RE*CONNECT

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INTERVIEW …

TWELVE ARCHITECTS STudIo

By Benedetta Rizzo This energetic practice is renowned and celebrated internationally for its distinctive and memorable designs across the globe; the Platov International Airport, the Perm Retail and Leisure Mall or the Novy Urengoy Airport are just a few of the striking buildings we can name from the practice. Co-founder Matt Cartwright tells us about the importance of connection, in all terms, within the practice.

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WHAT ARE THE mAIn CHALLEngES of WoRkIng WITH pRojECTS ACRoSS THE WoRLd, In TERmS of CuLTuRAL dIffEREnCES And CommunITy InSIgHT ?

When we first started working abroad, it was actually the first year we formed the practice, back in 2012. We did not have the track records many UK clients want to see before giving you a chance of working on larger scale projects, which was always our ambition as a practice.

Working overseas was easier in terms of being given the opportunity to work on larger scale projects. We started in Russia as my business partner is Russian, so it enabled us to have an insight into the country and be able to provide an international service, but understand the cultural and commercial tensions of working in other countries.

We started in cities outside of Moscow and Saint Petersburg, because we saw that there was an opening for international architects, as the local architecture at that time wasn’t well developed within the regions. The challenges were, since the beginning, understanding the local context and culture and designing buildings that are able to be realised and that

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context and culture and designing buildings that are able to be realised and that has always been one of our ambitions. youR pARTnER IS, AS AfoREmEnTIonEd, InTERnATIonAL. HoW dId you CREATE THAT InITIAL ConnECTIon WITH HIm And HoW CAn STudEnTS LIkE uS START THAT ConnECTIon WITH InTERnATIonAL pRACTISES And ARCHITECTS AS WELL ?

I worked for an international firm before setting up Twelve. Through that, I was working overseas and I met my business partner, who was a client at the time.

We were doing large scale tall buildings in Russia and he and I got on, which I think is always the critical part. The other critical part was that we are very different; fundamentally I am an architect and he is an engineer, but he had connections into a lot of the commercial real estate development in his region. That was my personal experience, but I think that when you study at university, now more than ever, it is such an international community that your own little black book starts from your school and friends. Everyone will go off and do different things and it’s about finding

like-minded people. Once you find those like-minds, you will realise you are all in different spheres within the world of architecture and construction and commas, and that is how you create connections and a network.

I used to think there was some magic formula that you would read in a book and would give you a solution, but actually it’s really simple. It’s about who your friends are and who you like working with.

In TERmS of REConnECTIng In A bRoAdER SEnSE, WHAT do you THInk ARE THE kEy pREREquISITES ALL pRojECTS nEEd To fuLfIL In oRdER To ConnECT WITH uSERS And HoW CAn ARCHITECTS TRuLy undERSTAnd THoSE And noT TREAT THEm AS A CHECkLIST ?

If you go into a large organisation, often people will talk about KPIs and this checklist that one must tick off: if you tick something in a box it means you have achieved a goal. I think that is needed within certain organisations, because you have so many people that you are trying to keep within a group. At Twelve, we try to keep it more on a personal level and I always say to the team that the important end result is that we exceed the expectations. If you do that 7

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with a client, it means that you generally leave them with a very positive outlook on what you have done and you have taken them to a place that you never thought they would go. That can be something really simple.

Let’s say you are designing someone’s extension: how do you do that in a clever way that creates something they didn’t just ask you to do ? I think that’s what we have to do as architects, but you also must not forget that they have asked you for the simple functional things you require. It is about how you take the client’s brief and how you translate it and exceed it. foR STudEnTS LEAVIng THE unIVERSITy THIS yEAR And EnTERIng THE ‘REAL WoRLd of ARCHITECTuRE‘, In youR opInIon WHAT ARE THE bEST WAyS To ConTACT pRACTISES And ConnECT WITH THEm, AS WELL AS pITCH ouRSELVES To THEm ?

First, you have to work out what kind of practice you want to work for. It might be that some people know they want to go and work for Twelve or Fosters or any other practice and that might be your starting point.

It’s about understanding your fit rather than just putting out blank CVs to anybody. You have to be interested and show your

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interest to the practice; we get so many CVs where you can just tell they have sent out blank CVs and you look at them thinking ‘they’re not really interested in us so why should we be interested in them’. Looking on their website, seeing what kind of projects they do and mentioning them saying why you like them is the simplest and most effective thing you can do.

CVs, all of which went to all the name practices everybody would know and also wrote to a practice called Peter Fung and Associates, a very small practice where one of the senior architects of the firm lived very close to where my parents lived. That was the connection! I didn’t have that network but I did get a bit of a lucky break, which you need.

HoW EASy do you THInk IT IS AT THIS InITIAL STAgE To ConnECT WITH InTERnATIonAL pRACTISES ?

WHAT AdVICE WouLd you gIVE To ouR gRAduATIng STudEnTS?

When I did my part one in Manchester, I did something called a ‘sandwich degree’, which is when you do two consecutive years, take a year out and then come back into the degree. That made it even harder to find work, because I didn’t even have a degree whilst trying to win work or secure a job. That meant I could not get any work in the UK, so I went and worked in Hong Kong for a year.

For me that was one of the biggest steps of my professional development, when I realised that there was a bigger world than just the UK. Working abroad also kind of opens you up to building a network further and working in other countries. I was lucky to find the job; I wrote eight or nine

Be yourselves! Sometimes everybody is taught to be the next great architect and that puts a lot of pressure.

It takes a long time to develop and you never stop learning, so be careful of not burning yourselves out; it is a real danger. Also try and enjoy it! It’s easier not to enjoy it then to do, but it’s really important to find your own little path through architecture remembering that no one way is right and no one way is wrong. You will get a job! It might take a bit of time, the first job might not even be the right job or the best job, but it’s about the steppings stones that take you from where you are now to where you want to get to.

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INTERVIEW …

oRIEnT oCCIdEnT ATELIER

By Angela Li

We spoke with co-founder Magic Kwan and Kenrick Wong about connecting with the global industry and reconnecting cultures and development areas.

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WHAT WERE SomE of THE mAjoR moTIVATIonS bEHInd SETTIng up ooA?

Kwan: I worked in various architectural firms for five years after graduation. From Hong Kong to Tokyo, I was interacting and engaging with different firm sizes and clients worldwide, from which I believe I received and reconstructed a fairly basic but clear picture of what the industry looked like and what firms can offer. My time working with Kengo Kuma was very enjoyable, where their ever-evolving philosophy meant they were not centred only on being commercial. It wasn’t a belief held only by the principles but also by the staff, and this effectively attracted clients and collaborators with similar mindsets both locally and globally. There is a certain charm to being in that vital aura.

I came back to Hong Kong in 2015, but the industry environment was pretty expected and less exciting, so I went on to explore different opportunities in the field. Kenrick approached me then to establish a school in Cambodia.

Wong: It was a chance to dive deep into the design process and close contact with the design clients, the

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NGOs, who had a clear vision of how the school and the space, community, and relationships should be realized. The connection we had with the project felt more direct and was something much more enjoyable; we had more freedom and more liberty in what we were creating. I found that really refreshing.

The story went back to my studies in 2008. I started joining and organizing volunteering programmes in Cambodia, India and Hong Kong, building a strong relationship with NGOs and villages in need. Meanwhile, as an architect and film director coming from a metropolis, I was amazed and kept a lot of footage of the rural settings and vernacular cultures.

I realized architectural design’s intangible social value and power for these development projects. But by that time, there were not as many atelier firms that could offer a balance of job experiences between commercial and social/ cultural typologies. I believe successful projects are never solely achieved by their architectural design but the overall strategy and collaboration with different disciplines.

Kwan: Setting up our firm felt like the right thing to do at that time. It was also to create a sort of example for the upcoming generations of architects because when I graduated, I didn’t see many differences in the firms.

Most people come out of university just to stay in the office and hope for salary raises. We want to propose an alternative.

HoW do you InTERpRET ‘oRIEnT‘ And ‘oCCIdEnT‘ In ooA‘S body of WoRk?

Kwan: ‘Orient’ and ‘Occident’ were the initial overarching ideas. Our education in Hong Kong meant that we have that cultural background of, cheesy as it sounds, East and West. ‘Orient Occident’ is the interlacing of cultures and the relationship between objects.

Our projects embody this idea in various degrees; some are more successful and some less so. For one, our Cambodian Trilogy is situated in Southeast Asia and an ‘oriental’ context.

Found in the more rural areas of the city, where there is a lack of urban development, you can easily see how people perceive new materials and buildings differently from us.

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Their vernacular buildings are very well suited for the climatic environment, but in-come these revolutionary bamboos, concrete and metal buildings, and the general reception regards them as more advanced and preferred when they don’t feel pleasant at all in Cambodia.

Wong: On the other hand, the architectural design in the country is inherited from the colonial period of the French Indochine. There are many coherences with my study experience in Paris - many of their vernacular houses raise buildings for ventilation underneath, use steel that’s not prone to termites, replaceable thatched roofs, and all in all remains locally sourced.

And though with inheriting a certain essence of how western spatial interactions between interior and exterior, and the perception of human structure and nature of the eastern locals, there is a mismatch in how modernist western designs are perceived and how locals think their traditional ones are behind. This is not the case, which brings us to the fact that you have more freedom in these rural areas to test out various ideas and pick out the advantageous factors from the vernacular and both the orient and occident side

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of things to find an ideal point of equilibrium to work from eventually. We name this phenomenon ‘modernvernacular’ - the mix of modernist approach from the West to the vernacular building habits from the east.

Kwan: The east and west binarism resides on and is embodied in how you approach a particular problem and the methodology you choose to adopt, and much less so in the end product of the process. A project’s potential will naturally come from the place and context of the brief; then, you can start making lines and connections to draw in the ideas and philosophy.

In youR VIEW, WHAT mAkES A SuCCESSfuL dESIgn?

Kwan: If you ask the user, they will say it is successful if it’s functional, cheap and fits their needs. But if you ask the designer, it could be a failure if it does not look how they envisioned the design. The first prerequisite for architecture to be considered successful is for it to be functional; it should be structurally sound; theoretically, it should be budget-friendly and justified; and it should function as

intended.

Only when these basics are checked can we move on to the next stage. For me, this means to have a certain relationship with the cultivated. This can be the relationship between the building and the community to facilitate a long-lasting and positive effect to its surroundings, or even to the city and the culture it is located in, or maybe between the architecture and the client or contractor.

And if the project is popular, frequented by visitors and different happenings, then it’s a sign that the project is successful.

Then again, if there exists a different agenda, say if the architect wants to go the extra mile to test an idea in the form of an architectural discursion, or instil identity into the local community, and they can achieve that, then it is undeniably successful, for it is elevated beyond a mere functional form into something more significant, at times even into entire cultural symbols.

Taking a step back, unbuilt buildings are successful as well. Architectural ideas, concepts on the drawing board, even writings have the ability to affect and influence other designing minds, and if they can make an impact, it is successful.

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To WHAT ExTEnT do you THInk doES InTERnATIonAL ExpERIEnCE ConTRIbuTE To dESIgn oppoRTunITIES?

Kwan: I think architecture is a collaborative profession.

Different stages will involve various stakeholders and clients. More complex projects require specific services that might not be immediately available in a local context and vice versa.

International experience will definitely be helpful and give you more exposure to talents and service providers, potentially a bigger market, and your brand gets more exposure or is well known abroad. Conversely, you can also help clients expand internationally if you have the experience and background to support the venture. Mutual and shared knowledge also means that one problem or failed attempt in a particular context can generate a different result elsewhere or act as a precedent for other practitioners that want to do something similar in other places.

Wong: Indeed, international experiences can broaden one’s horizons about how the architectural industry works across different regions and the similarities and differences that help

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make design decisions.

However, some architects and designers focus only on one region and successfully build up their own unique design methodologies and styles from their own roots. Global-local (Glo-Cal) experiences are equally important. foLLoWIng THE pREVIouS quESTIon, WHAT WouLd you nAmE THE moST mEmoRAbLE momEnT Among youR InTERnATIonAL ExpERIEnCES?

Kwan: I started at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) when they reformed their architectural school. As a result, we had professors from the States who were also practitioners from famous firms. The later years of the course were so wildly different from when we first started.

There was this excitement everywhere, more energy and eye-opening training.

That was my first memorable experience. It gave us the confidence to pursue further studies overseas or even entire careers in foreign lands. Most of all, it was a wholly enjoyable and fun time.

I went to work in Tokyo after furthering my studies in the States, and it was

so different in as many ways as you can think of.

My training in the States was not creating the new insights that I wanted, but in Tokyo, the history and culture coalesce into this intriguing philosophy. They emphasized a strong sense of self and responsibility so that you believe you can make an impact. It is always memorable when you see something exciting that can offer exposure you have never seen before.

Wong: Most of my education took place at HKU as well, and it was an exceptionally international environment at the time.

The global manufacturing industry engine of China and Southeast-Asia were very helpful in realizing Western thinking. It was also during my college days that brought me my very first experience of working in rural regions and self-initiated architectural projects.

From Battambang in Cambodia, to Pondicherry in India and Paris in France during my studies at the ENSA; the confluence of various European and colonial-style architectural styles drew me out from modern and post-modern architectural angles to reposition my view of what is architecture.

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WHAT IS THE moST ImpoRTAnT pIECE of AdVICE you WouLd gIVE To THE upComIng gEnERATIon of ARCHITECTS oR dESIgnERS?

Wong: ‘Try more’ sounds like an opportunistic approach, but It is usually easier to develop something faster, unique, and more successful. Project, time and budget management are other essential qualities that we always forget when we dive into certain designs, but good management helps transform complex design ideas into feasible, practical and sustainable realizations.

Kwan: It would help if you also learned to embrace compromises. I don’t think any building you see out there is not a result of a series of compromises, whether it is regulations, budgets, or contextual concerns; you have to make your way around and create a solution from therein. Then again, try not to compromise. Work very hard to defend your initial belief. Otherwise, you will misflavour and lose spirit. Do not forfeit what is important to you. Designs can change, but the idea doesn’t. Accept that you are compromising at one stage, but do not limit the possibility of testing out different things in the future.

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WHAT ESSEnTIAL quALITIES do you Look foR In poTEnTIAL nEWComERS To ooA?

Kwan: A team player.

Someone who is humble but proactive, has a design flair, is willing to learn, is not irritated by changes or follow-ups, and does what it takes to achieve success. It is hard to be very prescriptive, but it is vital to strive for success.

Wong: We cherish the uniqueness of each our team members and always aim to optimize their capabilities to contribute to exciting projects.

HoW do you THInk THE InduSTRy SHouLd RESpond To Sdg 2030?

Wong: SDG is not a new concept, I first learnt of it as SDG 2015. Targetting governments and giant NGOs, it is a wonderful and ambitious initiative; but ‘how’ and evaluating its success are always major concerns. There are too many groups who work with similar ambitions.

SDG is undoubtedly a good guideline, but we need to focus on the method of implementation and gaining support. Top-down and bottom-up approaches need to work together for the common goal, and I believe the upcoming technology and mindset can allow more individuals and small groups to start make changes, however simple and small.

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RECONNECTING ARCHITECTURE SCHOOL AND INDUSTRY A n I n T E RV I E W W I T H pAu L WoodVILLE

B Y E L L A W H E AT L E Y

Following the COVID pandemic and many h o u r s o f w o r k i n g i n t h e i r b e d r o o m /s t u d i o , many architecture students felt a disconnect f r o m n o t o n l y t h e w i d e r i n d u s t r y, b u t a l s o t h e i r o wn p r a c t i c e .

This inter view with Nor way-based architect Pa u l Wo o d v i l l e o f f e r s i n s i g h t s i n t o t h e relationship between arhcitectural education and practice , as well as how we can reconnect with ourselves as designers and creatives.

PA R T 1 [RE]CONNECTING ARCHITEC T URE SCHOOL AND INDUSTR Y What would you say are the main similarities and disparities between architecture school and the industr y ?

Wo u l d y o u s a y t h a t t h e s e s i m i l a r i t i e s a n d differences are the same in both the UK and in Nor way ?

One of the most direct parallels between education and practice right now is the ever-increasing focus on interdisciplinar y working and discourse. More and more of the studio courses I am involved with in Nor way are being taught together with students from other disciplines, especially landscape architecture and engineering. This directly mirrors interdisciplinar y design processes in practice. Sustainabilit y has clearly been a driver of more integrated working practises in architecture in recent years , h o w e v e r, I t h i n k t h e i n c r e a s i n g s i z e a n d complexit y of architectural and urban planning projects is also a key driver of interdisciplinar y and team-based working.

I think this gradual move to more interdisciplinar y teaching in architectural schools (or at least a stated intention

to do so) is somewhat universal across Eu r o p e - t h o u g h t h i s w a s n o t a l w a y s t h e case in the past.

As with many things, differences between generations can sometimes be much greater than differences across national borders. It is fascinating talking to older colleagues about their own architectural e d u c a t i o n . Yo u d o n ’ t h a v e g o t o b a c k too many decades to an era where there was almost no groupwork and, for all intents and purposes, no interdisciplinar y discourse (let alone interdisciplinar y design collaboration) in most architec ture schools . The gradual move from traditional ´master and student´ relationships in architecture schools to more dynamic design studios where teachers almost consider their students as research par tners also mirrors developments in practice - and perhaps also wider cultural changes across societ y as a whole.

Another fundamental difference between architecture school and practice to ref lect upon is the question of project timescales.

Architecture school projects are generally s e m e s t e r b a s e d ( o r, a t m o s t , y e a r b a s e d ) , whereas in practice , some major projects can define several years , if not decades , of your working life.

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What do you think is missing from architecture school that would make graduates more prepared for the workplace?

Finding a ‘per fect ’ balance between education and practice is , of course , something of an eternal debate in a r c h i t e c t u r e . I n a Eu r o p e a n c o n t e x t , architectural education in the UK from par t I to par t III is one of the qualification pathways that is , relatively speaking, most directly linked to practice.

It might seem a bit of contradiction in the contex t of a question which is essentially about the balance between academic e d u c a t i o n a n d p r a c t i c a l t r a i n i n g , h o w e v e r, Rem Koolhaas once suggested that most useful things that practising architects (and by inference , student s preparing for practice) can do, is simply to learn more a r c h i t e c t u r a l h i s t o r y.

Just to elaborate : architectural histor y can obviously be taught , or learned, in many different ways , and each of them has their o w n p e d a g o g i c v a l i d i t y. H o w e v e r, I h a v e always really enjoyed architectural histor y and criticism that goes into depth about the actual design and working practises of the different architects , practises and related design professions involved in the production of architecture.

M o r e p o e t i c a l l y, t h e I r i s h a r c h i t e c t , J o h n Tu o m e y o f O ’ D o n n e l l + Tu o m e y o n c e compared architecture through histor y to a long chain of firemen passing buckets of w a t e r d o w n a l i n e t o p u t o u t a f i r e . Tu o m e y writes that it does not actually matter if y o u a r e s t o o d n e a r t h e s o u r c e o f t h e w a t e r, or right by the fire itself, but what really matters is to understand and appreciate that you are taking par t in a long historic line or continuum of architectural practice.

Pu t e v e n m o r e s i m p l y : i f y o u a r e s a t late in the office tr ying to resolve some unexpected r e g u l a t o r y, technical, or contractual challenge that has suddenly sprung up in a project , it can be somewhat humbling, and at times even reassuring, to think that generations of architects before you have had to deal with ver y similar challenges . Norman Foster has written how he , despite winning se veral awards e a r l y o n h i s c a r e e r, r e a l l y s t r u g g l e d t o f i n d

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work when he star ted his own practice.

T h e b a r o q u e a r c h i t e c t , J o h n Va n b u r g h , famously struggled with appalling client relationships on his biggest and most w e l l - k n o w n p r o j e c t , B l e n h e i m Pa l a c e .

More specifically in terms of practical skills, the students I meet in my teaching work and role as ex ternal examiner (as well as the newly qualified architects I meet in practice), tend to be exceptionally good at presenting their work , both graphically a n d v e r b a l l y. I n c e r t a i n c a s e s , t h o u g h , it can take a bit of time for some newly graduated architects to understand that not ever ybody outside of the architectural profession has the exact same vocabular y a n d r e f e r e n c e p o i n t s . H o w e v e r, m o s t people learn ver y quickly that you can still conve y an architectural idea to lots of different groups and t ypes of people by adapting syntax and vocabular y to the a u d i e n c e i n q u e s t i o n – a n d , i m p o r t a n t l y, that this can generally be done without compromising the original power or meaning of the ideas being communicated.

PA R T 2 [RE]CONNECTING WITH OUR PRACTICE What would you say are the elements of your personal practice which have been changed the most during the pandemic, and are there any which you will implement going for ward ? [eg digital vs physical tools, working in person vs online, working alone vs in a team?]

I think what is most interesting here is not the actual technologies themselves, but the cultural and organisational responses to them. It is also interesting to note that t h e s e t e c h n o l o g i e s h a v e , e s s e n t i a l l y, b e e n available for us to use for many decades now (the original 1970 masterplan for the new town of Milton Ke ynes proposed laying cables around the whole of Milton Keynes to connect ever y household and business to a videotelephone network) but that we , generally speaking, have not felt comfor table , wanted to, or needed to use t h e m u n t i l v e r y r e c e n t l y.

It is also impor tant to remember that the dramatic changes we have experienced in practice over the last two years were changes that were already gradually 15

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star ting to take place in the construction i n d u s t r y, b u t t h a t t h i s p r o c e s s o f c h a n g e was suddenly accelerated to it s ´maximum s e t t i n g ´ - a l m o s t o v e r n i g h t i n N o r w a y, o n t h e 1 2 t h o f M a r c h 2 0 2 0.

Before the pandemic , our office had s e v e r a l p r o j e c t s i n u p Tr o m s ø i n t h e f a r n o r t h o f N o r w a y. Tr o m s ø i s i n t h e a r c t i c circle and has no direct rail link s with the r e s t o f N o r w a y. I t i s a l s o t a k e s a b o u t t w o hours to f ly to the far nor th of Nor way from Oslo. Due to both the environmental impacts of flying and the long journey times involved, we had already equipped our office with, relatively speaking, quite good digital conferencing equipment so we had already begun to test out this way working on a few projects in the office.

Some of our Oslo-based clients had also already begun to use videoconferencing for ver y quick , issue-specific , meetings as a compliment to more formal physical design team meetings . What changed was that we suddenly had to work like this on all our projects at once , as well as interact with each other digitally as a practice and group of colleagues and friends , literally overnight.

During the initial few months of lockdown, many commentators were writing about ´the death of the office building´ as a b u i l d i n g t y p o l o g y, b u t a f t e r a y e a r o r s o of home-office working, people star ted talking much more passionately again about the value of physical office space, both in terms of business health, but also individual mental health.

The situation might suddenly change again due to the worsening pandemic and new variants, but right now I feel that we are currently enjoying a good balance of digital and physical working practices in the office – a balance that is both more productive and more flexible. Some of the shor ter and more straightfor ward meetings are obviously much quicker to do online, some individual tasks that require deep focus and concentration can also be completed more efficiently in a quiet room at home, though this also varies from person to person and their s p e c i f i c h o m e s i t u a t i o n . At t h e s a m e time, I think over the course of these last two years, ever ybody has now gained a ver y direct , and ver y immediate, first-

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hand appreciation of the impor tance and value (both economic and personal) of physical space in terms of exchanging and developing ideas.

How do you find inspiration for your d e s i g n w o r k ? Wa s t h i s a h a r d e r p r o c e s s over lockdown, or just different ?

Pr o b a b l y visiting seminars, expensive

the same as most architects: buildings, travel, lectures/ exhibitions, and a somewhat addiction to architecture books.

It can´t be stressed enough just how useful visiting buildings can be as a learning process. Sometimes my opinions of a building or a place that I have only seen in a magazine or online can change quite dramatically when I experience them in realit y and get to see how different p e o p l e u s e a n d r e s p o n d t o t h e m . To f u l l y understand a project , you almost need to walk around a project in it s entiret y as a complete building, physical space, or place. It doesn´t always make me popular w i t h t h e r e s t o f m y f a m i l y, b u t s o m e t i m e s just spending a few minutes on a small detour to visit a building en-route to a family e vent , or just on the way to the shops, can teach you so much more than hours of staring at a series of f lat , often overly curated, images of buildings online.

Again, I think this is also a standard answer amongst architect s but walking around cities is also a passion of mine.

Google Ear th is obviously a fantastic tool, but nothing beat s walking around and exploring how different neighbourhoods, streets and public spaces relate to each other in physical space - and experiencing up close the impor tant roles that cer tain individual buildings, or even small details, can also per form on an urban scale.

In my case, this process probably just b e c a m e ‘d i f f e r e n t ’, a n d i n e v i t a b l y m u c h m o r e l o c a l i n f o c u s , r a t h e r t h a n ‘ h a r d e r ’.

I n t e r e s t i n g l y, w h e r e a s t r a v e l b e c a m e a n essentially local activit y for most people, the online streaming of lectures and seminars from around the world directly to your living room or study now means that attending these events has suddenly b e c o m e , s i m u l t a n e o u s l y, b o t h v e r y g l o b a l and intensely domestic in nature.

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PA R T 3 [RE]CONNEC TING WITH INDUSTR Y W h a t i s a p i e c e o f a d v i c e y o u ’d g i v e t o young graduates about finding their feet in the industr y after graduating? Are there any ‘red f lags’ to look for before joining a firm?

I think my main piece of advice to young graduates finding their feet would be to tr y out a few different roles , practices , project t ypes and project phases early on in your career in order to find out what you really want to focus upon professionally in the longer term. The different insights, skills and perspectives gained early on your career (often while working on something quite different from your main career p a t h /s p e c i a l i s m ) c a n a l s o e n d u p b e i n g really useful later on in your working life.

Red f lags? I am always amazed by how much first impressions on physically entering an office can tell you about a practice - and how accurate these initial signals often turn out to be. This is something that professional clients, engineers, and landscape architects (who generally work ver y closely together with a broad range of different architectural practices) all tend to be ver y well tuned into. On entering an office, what is the atmosphere like? Is there a deathly silence, or are people passionately engaged in debate about different design solutions, technical challenges and exciting new projects coming into the office?

What are the key differences between a large and small firm in terms of your individual contribution to a project and general workplace culture?

I think workplace cultures tend to var y far more ‘horizontally ’ between different offices than ‘ ver tically ’ across different office scales. Some small offices can be surprisingly traditional and hierarchical.

Some large offices have ver y progressive and inclusive workplace cultures where newly qualified architects get the oppor tunit y to take on a huge amount of design responsibilit y early on in their careers – and, of course, vice versa.

Also, as with any group of people, there will always be a pre vailing workplace culture in ever y office. Never theless, there

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will also be small variations in working practice between different project teams , different studios etc. within the same office. Some larger offices can almost work like a network of small or mediumsized offices. Moving between different projects or project teams can provide a fantastic oppor tunit y to tr y out different working methods and experience different group dynamics, without having to change job!

I n m y v i e w, t h e d i v e r s i t y o f a p p r o a c h e s and working methods within any given individual practice , as well as the even bigger range of approaches between different practices , is a huge positive i n t h e i n d u s t r y, b o t h p r o f e s s i o n a l l y a n d c u l t u r a l l y.

How did you personally find the transition of working as an architect in the UK to then i n N o r w a y ? Wa s t h e r e a s t e e p l e a r n i n g cur ve in how the industr y operates in different countries?

Although there are obviously key differences in the detail of their practical implementation, the fundamental mechanics at work in the industr y (be they market forces, planning or technical r e g u l a t i o n s ) a r e b r o a d l y s i m i l a r. At a t e c h n i c a l l e v e l , t h e Eu r o p e a n c o n s t r u c t i o n industr y is also ver y harmonised in terms of common technical standards – and, to an increasing degree, the ver y physical building products and building materials that we use to construct buildings w i t h i n Eu r o p e a r e a l s o b e c o m i n g m o r e standardised. This is especially so with advanced materials and environmental technologies (Just as a side note , I don´t think harmonisation of technical standards necessarily leads to less innovation.

In many instances, common regulator y framework s provide an impor tant shared platform for implementing innovative design strategies , as well as enabling broader international cooperation in projects).

The biggest differences in how the construction industr y works in different c o u n t r i e s t e n d , i n e v i t a b l y, t o b e c u l t u r a l r a t h e r t h a n t e c h n i c a l . H o w e v e r, t h e b a s i c a b i l i t y t o d r a w, t o d e s i g n , a n d t o m a k e buildings can act as a common language between architects across national 17

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boundaries and cultural divides – and often functions as a common reference point and a good entr y point to understanding and decoding a new culture.

An architectural / design related book y o u ’d r e c o m m e n d ?

This is a ver y open question! I think it really depends on your professional interests, the t ype of projects you are currently working on – and maybe also the t ype of projects you would like to be working more on in the future.

It probably also says a lot about my own personal interests and preoccupations, but two classic ´standard tex ts´ that I frequently recommended to students on environmental design and urbanism courses are Reyner Banham´s classic, T h e A r c h i t e c t u r e o f t h e We l l - t e m p e r e d E n v i r o n m e n t , a n d C h a r l e s Wa l d h e i m ’s Landscape Urbanism.

Although working on ver y different scales and with ver y different approaches, both books also address one impor tant common theme.

Banham, somewhat m a g n i f i c e n t l y, a t t e m p t s t o r e - t e l l t h e stor y of modern architecture by focusing on the little discussed but fundamental role environmental technologies (and environmental engineers) have played in the historic development of modern a r c h i t e c t u r e . Wa l d h e i m a l s o a d d r e s s e s the question of professional roles and the historical institutional boundaries between different disciplines and design professionals – but this time, on the much larger scale of urban and regional landscape planning.

An Instagram page you think future architects / designers should follow?

I am going to sound ver y old-fashioned here, but I still think nothing beats a page in a nicely designed book or a p r i n t e d m a g a z i n e . M o r e o v e r, a s p r a c t i c i n g architects and architecture students, we already spend far too much of our lives staring at computer screens - but especially so these last two years.

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As Arts students, we have developed our own community of creatives at Benzie and Chatham. However, we can often find ourselves in the bubbles of our own courses. In response to the theme of ‘Reconnect’, we as WOAH wanted to explore our community – by finding commonalities that bring us together.

Home is safety, usually referred to in the context of shelter. In our extremely diverse student body, we have a plethora of stories that are yet untold and hidden. These are the stories that define our community. We believe they deserve a platform and can grow branches between our various bubbles, tying us to common roots.

With our latest project, we will be looking at putting up a collection box near the elevators at Benzie, along with a stack of papers. As you stand in line and wait for the lift, take a minute, and send us a quick note on what HOME means to YOU. It can be as anonymous as you feel comfortable with – so add your Instagram or leave it anonymous. We will be highlighting these on our Instagram, in hopes to bring together our community and tie together all our little bubbles.

Think back to your childhood or maybe just a couple of days ago – do you have a story that means something to you? Do you have a story that makes you laugh every single time? Is there a moment you remember that fills you with the safety and joy of HOME - that encapsulates what Home means to you? Drop us an email or DM on our Instagram to be a part of our Humans of MSA series.

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©Kingsley Keng Chi MAK @kktmsarchi Shot with Samsung Galaxy S8

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A photo essay compiled from winning entries under the Humid Dimensions Photography Challenge held by the MSSA Photography Society.

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©Sally So Kei HO @sasokeiho Shot with Canon EOS 760D

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©Sally So Kei HO @sasokeiho Shot with Canon EOS 760D

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©Enis Tan ULMAN @enisulman_photography Shot with Huawei P20 Pro

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©Enis Tan ULMAN @enisulman_photography Shot with Huawei P20 Pro

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©Catalina MARINA @catalina.marina.p Shot with Nikon P900

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©Catalina MARINA @catalina.marina.p Shot with Samsung Galaxy A50

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