Rory Hyde Projects

Australia

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PROFILE

Rory Hyde set up his studio in Melbourne in 2005, originally as a side project to help him sift through a number of ongoing themes, such as writing, installation and design. Having worked for Ashton Raggatt McDougall and Black Kosloff Knott Architects following his graduation from the city's RMIT, Hyde starting working full-time on RHP in 2008. Still in his 20s, Hyde belongs to a generation entirely comfortable with extracting, evolving and exploiting the social patterns that manifest through the Internet. 'Architecture should be social, not formal,' he says, 'useful, not iconic; experimental, not safe; pluralist, not pure; collaborative, not protective; and smart, not pretty.' Above all, Hyde is a passionate believer that 'architecture has to change something - it has to be an active participant.' He also acknowledges that all architecture now exists in the broad context of finance, sustainability, politics and social change, rather than just aesthetics.

MANY HAPPY RETURNS

The Many Happy Returns house is a proposal for an urban house that doubles up as a new social centre, thanks to a series of spatial interventions into the conventional form of the streetscape. Hyde and his team have rearranged the floor plan, creating a stacked four-storey house bisected by a community garden and a public staircase. Hyde suggests this space could be used for film screenings or meetings, as well as attracting customers to any small businesses that might want to set up in the adjacent private workshop. As its name suggests, the house gives back to its site, both through its response to the streetscape and community, but also through the incorporation of a self-contained apartment. 'Every street should have one,' the architect concludes.


http://www.roryhyde.com

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