THOUGHTLEADERS : A THOUGHT PIECE about Architects as creators of the future and its role within our society has come out this week

GUEST: LANDSEER COLLEN - principal, director and founder of BPAS
Architects.
“If architects only operated in a paper world, we would never get our buildings
evolved beyond paper,” he says. “Architects must be dreamers, visionaries,
explorers and entrepreneurs. The principle of Avant-garde architecture whereby
architecture is innovative, radical and always progressing, becomes the focus
in urban development when an architect designs for the future. To be able to
take a commission from a client and translate that into a drawing, you first must
be able to create a vision of the future. It takes imagination – plus the cognitive
development of being able to think in a 3D environment.”
He says that architects not only translate a client’s need into an image, but
have to be able to play with it to see what’s possible. For example, renowned
architect Frank Gehry, known for iconic buildings such as the Guggenheim
Museum Bilbao in Spain and The Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle, USA,
created the Dr Chau Chak Wing building, at Sydney’s University of Technology,
based on the idea of a crumpled paper bag.
1. How does architecture impact on our communities and society?
2. What is your creative process when embarking on a new project
3. In what way do architects need to design for the future, can you give
examples of what you mean?
4. Who are some of the great architects that have influenced you?
5. Architects are innovators and artists but also problem solvers - can you
chat more about this concept?
He was also said to have designed the Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles by
simply crumpling up a piece of paper and saying “there’s the design”, but he
told CNN that this story was just a gag invented for the TV show The Simpsons
and that his process is far more involved. Like Collen, he says it begins with
gaining a deep understanding of what the client is looking for and the
parameters of the job (from the budget to the specific site). Function comes
first, but then the architect also has the opportunity to bring something special
to the project that goes beyond an understanding of the engineering and
technology – that will “engender an emotional response.”
Collen describes this quality of architects as “a necessary sense of playfulness”
and says architectural professionals navigate the fine line between dreams and
what is possible. “We have to be visionaries to understand what we’re
designing – to interrogate not just the moment in time we’re being asked to
design for, but the long-term vision for a building and how it will work 50 years
in the future.”
This means that architects can’t view their buildings in isola6on but must
“Architecture is science translated into art,” he says. “You can’t separate those
two disciplines out if you’re an architect – you need them to work together in
symbiosis. It’s a collaboration between the creative and physical environment.
We must push boundaries to explore what’s possible. If we don’t, we’re no
longer designing the future, we’re just a tool to replicate the same things in the
now. We should not blindly accept limitations.”
He says that architects are by nature problem-solvers and innovators, which is
something that is often overlooked by those outside the profession. For
example, during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, BPAS turned its
architectural skills to a medical need, creating a carton cubicle that could be
used as an isolation space for a COVID patient wherever it was set up. “If that
person tragically died, the box could be folded into a temporary coffin for
transportation of the body without risk of contamination for anyone else, thus
maintain dignity.” Collen explains.
“We couldn’t help with the epidemiology or economic issues because those
things are not our areas of expertise, but we can contribute to society with the
skills we have. I think the contribution of architects to society is still
undervalued, but we continue to work to show that we have an important role to
play.”