Lecture Response: Architecture in Dialogue

Tian Hsu
It’s interesting to see a project you’ve experienced in person projected onto the big screen in Hastings. I cycled around the V&A and Saddler Wells this spring break when I revisited my hometown London. The area has become incredibly gentrified.

Tony Salem Musleh
I would like to hear Sheila’s and John’s take on this, as we are talking of two architects who are generally interested in the public realm. Their studio brief was about the library as one of the last non-privatized public spaces.

There is something about how the architect’s aspiration meets the hard realities of building an edifice, something we’ll encounter soon as we are about to graduate. Architects are not the director, but one of many making an idea into built reality. While Sheila and John talk about serving the public as essential, I’m sure that the investors were more interested in making their real estate profitable. In the end, they are in the business of finance.

TH
Agreed—the middle chunk of the lecture was focused on big budget projects—Liverpool University and the V&A. The way they addressed the audience was as if they were pitching their designs to potential future clients in a meeting room.

TSM
With the recording having an afterlife on YouTube, they indeed need to pitch themselves to a broader audience.

TH
That raises the question… for whom are these lectures?

TSM
As an audience member, what did you take away from it?

TH
The projects that really captured my attention were: 1. their studio, the quality of the light and wood and circulation, 2. Sheila’s watercolors, and 3. the final timber and stone pavilions—with the process models and the fiddle player at the end. These all felt like they had the touch of the human hand and thought of the human heart.

TSM
Especially enjoyable was the building process of their pavilions. Highlighting the necessity of the architects’ humility and respect toward the craftsmen made their work feel like more than just an idea. It explains why their work feels so grounded.

TH
Yes, Sheila and John seem like a well-balanced, respectful duo. They had planned out how they would take turns speaking, which was far calmer than other multi-speaker lectures. It’s reflective of their architecture—balanced and situated.

TSM
I agree. They really took on the legacy of modernism and made it something that speaks to the soul, not only to the spirit. It is a big achievement.

TH
Perhaps I’m swooned over by the beguiling Irish accent, but there is something so charming about their projects, especially the site-specific and well-crafted timber and stone pavilions at the end. There are themes I see across a few lectures of my time at Yale, which are site specificity, craft, and carefully considering the people they are designing for—often young people. And this makes me really excited to design, going into my career after graduating from Yale.