hundred words out of Richard England (see ‘Words With’ below). And second, to invite you to hear more from the esteemed architect in person when he speaks at Monocle’s Quality of Life Conference in Istanbul next Friday. For more anecdotes from Richard – and a glimpse into the life of a design editor on the road – do join us.
Nic Monisse is Monocle’s design editor.
