{"id":3953,"date":"2019-05-18T16:36:14","date_gmt":"2019-05-18T06:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.architecture.com.au\/duluxstudytourblog\/?p=3953"},"modified":"2019-05-25T08:17:07","modified_gmt":"2019-05-24T22:17:07","slug":"london-day-2-life-on-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.architecture.com.au\/duluxstudytourblog\/london-day-2-life-on-mars\/","title":{"rendered":"London day 2: Life on Mars"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Day Five of the tour was, as usual, a rapid-fire affair. Our morning began at the Foster and Partners \u2018campus\u2019 in Battersea, which includes several model making areas, a to-die-for materials library and a thrumming caf\u00e9. The visit revealed the practice\u2019s parallel interests in innovation, materials research and commercial viability. We all left suitably impressed.<\/p>\n

By 10:30, we were in a taxi, racing across town to the sleek AL_A studio. Here, we were shown several of the practice\u2019s projects, which employ everything from carbon fibre to crafted ceramics. Then lunch, then a swift tour of the accomplished White Collar Factory by AHMM, then a pit-stop at the London outpost of the Australian studio Hassell. We rounded out the day with a tour of Mars, But more on that later.<\/p>\n

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Learning about Foster and Partners Mars project.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The pace of this tour has been quick, quick, quick \u2013 yet I couldn\u2019t have hoped for a speedier education. Over these last five days, we\u2019ve visited two cities and eleven practices who have generously opened their doors to our group of young, curious architects. We\u2019ve been thirsty for knowledge \u2013 and quite often parched \u2013 as we\u2019ve raced around these cities, keen and eager to learn.<\/p>\n

While we\u2019ve moved at lightning speed, our observations have accumulated \u2013 and solidified \u2013 more slowly. We\u2019ve started to see trends in what is said \u2013 or not said \u2013 by each practice that we visit. By now, we\u2019ve also experienced two cities, with two distinctive architectural cultures, and patterns are emerging.<\/p>\n

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Spending an hour at each practice to talk about their projects \u2013 and priorities \u2013 the patterns are illuminating, Overwhelmingly, the studios in Copenhagen spent their time discussing people and place. Their focus was undoubtedly drawn towards the greater project their own city, and how they\u2019d use their tools and talents to improve it.<\/p>\n

By contrast, London\u2019s architecture scene has been underscored by intellectual, technical and professional ambition. In this fast-paced, global city, the outlook is international, multi-disciplinary and driven by an insatiable desire for excellence.<\/p>\n

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Foster and Partners Materials Research Centre.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So far, this has manifested itself in all kinds of ways. It\u2019s evident in the structural prowess of Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners, and in the impassioned investigations of Peter Barber Architects. It\u2019s also clear in the archive-diving work of 6a Architects, whose work originates in painstaking analysis.<\/p>\n

For me, today felt like another stratosphere: moving through three (very) large practices was dazzling, and puzzling, and very foreign. Peering down on hundreds of monitors at Foster and Partners, I felt a long way from home and the realities of our small practice of three. At the same time, it was exciting, and exhilarating, to be amidst such an unfamiliar place. There was loads to learn.<\/p>\n

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Yet, across these practices, it felt like we spoke more about life on Mars than we spoke about life in London. In fact, two of the three practices we visited have experimental projects they are developing on the red planet, far away from earth. The best of these was Hassell\u2019s enthralling Mars Habitat project, which mobilises inflatables and Martian dust to form a community for astronauts. Again, this was a world away from my daily work in Sydney.<\/p>\n

Today, we heard more about architectural prowess than people or place, or this city we\u2019re in. This is not to say that these practices don\u2019t care about these other ideals \u2013 I\u2019m sure they do. But, within our designated hour, we heard more about experimentation and technical excellence, and forging new frontiers.  <\/p>\n

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White Collar Factory by AHMM.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Life on Mars? As the day drew to a close, I couldn’t help but wonder about life on Earth, and in this place. Across the universe, these are undoubtedly the places that concern me and our studio\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, hearing these things helped me \u2013 and everyone on the tour \u2013 start talking about what drives each of us: where we work, what we value, and what we think matters most. In many ways, this is what the Study Tour is all about: getting outside your comfort zone, challenging your assumptions, and figuring what you stand for.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Jennifer McMaster<\/p>\n

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Hassell studio in London<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":754,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.architecture.com.au\/duluxstudytourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.architecture.com.au\/duluxstudytourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.architecture.com.au\/duluxstudytourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.architecture.com.au\/duluxstudytourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/754"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.architecture.com.au\/duluxstudytourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3953"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/wp.architecture.com.au\/duluxstudytourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4135,"href":"https:\/\/wp.architecture.com.au\/duluxstudytourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3953\/revisions\/4135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.architecture.com.au\/duluxstudytourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.architecture.com.au\/duluxstudytourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.architecture.com.au\/duluxstudytourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}