‘On Connection’
INTRODUCTION ‘3 Over 4 Under’ is an annual forum presented by EmAGN WA, providing an opportunity for three established and four emerging practices/practitioners to present and discuss current works. Theme: On Connection Date: 11 October 2018 Forum Location: State Theatre Centre, Studio Underground, Northbridge This year, EmAGN WA are proud to present the theme “ON CONNECTION”, the 14th in our themed series previously exploring ‘On Reality’ ‘On Site’ ‘On Weathering’ ‘On Home’ ‘On Language’ ‘On Re-Use’ ‘On Idea’ ‘On Technology’ ‘On Rejuvenation’ ‘On Forgotten’ ‘On Impact’ ‘On the Side’ and ‘On Beginnings. EmAGN
ABOUT Architecture is an exercise in connections. Connection between thinking and making. Between an individual project and its surrounding environment. The connections between architecture and the broader community provide opportunities for advocacy. Collegiate connections between practitioners, educators and community, within Perth and beyond, provide an ongoing source of support, discussion and critique. We asked our speakers: in speaking ‘On Connection’, how do you create these varied connections which enable your work to evolve, survive and thrive? Connections occur across a number of scales in architecture, from detail, to threshold, to site context. How do you approach and nurture these connections, and how does your work connect to the broader world? EmAGN October 2018
SPEAKERS Overs: Jimmy Thompson MJA Studio Neil Cownie Neil Cownie Architect Jon Denaro, Luke Davey and Bec Juniper Obscure View Unders: Michael Phillips Ateliervivo Serena Pangestu and Anika Kalotay Kura Studio Drew Penhale Penhale and Winter Robyn Creagh Curtin University
Jimmy Thompson Name of practice: MJA Studio Names of principals: Jimmy Thompson, Wes Barrett, and Mark Ciesielski Date of practice commencement: We became MJA Studio in 2015 Size of office: Extra large (but not THAT large!) 29 staff Practice Statement: MJA studio is a tight knit family of Architects and Designers who share a common desire to create works that are generous to the end-user, sympathetic to their context and have enduring value for their community. We are a collaborative bunch who enjoy the challenges of working with a diverse client and consultant group across a wide range of project typologies including Student Housing, Multiresidential, Mixed use Hospitality, Seniors living and the odd Wavegarden or two. We are predominantly based in Perth but have a little studio in Melbourne too. Ongoing Research / Key Connections: As our Cities become denser how do you create appropriate infill that responds to historical and existing contextual connections whilst also anticipating future context(s). Current Projects: The Bottleyard. Apex Residences (in joint venture with WOHA).
photo by Dion Robeson
Jimmy Thompson MJA Studio
On Connection: Perth is one of the lowest density cities in the world and is in desperate need of considered infill. The slow and difficult process of developing our suburbs to address this need raises the following design questions: How do you create appropriate infill in established suburbs? and Can you make meaningful connections to the multiple threads of history and context that are inherent in these sites? Jimmy Thompson will discuss how MJA_studio has approached these questions with regard to one low-rise built project and one high rise project that is soon to be submitted for DA. The Bottleyard is a 125 apartment, dual aspect multi-residential project that rises from three to six stories depending on adjacent context. Arranged around a series of garden rooms and courtyards it seeks to thread multiple histories through its approach to built form, site layout, landscape, public art. Forbes Residences is a joint venture between MJA_studio and the Singaporean practice WOHA whose Design Narrative seeks to blend all the positive aspects of the single house and apartment home into one vertical Applecross, a tower microcosm of the suburb itself.
Neil Cownie Name of practice: Neil Cownie Architect Names of principals: Neil Cownie Date of practice commencement: x Size of office: small Practice Statement: In each new journey, I strive to achieve buildings, interiors & objects that reflect and are unique to their location, feel like they ‘belong’ and have a strong ‘sense of place’ within. The finished work is multilayered and is a sensory experience of texture, acoustics, light and shade. Depending on circumstance, building can become sculpture. Ongoing Research / Key Connections: Engaging with the community to bring a greater awareness to important current issues where an architect design led approach will achieve a better outcome for the community. Current Projects: Roscommon House. Baseline Salon. Cloud House. The Opera House. Muduraup Ocean Pool – Cottesloe Beach.
photo by Neil Cownie Architect
Neil Cownie
Neil Cownie Architect On Connection: When do we really connect with architecture in the journey through our careers? Initially, the only connection that I had to architecture on commencing the course at UWA was through my father’s artwork and his drawings of buildings. On graduating was I really connected to architecture? I think not. I had been given some tools including the concept of design thinking and had an enthusiasm to absorb knowledge in architecture. Before you know it, life gets in the way with commitments and family diluting that ability to fully absorb those architectural experiences. On reflection, this life getting in the way, is exactly the lessons that you need to learn to become a good architect. Connecting to produce good rounded architecture is only possible after you have lived a life. The trick is however, to keep that youthful enthusiasm for architecture through all of your ups and downs. With experience behind you, there is an ability to really connect with clients and understand that there is no one right way forward. There is a confidence to allow you to pursue whatever pathway necessary to accommodate each client. As a profession we need to do much more to connect with the public; our potential clients.
Jon Denaro, Luke Davey and Bec Juniper Name of practice: Obscure View Names of principals: Jon Denaro, Luke Davey, Bec Juniper and Linton Partington Date of practice commencement: 2018 Size of office: Small Practice Statement: Obscure View is an independent multidisciplinary artist team; combining disciplines from the arts, architecture and project management to provide a platform of specialist expertise. Obscure View was founded by sculptor Jon Denaro and architect Luke Davey, who are joined by painter Bec Juniper, gallery owner Linton Partington. We formed based on a concept of holism, whereby our effectiveness is greater through our interaction, than if we were to work individually. We work in a collaborative approach that guides a shared conceptualization process. This includes our clients and other project stakeholders, whereby we encourage and facilitate frequent and flexible communication. Ongoing Research / Key Connections: Making places for art to happen. Enabling a wider spread of artwork and experience in art delivery within the public realm. Placing artists in the room within the development of architecture and public space. Selected Projects: Sculpture by the Sea; West End Arts Precinct; Coke Bottling Facility; and Embleton - Power to the People.
photo by Luke Davey
Jon Denaro, Luke Davey and Bec Juniper Obscure View
On Connection: There are times when artistic creating seems to be about a dislocated space separating itself from cultural precedent. The jump from linear knowledge. Disconnection or differentiation seem to be what is going on at that point; escaping the code, finding freedom. This moment usually proves in the end to be illusion, just conspired by the ego; a set of leaps of faith into solutions in the hope of finding some unique outcome; there is often nothing real there at all. When I am duped by this moment again and again and then come back to define this creative flow , I think more about my biology than my thoughts or even my “important” philosophies. Then I come back to what I am and away from what I think. It seems that as interesting as the brain is with the connections and neurones and pathways, that the body really contains the momentum, the mass of real action and causality which contains the ‘real’. I am a sculptor, I construct stuff in an additive process, that includes linear fabrication, regressive elements and deconstruction within the process. I find all that language already exists in my own biological construct. I feel that this may be what I essentially play out within the intercession between hands and mind. Jon Denaro
Michael Phillips Name of practice: Ateliervivo Names of principals: Michael Phillips, Rachael Carter, Lula Marcondes, and Natan Nigro Date of practice commencement: 2015 Size of office: small Practice Statement: Ateliervivo is a design-build education program based in Recife, Pernambuco in the North-East of Brazil, run by a group of Brazilian and Australian architects, designers, and educators. We offer educational experiences in which participants design and build projects that benefit local communities. Our workshops offer an opportunity to examine how each stage of the process complements and informs the others in the pursuit of quality and appropriate design. We aim to make a difference in the way that design and construction are taught as well as bring people together through the joy of building. Ongoing Research / Key Connections: Creating educational experiences through architectural projects (and vice versa). Facilitating inexperienced participants in the building process. Community custodianship of public space. Selected projects: 2017 Santo Amaro Community Square 2017 ‘Entry Room’ Health and Wellbeing Project 2 2018 ‘Cubito’ A demountable 2.5x 2.5m timber modular prototype
photo by Ateliervivo
Michael Phillips Ateliervivo
On Connection: Connecting designing with building (and everything that comes along with it). Our program explores the potential of design-build education within the context of the North-east of Brazil. The workshops we run are informed by 3 objectives; providing opportunities for hands-on designing and building, delivering an educational experience and creating community focused outcomes. BUILDING: We are brought together by a collective impulse to get involved in handson designing and building. This impulse is shared equally by our coordination team, participants in our workshops (primarily architecture students) and the communities we work with. EDUCATION: An educational program based on learning by building provides the justification for these experiences to take place. Learning opportunities range from immediate (how to mix concrete) to multi-layered (designing for community maintenance). A design through to build pedagogy establishes a tempo for all aspects of a project to be appropriately considered and developed. COMMUNITY: The art of resourcefulness is the common ground between designers and low income communities in Brazil. Community focused projects present a challenging brief with a diverse set of issues to make sense of while we focus on creating useful and appropriate outcomes within a limited timeframe. This approach to architecture and education reveals many connections as well as disconnections within the contemporary practice of making.
Serena Pangestu and Anika Kalotay Name of practice: Kura Studio Names of principals: Serena Pangestu and Anika Kalotay Date of practice commencement: July 2017 we ‘Instagram started’ Size of office: small Practice Statement: Kura Studio is a practice that specialises in handmade objects, small-scale design and projects based on architectural thought. We believe in the importance of staying curious and being aware in our everyday surroundings, to question and to experiment is a fundamental life skill that we like to practice in ourselves and encourage in others. We try to balance small scale design with community projects, and while we are not ‘practicing architects’ we like to see ourselves as architectural ambassadors who influence at the grassroots level. Ongoing Research / Key Connections: The ability to work together is important in the way we functioned as both individuals and creatives, so we got ourselves a pet and named it Kura studio. We begun sharing our work on instagram, a platform that made it so easy to compile a portfolio and reach a wide target audience in a short amount of time; the line ‘are you on instagram’ comes up within the first five minutes of almost every conversation. We collaborated with friends who had similar visions to us and jumped out of the digital world into reality through weekend market stalls and have regular meetups friends and fellow local designers including those we met on instagram. Through word of mouth and meeting lots of friends of friends of friends, we realised that Kura works best as a platform for us to share our ethos which connects us to a wide variety of people in different fields who have a similar holistic goal. The combination of diverse knowledge created for us the fertile grounds for ideas to take fruition and we 100% believe in the power of a community. Selected Projects: Caricatures of a house. Winthrop rain garden project.
photo by Kura Studio
Serena Pangestu and Anika Kalotay Kura Studio On Connection: Caricatures of a house started in February this year after having lunch at our friend Tuan’s house. His house is a small rental just outside of Leederville centre and he and his wife Hannah have managed to turn their yard into a productive urban farm. Being inspired by what we saw, we wanted to visually capture his house as a theme rather than a photo-real representation, this was the conception of our project. We saw that our collages generated interest and curiosity and were engaging people from a diverse background so we’re using this opportunity to have a conversation about Perth’s housing landscape with the general public. Another project we are currently working towards is our Winthrop rain garden project. We went to a documentary night held by the City of Stirling and watched inhabit: a permaculture perspective. There was this project in the United states which struck us and thought we could implement something similar here in our own suburbs. I live near a large stormwater sump which has been bricked off from the street and dodgy things happen there so it wasn’t hard to imagine the space being activated and opened up. We’re currently trying to work through how to make the project become a reality by bootstrapping the idea to a free online course about human centred design.
Drew Penhale Name of practice: Penhale & Winter Names of principles: Drew Penhale and Shane Winter Date of Practice Commencement: Early 2014 Size of Office: Small Practice Statement: Architectural design is the rigorous pursuit of an idea. We strive to recognise the full complexity of a project before peeling away the layers in search of what lies at the core. We pursue clarity and seek refinement while exploring moments of delight within the everyday concerns of function and use. Ongoing Research: The concrete and the ephemeral, things and places that haunt. Selected Projects: Ada Street addition; 2019 MAAS Architectural Commission; 7 competition entries; 6 alterations and additions; 1 retail interior and a stool.
photo by Penhale and Winter
Drew Penhale
Penhale and Winter On Connection: On Connection was seen as an opportunity to initiate a moment of reflection on the body of work of the practice looking for persistent themes and shared concerns, collective moments and lasting impressions. It marks a preliminary casting-of-gaze across the first 5 years of small practice.
photo by Penhale and Winter
Robyn Creagh Name of practice: Curtin University Practice Statement: Robyn Creagh is a lecturer in the School of Design and the Built Environment at Curtin University, Australia. She teaches within Planning and Architecture courses. Robyn’s research and creative practice explores the interaction of sense of place, embodied experience and built environment design. Ongoing Research / Key Connections: Place, placemaking, urban design, urban theory, embodied mobility, contestation, regenerative development Selected Projects: Research and teaching collaborations with partners in practice, community and academy through traditional scholarship and creative practice.
photo by Robyn Creagh
Robyn Creagh
Curtin University On Connection: Places are connected. Our experiences of places is connected. We connect to little details, as well as the larger area. We connect to places with our whole selves – we are in our bodies, our habits, we bring our histories and memories with us. As architects and designers, can we do better at enabling these connections? Can we do better to be inclusive in our processes and spaces, to enable connections between people and places, and to recognise individuals’ attachment to urban places? I think we can. Maybe to do that we’ll have to throw out the idea that a place can be something pure away from everything else. Throw out the idea that somewhere has a singular essence that we can tap into with our senses, or that as skilful designers we can deliver an experience that is complete and perfect (even before anyone shows up). Architecture doesn’t exist without people. Places are constantly being reshaped and remade. Connecting to place means making memories of being ‘here,’ taking part in the activity, and through that being part of the co- creation of that place. In this presentation I draw on some of my research and creative practice work to illustrate ideas for designing for connection.