Nicola Balch: Many developments in Sydney have been criticised for a lack of community consideration. SHoP, though, is known for balancing private objectives with public amenity. From an architectural perspective, how is this managed?
Vishaan Chakrabarti: The architecture really matters and how you work with communities is about the specificity of what you’re proposing architecturally. SHoP is all about finding beauty in complexity; we enjoy complex systems, whether its complex construction systems or complex organisations. There’s a belief among the partners that we live in a very complex era. Every era is complex but this era feels more complex, because we have a very layered understanding of the world. As a consequence, architecture has a responsibility to respond to that complexity. And so to the Melbourne or the Domino Sugar Refinery [a complex of 2200 apartments designed by SHoP, currently under development in Brooklyn, New York] example, there is all this swirling politics. Our job is to go in and find beauty in all of that, which is convincing to people so they want to live and work there.
via. ArchitectureAU Latest