The second in our series of HausWork architectural talks was devoted to ‘the challenge of context,’ a red rag to a bull for a profession starved of opportunity to reveal their modi operandi. Patrick Lynch of Lynch Architects opened the talk with a question - just exactly what kind of context do architects want to create?
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Lynch’s work deals explicitly with the everyday, eschewing the grand iconic gesture in a search for the textures, arrangements and memories of day-to-day life, a humanist modernism that’s not out to create vast blobs and shards, but structures that mesh with the existing city without descending into pastiche. Recent projects by his studio include a new house in Dalston, a modern interpretation of the Georgian façade without the cloak of social order and hierarchy, and a new housing, office and library complex in London’s Victoria. With a passionate belief in not patronising his clients, Lynch and his office are making a modest - but discernible - impact on contemporary architecture culture. Rather than encourage people to pursue ephemeral and intangible dreams, Lynch argued persuasively for real social engagement.
Manuel Cerda Perez of Valencia’s MCP Arquitectura spoke next and presented a very different picture of a contextual approach. Showing three recent single family houses in and around his home city, Perez effectively argued for an inward-looking architecture, one that created a new landscape of inside/outside spaces according to the position of the sun, the orientation of the site and the specific demands of the client. In a very different architectural climate to the UK, Perez’s houses built on the Mediterranean tradition of the inward-looking courtyard space, detached from their neighbours, cleverly planned and stylistically minimal.
Mary Duggan of Duggan Morris Architects presented three works of ascending scale, from the ‘squatting frog’ of the King’s Grove house in Bushey - occupying a back yard site with historic local associations - all the way up to Europan 9, a new masterplan for a depressed part of Stoke on Trent. In all these projects, the historic, social and physical context served as a foundation for a new story to be built, weaving all three aspects together to create an unashamedly modern architecture, continuing the human habitation of the sites without appearing introverted or contrived.
The audience picked up on these apparently different approaches, and the current icon-driven culture came in for some hefty criticism and one or two sacred cows took a bashing. No doubt the arguments continued to rage over a glass or two of Champagne Taittinger at the reception that followed.
The third talk - on architectural entrepreneurship and the role of the modern apartment building - takes place on Wednesday 9 July 2008. Tickets are selling out fast, so act quickly if you’d like to come along.
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