Where Architects Dream #3: Not For Me
Six takes on spaces in which these creative minds who design homes and review architecture projects, dream. Part 3 of 6
On February 12, an outstanding concentration of architects and architecture editors occurred in Lisbon where reSITE and MAAT hosted RESONATE. Having in mind #reSITE2018 core topic, housing, we tried to draw what could be a trend of today, or at least sneak into what type of environment shapes architects’ dreams. What are the housing and urban living preferences, practices and predictions of those who design homes and review architecture projects?
Read where and how these creative minds work and sleep: Kjetil Trædal Thorsen (Snøhetta, Oslo), Jessica Mairs (Dezeen, London), Michael Jones, (Foster + Partners, London), Birgit Lohmann (Deisgnboom, Milan and Sardinia), Louis Becker (Henning Larsen, Copenhagen) and the visual artist Xavier Veilhan (Paris).
Question: Is there a living situation you could not imagine living in permanently?
Previously:
Don't Miss What's Coming Next:
- #4 So Close, Yet So Far
- #5 On The Move
- #6 Elon Musk
Xavier Veilhan
You know, any city is too small or too tough or too expensive or too something, if you stay for a long time. To me, it would be ideal to live in Paris, but only because I know I’m traveling every week.
Any city is too small or too tough or too expensive or too something.
Jessica Mairs
I think living in isolation, because I’ve lived in London for ten years now. I moved from a very small village in Northern Ireland, and I particularly like living estates and having neighbors in close proximity. People call around and ask for help doing up their house or they want to borrow something or you bump into your neighbors on the way home. I think that could be really important. I wouldn’t want to live in a single house by myself.
Birgit Lohmann
We were thinking many times to build a comuna. When you have children—our children are grown up now between 23 and 27--it’s a sort of comuna. It’s very difficult because we all have very different needs. That’s probably not my focus anymore. I would reduce. I can imagine living on a boat, but I would like to live close to others, not in a small isolated space, in a small space with many like-minded—or contrary minded is interesting—[people].
Louis Becker
Ten years ago, I would have said a villa or a terraced house. Today I’m getting more and more into the thing with the apartment. My girlfriend and I, we’re building this building together and we’re testing things on ourselves. We’re taking our own medicine. I think in many ways we’re trying to create a vast, outdoor space, like balconies, where we grow trees, like the one in Milan but not as green. You cannot do it as green in Denmark. The idea is that when you open your doors you are looking out into a greenspace on the 6th or 7th floor. It’s pretty cool.
You need to have some kind of awareness of what goes on around you to be sensitive to it in a civilized and respectful way.
Michael Jones
I couldn’t live in a country where there wasn’t tolerance. Humanity has to underpin any civilization in the world… It starts at the national level and translates all the way down to day-to-day actions. You need to have some kind of awareness of what goes on around you to be sensitive to it in a civilized and respectful way.
Kjetil Trædal Thorsen
I’m living a lot in hotels. I’m living a lot by traveling. I can adapt to almost any situation as long as I have money, as long as I’m surrounded by friends, family. I think the conditions for me to live have to do not so much with the physical conditions obviously, but maybe more with family and friends.
Interested in the discussion surrounding the future of housing, living conditions and quality of life? Join the reSITE 2018 Event
Related Stories
Venice Architecture Biennale: How Will We Live Together with Hashim Sarkis in Conversation with Greg Lindsay
Part two of our Design and the City episode covering the long-awaited 17th Venice Architecture Biennale to explore the question “How will we live together?” and features curator Hashim Sarkis in conversation with Greg Lindsay along with British and Austrian pavilion curators as they explore accessibility on many levels.
Venice Architecture Biennale: How Will We Live Together with Peter Mörtenböck + Helge Mooshammer
Part two of our Design and the City episode covering the long-awaited 17th Venice Architecture Biennale featuring the Austrian Pavilion curators, Peter Mörtenböck + Helge Mooshammer on platform urbanism and what that means for the future of our cities.
Venice Architecture Biennale: How Will We Live Together with Manijeh Verghese + Madeleine Kessler
Part two of our Design and the City episode covering the long-awaited 17th Venice Architecture Biennale features British pavilion curators, Manijeh Verghese and Madeleine Kessler as they explore accessibility and our increasingly privatised public spaces, in the United Kingdom and beyond. Photo by Cristiano Corte © British Council
Venice Architecture Biennale: How Will We Live Together? [Part 2]
Part two of our Design and the City episode covering the long-awaited 17th Venice Architecture Biennale to explore the question “How will we live together?” and features curator Hashim Sarkis in conversation with Greg Lindsay along with British and Austrian pavilion curators as they explore accessibility on many levels.
Related Talks
Creating Common Ground with Michael Kimmelman | reSITE City Talks
Michael Kimmelman, architecture critic for the New York Times, speaks to reSITE about how architects are responsible for creating healthy cities to address climate change, refugees, and urbanisation. In conversation with urban planners and designers, architects can create resilient neighborhoods and cities.
Boom Towns are Immigration Towns with Michael Kimmelman
Michael Kimmelman, architecture critic for the New York Times, uses Stuttgart, Mexico City, and Guangzhou as examples of ways cities have handled an influx of migrants and how the cities have adapted or not adapted differently. The current issues in these cities differ based on location, situation of incoming migrants, and how well the city has handled new arrivals, with Stuttgart presented as a model city for migrant reception.
Saskia Sassen: City is an Extraordinary Animal
Saskia Sassen, professor of sociology at Columbia University, discusses the migrant experience relating to land use and the urban habitat. She focuses on the privatizing and corporatizing of modern cities and how these trends affect the people living in cities, especially disadvantaged and ignored populations.
Can we Gamify Urban Design with Ekim Tam + Play the City
Ekim Tan, inventor of Play the City, moderated and listened to participants discuss the experience of their city, including the urban issues they faced and solutions to problems. At reSITE 2016, attendees played a large scale "Play the City" game where they were assigned roles and simulated making decisions and reacting to events in a city.
