Architect and urban designer Kristen Whittle, director at Bates Smart, is interested in how mental and physical needs are accommodated in architecture, and has worked on projects that allow him to execute such ideals. He speaks to Kate Gibbs
What are you working on?
We’ve submitted the competition entry for the new Australian Embassy in Jakarta. We’re also working on the Royal Children’s Hospital. We’re doing ongoing work on the Crown Hotel on Clarendon Street (pictured below) — it involves issues to do with cladding, samples on site, material defaults, and structural issues with regards to the architecture that comes from installation. We’re doing a masterplan for a mental health and emergency building in the Dandenong, which will be going on site in the next year.
What do you like about your work?
It’s the diverse socio-political situations and projects. Diverse programs and the requirement to consider the human application and the way people behave in a space. It’s an important critical component. These buildings are not designed for architecture’s sake, but for socially driven causes. That is an interesting space to be — the combination of the site specifics as well as the brief’s specifics. We very much concentrate on those issues and allow them to be resolved within the architecture so the look and feel of each building is different.
What are the big issues for architects now?
Innovation, generally, across the board in all mid- to large-scale architecture is an issue. We have to work hand-in-hand with the contractor these days. It’s not a case of fully detailing a building and then tendering it. The point at which you tender, the amount of drawn information you create, has changed over the past five years. So has the relationship with contractors. There is more power in the hands of contractors and developers. You can get yourself into difficult waters if you over detail and over draw a building. I think personalities, skills and abilities in the office need to evolve to match the skill set that exists on the contractual side, to allow the architecture to come through. I don’t think it’s the same as in the past when you could be stubborn about certain things. You have to be malleable, agile and flexible in these situations if you want to get good architecture out of the negotiations.
How does a younger generation impact design?
It depends on the personality type instead of the age. The youngest Gen Y crew, in terms of architects coming in, have had a more elaborate and more daring approach to design. And that has come from a general flourishing of design discussion and media saturation that has happened in the past few years. If your practice is going to be successful you have to keep on changing and evolving. If you’re reactionary and not changing, I think that represents a problem because our times are changing and revolving around us.
