Diary australia web

Dia

ry N

SW :

Le V

oyag

e d’

Aust

ralie

AIA

Dro

ga A

rchi

tect

in R

esid

ence

201

4: C

arm

en F

iol C

osta

Mar

ch -

May

201

4 / t

he a

part

men

t / th

e la

ndsc

ape

/ the

peo

ple

/ the

foot

/ Liv

erpo

ol

Nor

ther

n Be

ache

s / E

aste

rn S

ubur

bs /

scul

ptin

g th

e te

rrito

ry /

Tasm

ania

/ Ca

nber

ra

2

Le Voyage d’Australie

What inspired you to become an architect?

It was an intuitive decision. My mother, a pharmacist, didn’t understand the path I chose but my father supported me. He wanted to be an architect but family pressures made him choose textile engineering. As a teenager, I was inspired by the buildings of Barcelona and the landscapes of Cataluña, France and England.

How would you describe your design ideology to someone unfamiliar with your work?

I search for the avant-garde in architecture and contemporary design, and seek to participate in the making of the city as a ground for social living. At this stage of my career I prefer to devote myself to projects that involve strategic thinking and a transversal philosophical approach. Generally if I am not involved in the conception of a project, I am not interested in its realisation.

Recently you became the AIA’s first Droga Architect in Residence here in Sydney, what do you hope to achieve through this program?

I am elaborating the description of concepts and principles of my practice Arriola & Fiol, building on our concept of urban civic projects. These projects are always hybrids, integrating buildings, street-infrastructure and open space. The focus is on scale and site rather than the program and zoning.

Further to this, I am studying how the Australian traditional landscape and its original and contemporary artistic production can influence the architectural design of city communities. Integration between territory and city is a burning issue and influences the urban project. I will examine how the singularity of landscape affects the grain, openness and density of urban fabric.

Looking to the future, I propose international exchanges between Barcelona and Sydney. We foresee post-graduate students or emergent architects being selected to contribute to Australian projects at the A&F Barcelona studio. As a result, cross-cultural ties between communities and architects will be strengthened.

I understand that your practice is located in Barcelona, what is your experience with Sydney like in comparison?

Kenneth Frampton recently told me that his favourite cities are Sydney and Barcelona. I had been in Sydney before, but now with a longer stay and the possibility of forming relationships with colleagues and friends, I am appreciating the similarities of Sydney and my home city. Sydneysiders are active and love their city and its landscape. Barcelona shares a similar climate, and its people are always ready to participate in a wide range of architectural, cultural and sporting events.

interview

The main difference – apart from the scale of the territory – is that Sydney’s heritage is the Anglo-Saxon Park Movement, where the traditional community concern has been to create commons and green belts. In contrast, Barcelona’s origins are Latin and Mediterranean and its urban fabric is based on a system of plazas.

Today the city of Sydney is young and has a healthy urban fabric. It is the perfect moment to organise and coordinate a metropolitan area with the collaboration of different cities and the state; a time for the different bodies to work together to develop infrastructural projects and the common organisation of services. It is the perfect moment to transform open urban spaces in the city into plazas, to work for a more functionally and topographically integrated city, to erase barriers for pedestrians. Sydney needs to create places in the city for people.

What do you think is most pressing concern in urban and social housing developments?

To coordinate the desire to live in a single family house with the need to be a part of a community. There are so many possibilities: a housing complex with retailers and ateliers, different residential units with private yards sharing a common garden, towers and open courtyard buildings with apartments and maisonettes at the ground floor and roof gardens. They bring density to the city, offering the possibility of exchange between people while maintaining access to the ground.

Do you face any challenges as a woman in architectural academia?

A woman is not yet the expression of power. The only power for women is authority, try to be self-confident and have a good team to work with as every move is an adventure. A person is very small compared with the diversity of cultures and realities.

Any advice for the young?

Be curious and challenge what is politically correct, be free. Use intelligence to bring quality to our physical world – not only to the private sphere but to the city. Think about the real possibility of a sustainable architecture in a consumer society. The city is a place of culture and exchange; it is no longer a fortress against nature. The challenge is to integrate it with art and territory; search for the traces of the land in the city and connect with them.

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the invitation

left to right: Rod Simpson, Brian Zulaikha, Daniel Droga, Brit Andresen, Peter Poulet, Hannah Bolitho, Paul Berkemeier

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‘notas cahier’

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‘notas cahier’

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‘notas cahier’

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arrival & the blue hotelmarch �

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the Droga apartment

Daniel Droga and Brian Zulaikha rescuing Lali and Carmen (at the end ofApril)

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march �

welcome dinner at Balmain march �

Peter Poulet and Rod Simpson

Carmen with Paul BerkemeierBrit Andresen and Mandy O’Bryan

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at Carriageworks with Billy Kwong march �

Sydney University with Rod Simpsondiscussions at sydney uni

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march �Royal Albert Hospital

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the foot

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reception at Droga apartment march 12

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march 14Lali arrives

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Peter & Liz

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march 21Eva & Jamie

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Sydney University talk march 2�

organised by Daniel Ryan and presented by Professor Roderick Simpson

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march 2� Sonia & Laliwith sonia

Lali and Sonia

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Broken Bay & the Northern Beaches

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march �0

lali, carmen and brian zulaikha

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april 2Venice Biennale presentation

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Watsons Bayapril �

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Museum of Contemporary Art april �

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Circular Quay

Su Keong - Tickets to Chroma

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the Rocks & CBD with Ed Lippmann

ed lippmann

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the Rocks & CBD with Ed Lippmann discussing the project with Brit

with brit andresen

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the liverpool design charette

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april �-2�

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the good things in life

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the apartment getting better

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Hunter Valley & kangaroos april 1�

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Bondi Beach april 1�

visi

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Surf

Clu

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Blue Mountains

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april 1�

in Balmain with Peter Stutchbury, who recommended the Carrington Hotel, above

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april 1�Glenn & Wendy

with Glenn Murcutt

Wendy Lewin and Oscar


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dinner with Jani Laurence

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Sunday at Patonga with Tim Greer

tim greer and andreu arriola

oscar

barbara

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april 20

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meeting the masters

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friends

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april 2�Ivan & the GAO

from left to right: Carmen Fiol, John Wilkin, Angelo Candalepas, Ed Lippmann, Sonia Blasco, Wendy Lewin, Anna-Katharina Fett, Suzanne Pini, Fernando Torres, Mary Georgiou, Glenn Murcutt

Ivan Jeldrez and Peter Poulet

Peter Poulet and Carmen Fiol

friends may �

4�


DARCH dinner may �

Liverpool Workshopmay �

At Government Architect Office with Darlene van der Breggen, Hannah Bolitho, and Barbara Schaffer

Liverpool Workshop University of Canberra lecture

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may �-�

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tour of Parliament House

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may �-�

lunch at Ambassador’sSr Enrique Viguera

with Gevork Hartoonian

with Matthew Trinca, Enrico Taglieti, Isabel de Montis and Aldo Giurgola

Ann Cleary (University of Canberra) and Lali Fiol

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with Gevork Hartoonian

the painting may 11

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with rachel neeson

City of Sydney talk may 1�Bridget Smith - Presentation to the CoS architectural staff

Barangaroo may 14with Bob Nation

Alec Tzannes may 1�talk at office

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inventing the site - Tusculum lecture may 1�

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Extract

An integral holistic approach is proposed where city forms part of landscape and buildings and open space have the same value. New projects will build continuity with the ex-isting fragments of urban elements and provide density to transform unconnected objects into a sculptured territory.

Geography, art and city

Landscape is a basic heritage of a city, a singularity that should be strengthened in order to create a civic city that constitutes a worldwide reference. In order to re-establish a relationship between art and city it is necessary to train the eye. Look at the territory from a bird’s eye point of view and examine its structure, topogra-phy and geometry.

In a continuous city where the territorial structure is densely occupied by buildings, the first exercise would be discover-ing the original territory. That is, the rivers that flow into the bay, the crest lines of the mountains and the torrent lines; identifying orientation and main winds, in order to find neuralgic points, crossroads, special places or eventual promontories to base a strategic urban layout.

The objective is to define a piece of urban settlement, an urban civic project, challenging social economic aims and cultural characteristics of the community.

Tasmania may 1�

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Hobart, Tasmania may 1�-1�

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Launceston with Helen Norrie may 1�-21

�0


celebrating with Ian Clayton

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celebrating with Ian Clayton informal drinks with Board Members may 22

�1


GAO talk may 2�

David Parken

Dave, Rohan, Nina, Plini, Carmen and Demas at CandalepasMandy O’Bryan and David Parken

�2


Harry Seidler’s Officemay 2�

Candalepas Tourmay 24

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with Penelope Seidler

guest speaker - Cervantes Institutemay 2�

�4


a new Birchgrove house may 2�

with

Wen

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exhibition/presentation of project may 2�

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Vivid festival talkmay 2�

dinner with Consulate of Spain

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departure may 2�

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