Architecture Bulletin: Materiality

In the latest issue of the Architecture Bulletin, studio director Simon writes about the role of materiality in our work, particularly our design process for the Nicholson Galleries at the Chau Chak Wing Museum.

Featuring the museum's collection of antiquities from the ancient world, the project explores the way that materials can carry memories of time and place. Our feeling was that the sensory qualities of certain materials can help connect us with these ancient cultures through physical experience.

For us, this is the same way we think about contemporary architecture, with the qualities of a space - light and shadow, touch and distance - combining to form the physical experience of a place.

"The tendency of cultures to use materials that were local and plentiful meant these materials came to represent a certain time and place. This holds true for the limestone found near Cairo used to construct the pyramids of Giza, the Pentelic marble favoured by Greek sculptors and builders quarried from nearby Mt Pentelicus, or the subtle hues of Roman travertine from nearby Tivoli. The sensation that comes from touching a certain material – such as the coolness of brushing a hand over polished marble or the roughness of chiselled granite - brings its own memory, and we wanted to employ this physiological experience and its subconscious associations within the gallery spaces."

You can read the full article in the December edition of AB here: https://www.architecture.com.au/nsw-chapter/architecture-bulletin-practice-and-materiality