Shenzhen China, Steven Holl

The March issue of Metropolis digs deep into how the creative process happens for a number of designers. From Steven Holl’s watercolors that structurally ideate—and ultimately become—homes, to John Pawson’s travel photographs that inform the museum he’s building, and Matali Crasset’s modern vessel inspired by age-old dishes. These stories not only show how designers navigate the tricky spaces between design concept and final product but also reveal how art is integral to the design process. Indeed, in each of the pieces—the watercolors, the photographs, the African bowls—art is firmly in timeline of the design project it’s attached to.

Is there, then, a line between what is art and what is design? What is the fundamental difference?

Typographer and designer Roberto De Vincq de Cumptich, author of Men of Letters and People of Substance, defines the difference as being about the economics of consumption: Design demands and expects a consumer, art hopes for one but is not dependent upon it. He writes:

“Design is not Art, since Art exists as an answer to a question posed by an individual artist, while Design exists as an answer to a question posed by the marketplace. Design must have an audience to come into being, while Art seeks an audience, sometimes, luckily, finding it, sometimes not. Art pushes the limit of human experience and language for its own sake, while Design might do this but only to humanize and integrate people’s lives in the context of an economy. Design needs an economic system, while Art does not. Art may become a product, but it’s not the reason why it was created, but how our society transforms it into a commodity.” Read more…

When we started planning our “creative process” issue, it became obvious that we’d use the opportunity to circle back to Steven Holl, whose watercolors we’ve featured in the past and remain absolutely central to his process. Holl has published two books of watercolors, Written in Water (Lars Müller, 2002) and Scale (Lars Müller, 2012), and loves talking the role they play for him. In fact, the connection between initial drawing and completed building is often remarkably strong. The AIA 2012 Gold Medal-winning architect is an utterly disarming interview (it feels like you’re having drinks with him at a bar instead of conducting a formal inquisition). Our conversation formed the basis for the recent magazine article. An edited version follows:

Martin C. Pedersen: Your watercolors are famous. Are they always the first gesture on a project?

Steven Holl: Yes. And I have thousands of them. Do you know how many watercolors I have?

MCP: I have no idea.

SH: More than 10,000. I have these boxes over my desk. They go all the way back to 1977.

MCP: How did that start?

SH: I have always drawn. Drawing is central to architecture. I used to do pencil drawings. Around 1979 I streamlined it to the 5-by-7 watercolors. I decided to fix that format so that I could always have my sketches available.

MCP: Do you draw when you’re travelling?

SH: Yes. Every day. I did three drawings this morning between six and nine. I worked on three different things. I’m working on a big project in Dongguan, China. And yesterday we changed the entire concept. And you know what? A five-by-seven-inch watercolor pad will hold 5.5 million square feet. Read more…

Steven Holl, photograph courtesy of Mark Heithoff

This year, the American Institute of Architects conferred its highest honor – the AIA Gold Medal – upon Steven Holl. I had the opportunity to talk with Steven about his sources of inspiration, a mid-career enlightenment, and his recent recognition as one of the most celebrated “American” architects.

Andrew Caruso: Balancing your practice with teaching and art is clearly a part of the designer we know you to be. How do these explorations shape your design point of view?

Steven Holl: Every project is unique: a site and a circumstance, a culture, a climate, a program. All of these forces are unique and you need a concept to hold the manifold pieces together, an idea that makes the project significant in its place and for its purpose. That is always the way I begin projects.

Inside St. Ignatius chapel, photo by Paul Warchol

The chapel of St. Ignatius, for example, was built around the idea of seven bottles of light in a stone box, an idea very particular to their program. The idea that architecture can have a “religiosity”, that it can inspire a kind of reflection about the mystery of existence, is an important ingredient for a chapel.

St. Ignatius chapel, photo by Paul Warchol

With all projects, I explore deeply to find an original idea that can drive a design, an idea that can make the building mean more than it would if I was making a kind of style that I move from one site to the next. I’m not a signature architect because I don’t have a signature. Each project is unique. Each project has a relationship to the site, to the climate and to other forces.

Cité de l’Océan et du Surf, Place de l’Ocean, public plaza with restaurant, Biarritz, France, photo by Iwan Baan

Read more…

Steven Holl stood on a small stage north of the Arctic Circle clad in a yellow linen suit. In front of him, an impressively deep and wide press pool. Behind him, the mostly complete, and wholly controversial, Knut Hamsun Centre—a queerly cut museum dedicated to a Nobel Prize–winning author-cum-Nazi sympathizer that had convinced every journalist in Norway to schlep up on a weekday to a remote village in Nordland County, where the summer sun never sets on the fjord. It was the museum’s hard-fought-for opening ceremony and the 150th anniversary of Hamsun’s birth. The architect grinned from ear to ear.

“I think controversy is excellent because that’s also what makes people think,” said Holl, whose flamboyant suit choice was inspired by Hamsun, who often evoked the color yellow in his spare, dark works. “I think Hamsun was all about that.” Read more…

The news yesterday that Steven Holl Architects won a master-plan competition in Shenzhen, China, came with some tantalizing jargon. According to the press release, the design is “based on the concept of tropical skyscrapers as Shade Machines with a Social Bracket connecting the towers and the street level.” Bracket, eh? Read more…

First there were her strappy plastic shoes for the Brazilian company Melissa, unveiled last month. Now Zaha Hadid has designed a door handle for the Italian manufacturer Valli & Valli. When Dezeen posted a sneak peek of the design after its Milan preview, a commenter noted the handle’s resemblance to the “wrath of Zeus.” (The press release calls the design “striking”—ha.) It does seem a bit aggressive. On the other hand, maybe it’s just what you need to put some zip in your step as you’re heading out the door. Read more…