national dreamer - Andrew Maynard Architects

national dreamer – andrew maynard at the map village street editors
7/08/09 9:55 AM
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national dreamer – andrew maynard
Published
by
map mag
on August 7, 2009
in Arts/Culture and National
.
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Among architect Andrew Maynard’s proudest work is his CV08, the
suburb-eating robot. It’s a conceptual structure designed to consume
and recycle the Australian outer suburbs – predicted to be abandoned
and decay with the demise of cars as the world runs out of oil – before
the robot terra-forms the earth with native flora and fauna. While much
of his work packs a socio-political or environmental statement, the
Melbourne-based architect eschews the label ‘green’, given its
commercialisation in recent times. For Maynard Architects, being
green is simply intrinsic to good design.
The media has painted
Andrew as something of a wonder-kid of his profession, having started
his practice at a youthful 27. Online design blog Inhabitat has perhaps
put it best: “Maynard’s work offers a flash of illumination toward the
next generation of smart, compact, elegant home design. Each project
begs a long, awe-inspired look and makes the future look like a very
nice place to live.”
His ecologically aware designs come, perhaps, from somewhere quite
innate, given his upbringing in our southernmost state. The Tassie lad
grew up with the proposed Franklin Dam and subsequent protests, not
to forget politician Bob Brown’s rise to prominence, playing out on
television. He recalls asking his kind-of-right-of-centre dad what it
was all about. “Just some hippies causing trouble,” Andrew recounts,
laughing. While his parents don’t necessarily share his political views,
he says his mum remains his biggest fan. She encouraged Andrew’s
early aptitude for drawing as he, inspired by the Star Wars visions of
George Lucas and cartoons of Frank Miller, sketched his way around
Australia as the family travelled with their salesman father.
This proclivity saw Andrew enrol in architecture at the University of
Tasmania, a school with a natural emphasis on the environment. It’s
no surprise to learn that this livewire was extremely studious in those
days, putting in a lot of hours rather than spending time in the pub like
everybody else. Importantly for Andrew, most weekends he’d head
into the wilderness, a short drive into the secluded Western Tier, to
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national dreamer – andrew maynard at the map village street editors
7/08/09 9:55 AM
into the wilderness, a short drive into the secluded Western Tier, to
redeem his catharsis – standing atop a mountain and “being able to
see only the Indian Ocean on one side and mountains, forests and not
a single thing made by man on the other”.
In his final year of university, Andrew and a friend won an architecture
competition (the first of many wins and awards) for which the prize
included a trip overseas. Travelling to parts of Europe and the US
allowed Andrew to see in the flesh some of the work that he’d studied
so hard on paper, such as that of Le Corbusier, “to see the scale of
thought that went into the work, and feel the beautiful care and detail,”
Andrew explains.
Referred to as a “young powerhouse of talent”, among many other
exalted descriptors, Andrew explains that starting his own Fitzroybased practice came down to the fact that he’s always struggled with
working for other people and being constrained creatively by the 9-to5 routine. After dipping his toe in a couple of firms in Melbourne and
returning from a stint in London with enough pounds to last him six
months, Andrew decided to force himself to become unemployed.
“You’ve got seven days a week; what are you going to do with them?”
Since starting Maynard Architects in 2002, his team of six has built up
an exciting and diverse portfolio. Andrew’s practice is not inhibited by
building type, but rather navigates residential, retail and commercial
arenas and is rich in envelope-pushing conceptual designs. Until
recently, the firm’s ratio of conceptual versus built design was 80/20,
but they have started building a lot more, nowadays designing mainly
houses. Whether it’s an inner-city house in Melbourne or a theoretical
protest shelter designed to draw attention to logging in Tasmania’s
Styx Valley Forest, Andrew’s designs are at once well-conceived,
playful and edgy. There seem to be no bounds to his creative energy.
Andrew’s rationale for shunning the idea of green being a trend is
pragmatic and falls back on the first premise of good architecture – to
get your orientations right. “You try to maximise your passive solar
gains by facing north … this is a pretty simple tactic to make some
really wonderful places for living that is also by its very nature
environmentally friendly,” says Andrew.
He explains his frustration at the commercialisation of the
environmental movement, or businesses rebranding as green. “We
see so much ‘green washing’ out there. When people start knocking
up the same old buildings they used to put up and instead of putting
air-conditioners on the outside they chuck on solar panels or a wind
turbine. And of course there’s more consumption and processing of
materials in all this technology,” he laments. “If we actually did less – if
we just reused materials and used low-embodied energy materials
and got the fundamental premise of how we lay out our buildings right,
we’d probably do a lot better than all of these high-tech materials and
technologies.” Other simple, sustainable aspects of the firm’s design
work include water harvesting and sourcing local materials wherever
possible.
The biggest practical challenges Andrew faces tend to be council
restrictions and the inevitable clash between the natural orientation of
an inner-city site – where most of their work is currently located –
given the Melbourne grid, and trying to orientate the house facing
north. But Andrew relishes these challenges, and says the constraints
lead to some pretty interesting ideas.
For a long time Andrew was more interested in conceptual design
and an “uncompromised concept”. But his practice is now at a point
where they’ve put out enough challenging ideas (or “silly ideas”as
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national dreamer – andrew maynard at the map village street editors
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where they’ve put out enough challenging ideas (or “silly ideas”as
Andrew puts it, not one to take his work too seriously) that the clients
they attract do not want the standard response and are looking for
something grounded in rationalism. He is his own harshest critic
(trained as architects are to be very critical). “I’ll design and then we’ll
get a builder on board and by that stage I learn to hate the design, but
then once the frame starts going up again, I start to see it in the flesh
and start to fall in love with it again. It’s a long, cerebral process.”
In Andrew’s sketchpad, success is one of those dangerous words. “I’m
doing OK,” he contemplates. “There’s an expectation being built up by
the media that I’m quite nervous we can’t live up to. We’re just
earnestly plodding along trying to build a practice that we find
interesting, and other people find interesting.”
While the 30-something reflects that he’s still young for the profession
and constantly evolving as a designer, he offers these words of
wisdom: “Live like a student for as long as possible.” He continues, “A
student’s lifestyle is typically fun, carefree, adaptable, inexpensive,
debt-free and importantly sustainable. After our student years we
typically earn lots of money, we become entrenched by the things we
own, we become sedentary, riddled with debt, less adaptable and our
environmental footprint grows incredibly large. You’ll never be as low
impact, nor as sustainable as when you were a student.”
Interview by Sally Brown
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Page 3 of 6
LIVING Aaoecj
Essex Street House is a
prime example of Maynard’s
concept of blurring the edges
between ‘inside’ and ‘outside’
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PHOTOS LEFT PETER BENNETTS, RIGHT COURTESY ANDREW MAYNARD
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He has got enough awards and
website shows, he knows the value
competition wins to cover a lifetime.
of modern technology. And it is
His designs and architectural insights
this skill of combining his talent as
have been lauded in his native
an architect along with his
Australia and caused a stir as far away
application of computer-generated
as Europe and the US. Moreover, still
designs that has caught the attention
just a precocious 34 years old – a
of so many people.
mere sapling as far as architecture is
concerned – he started up his own
One of Maynard’s principle
practice at 27. Acclaim by the barrel
architectural preoccupations relates
Andrew Maynard: a ‘Next Big Thing’ in architecture?
load, yet he has realised just a handful
to playing with space, exemplified
of projects. He is a paradox: a man in a
by two projects, one built, the other
hurry, but a man taking his time so as not to lose control. Just why a concept. The Melbourne Essex Street House project (see picture
is Andrew Maynard’s star burning so brightly? And why hasn’t opposite), completed in 2006, evolved out of the owner’s insistence
he yet taken on the grand projects experts have been expecting?
that Maynard should build bigger and bigger. “I kept saying: ‘You
can’t afford it! But what you should do is use the garage doors and
“I would say it’s tactical,” he reveals. “Regarding my inexperience: glaze them so they become walls that open up to free the living
it is one of the reasons I started my practice very early. I’m very room to the space outside.’” In fact, what Maynard was actually
impatient, on a certain level, but it was also because I liked the doing was deliberately confusing the spacial concepts of ‘inside’
freedom of being somewhat ignorant of certain parts of my and ‘outside’. “What is a wall?” he asks. “What is a door? What is
profession. The freedom of not being told that this is the way you an awning? The garage doors do all of those things.”
do something. Not being taught all of the rules.”
Holl House is a concept based on the principle that just as the
Outspoken, particularly on the responsibilities architects have size of families ebbs and flows as children leave the nest, a house
and the egregious effect the modern built world has had on the should be flexible to adapt to changing circumstances. “Whenever
environment, he is engaging with the media and, as his detailed I give a lecture about my work I talk about the Holl House
GC8K@ELD 43
LIVING Aaoecj
as my visual manifesto. And if I ever built it I’d retire! … It is a
very simple structure that folds down onto itself. It’s a three-level
tower, or with a click of a switch, it’s a two-level tower.”
S
Similar hyper-modern designs have helped propel Maynard into
the spotlight and he is increasingly portrayed as a ‘Next Big Thing’
in architecture. With a small practice of just five people, does he not
feel pressured by expectations to be the next Sir Norman Foster or
the next Zaha Hadid before the notoriously impatient media loses
interest? “Of course, it puts pressure on,” he states bluntly. “There
were a lot of people within the local media who started saying:
‘When are you going to build significant things?’ Because a lot of
things I got press for were broad concepts. Challenging concepts
of un-built work rather than built work. There was a real push in
the media here to say: ‘Yes, but can he build buildings?’ And what
was important to me was to ignore that to a certain degree and to
make sure I went at my own pace.”
architect with cutting-edge ideas and concepts, and determined
to construct buildings his way. Which is what exactly?
While Shigeru Ban eschews the term ‘green architect’ that many
writers have tried to bestow on him, Maynard is less ambiguous.
In fact, he’s refreshingly direct: “I definitely like highlighting it.
What I try to avoid is using it as a sales pitch … A lot of architects
are coming out now as ‘green architects’. I find that amusing
because creating environmentally sound buildings is simply
part of good design.”
But in these tougher economic times, isn’t there a danger of
architects foregoing the environmental aspect? Not so, says
Maynard. “The problem people have with budgeting and trying
to create green buildings,” he explains, “is that when they just
design a building they want, they then go and apply green
surfaces to it. They put on solar panels, they put on water tanks
and put on greywater systems, wind turbines or whatever they
may be. All great technologies, but … they are tacked on as an
after-thought and they’re the first thing to
come off if the budget goes over. What we
do is start with the principles of what are
the passive green techniques, because then
you can’t pull them out if you’ve started
with them. If you can then afford to put
solar panels on it, that’s just a bonus.”
Maynard’s rise to prominence can be traced back to an architecture
competition he and a friend entered in their
final year at university. The competition’s
constraints revolved around a theme of a
place from popular culture and involved
using specified architectural software.
“We chose a book called The Master and
Margarita, which had this amazing space,
the Devil’s ballroom … We did a pretty
insane design and we won! Part of the prize
was a trip overseas, so as soon as I’d finished
my studies we took off and got to see parts
THE FIRST 34 YEARS
of the US and parts of Europe.”
On returning, Maynard got vital experience
working first in a corporate practice in
Melbourne, which he “didn’t enjoy”, before
entering another competition, again winning,
ensuring another European tour.
With a reputation as an innovator secured,
at 27 he set up Andrew Maynard Architects
(AMA) and set about changing the world.
Reality soon poked its haggard face into his
life and he found himself at the wrong end
of a work-life imbalance. “I was a lot more
single minded in what I was doing. For
three or four years I was defining my life by
the work that I did. I was a bloody minded
artist as far as I was concerned. I was going
to change the world using my art form.”
Though experience has lowered some of
his most exuberant aims, this is still an
44 GC8K@ELD
„
THE MAN Andrew Maynard was born in 1975.
“I’m basically one of those sad people who
always wanted to be an architect. From an early
age I always had an interest – my mother would
say a talent – in creative pursuits.”
THE STATE Tasmania played a huge role in
Maynard’s formative years. “In the early 1980s,
we had the Franklin Dam issue [a never-built
hydroelectric power dam on the Gordon River],
during which Bob Brown rose to prominence;
and even before issues of environmentally
responsible design became popular, the school
of architecture in Tasmania ... [worked on
principles] we now label ‘green design’.
THE CITY Melbourne, however, was the perfect
city for his practice. “You need a big city to
practice interesting architecture. You need that
density and scale. It is a city of international
significance in terms of design ... and there is
no other city that I can think of where I could
have started at 27. Melbourne embraces the
arts and is willing to embrace young artists.
Definitely wouldn’t happen in Sydney.”
www.maynardarchitects.com
‘Green’, therefore, is inherent to his designs
at the earliest stages. “It’s just an ethical and
professional responsibility,” he muses.
The burning desire is very much still in
evidence and there is still time for the much
demanded grand projects to one day head
his way; in the meantime, as contradictory
as ever, he cherishes his small, intimate fiveperson practice. And he still wants to be in
control of his own destiny. “Somebody once
told me,” he explains, “that within each
house there are 25,000 unique decisions
that an architect needs to address. And if
you get five of these wrong, the client tells
you you’re a failure.”
Perhaps, then, the key to finally
realising similar projects to those that
have so impressed commentators
is related to releasing control and
embracing expansion. Only time will
tell whether it is a price worth paying.
Paul Wheatley
PHOTOS LEFT COURTESY ANDREW MAYNARD), RIGHT COURTESY ANDREW MAYNARD (5), BOTTOM RIGHT PETER BENNETTS
“
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PHOTO ANDREAS ACHMANN
(Top left, clockwise) The ‘garage-door façade’ of Essex Street House; Sproule House has won awards for ‘for outstanding use of timber’; Fluid
Habitation, one of Maynard’s designs exploring how the ‘family can reinvent its environment’; Tattoo House, a Maynard take on the simple box form;
an inside view of Essex Street House; Holl House, a further construction based on reinventing the family environment
45 GC8K@ELD
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PETER BENNETTS
OPPOSITE Essex Street House, Brunswick, Victoria, 2005. This extension to a 1890s weatherboard
house in suburban Melbourne explores Maynard’s practice’s interest in malleable and mobile space.
Traditional walls were replaced by bifold garage doors, which open the interior spaces to the long
backyard, blurring the distinction between inside and outside. PREVIOUS PAGE Skene House, North
Fitzroy, Victoria, 2007. Like all warehouse fitouts, the challenge at the Skene house was to avoid filling
the open volumes that had attracted the clients to the property. Maynard and his design team came
up with the following rationale: “To ensure that we didn’t simply carve the space in small volumes
for bedrooms and bathrooms, we divided all areas through sliding walls and joinery items. No fixed
walls were added. Where spaces needed to be divided, we simply added a line of glass above joinery
items. This allowed one to understand the volume of the warehouse without losing any privacy.”
R E N D E R I N G S : A N D R E W M AY N A R D A R C H I T E C T S
OPPOSITE, ABOVE House 7, Elysium
development, under construction, Noosa,
2007. The houses in the development are
individually designed by some of Australia’s
best architects. House 7 is designed to
catch sun in winter and shade in summer:
“The vast majority of housing in Australia
orientates itself to the street by default.
Orientation should be dictated by elements
that enrich our homes such as sun and
view.” OPPOSITE, BELOW Japan Library,
Toyko, 2003. This competition entry for a
library in Tokyo accomodates the move to
mechanised sorting and delivery of library
books while tipping its hat to traditional
methods which reinforce and celebrate the
library’s role as a pivotal cultural institution.
THIS PAGE Umeda Arts Precinct, Osaka,
2003. A competition entry for the Northern
Osaka Station area, Maynard’s concept
imagined a contemporary arts precinct,
rich in the energy and passion of the arts,
surrounded by an economic engine of
related retail, commercial and housing.
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THIS PAGE Styx Valley Protest Shelter, concept, Tasmania, 2004.
In an attempt to protect some of Australia’s tallest hardwood trees
from logging, Maynard designed a ‘protest shelter’ which attaches to
multiple trees. Each structure directly secures three trees and indirectly
secures surrounding trees, which cannot be felled in case they fall on
the structure (and the person inside it). In this way a small number of
structures can secure a large area of pristine wilderness. OPPOSITE,
ABOVE Parachute Pavilion, competition entry, Coney Island, New
York, 2005. The pavilion design makes existing materials a focus point,
assimilating harmoniously into the site – the timber of the boardwalks
and bright painted steel of the tower can be seen throughout the
new addition. OPPOSITE, BELOW Gyeonggi-do Jeongok PreHistory
Museum, competition entry, Korea, 2006. Maynard’s design turned the
concept of a museum as a home of cultural artefacts on its head by
creating a design that made the museum itself into a cultural artefact.
“Conceptually the museum is a long lost, partly unearthed artefact,
entwined in tree roots … While housing important cultural items, it
too is a significant cultural object,” he explains.
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THIS PAGE Sony Tower, concept, Guangzhou, China, 2007. Rumour had it that
Sony was planning to build a new flagship tower at an unknown location in China’s
Pearl River Delta. Says Maynard: “We decided to send Sony a concept. We based
it in Guangzhou, a city that is in constant flux. The concept was simple. The
technological giant that is Sony has its humble roots entrenched in the delivery
and amplification of sound. Many of Sony’s first products were sound-emitting
or recording devices. We decided to design a tower and then hit it with a wall of
sound. Through computer modelling we manipulated a simple tower by hitting
it with the sound ‘SONY’ to create the kinetic form that is Sony Tower.”