Crafting the Future
With Snøhetta’s recent appointment of Jon Goulder, the architecture and design practice reinforces the importance of making in its design process.
Words by Leanne Amodeo
Since Snøhetta set up its Australasia headquarters in Adelaide four years ago, the studio has grown. The team now numbers 19 members and has relocated to a larger custom office space and workshop in the CBD’s south-west corridor. There’s still a palpable buzz that surrounds the global multi-disciplinary Norwegian practice’s presence in Australia and this is warranted. Its portfolio of new commercial, cultural and educational projects across the region is exceptional, characterised by a signature Scandinavian sensibility that celebrates materiality, context and place.
At the core of everything the practice does is the value it places on people and the way they define the studio’s dynamic – not the other way around. In Adelaide, the team is led by Managing Director for Snøhetta Australasia Kaare Krokene, who was born in Norway. “We always talk about our people and our processes,” he says. “It’s all about personal relationships for us, which is what makes the projects better.”
Certainly, one of the Adelaide studio’s most exciting recent appointments is Jon Goulder to the role of Senior Designer/Maker and Furniture Discipline Lead. The fourth generation furniture maker and former Creative Director of Furniture at JamFactory brings a different perspective to Snøhetta that may at first seem at odds with the practice’s highly polished architectural outcomes, but actually makes perfect sense. As Goulder explains, “I think people have this view that I’m in the workshop every day constantly making things and I’m not. It’s more about offering a vocabulary of making to the overall process and adding a different voice to the mix.” The disciplines of Architecture, Interior Design and Landscape Architecture were already well represented within the practice and now so too is Craft.
Focusing on both analogue and digital processes is something Snøhetta has prioritised since its inception in 1989. And this idea of the handcrafted is extremely instrumental, especially in the early design stages. It’s during the concept workshops, where the team explores an emotional brief rather than a functional one, that discussions, sketching and model making take place in order to visualise the idea rather than the actual project itself. Following on from this inter-disciplinary ‘cross-pollination’, ideas are tested on the computer, while Goulder might head to the workshop and get something made up that can demonstrate an idea. This is how the studio is approaching its current projects, including the Hans Heysen Gallery in Hahndorf, a number of multi-use developments in Victoria and New South Wales and two projects in New Zealand.
Goulder brings a wealth of material knowledge to the studio and this is a huge benefit to the process and outcome. “It’s the vocabulary of my discipline and so I’m a conduit to an industry across Australasia through my connections and relationships,” he says. “If there’s a design opportunity, I automatically start thinking about the manufacturing network I know so well and how we can use them, which is something of value.”
Placing importance on local manufacture is in keeping with Snøhetta’s championing of sustainability, both environmentally and socially. For one of its current projects in Melbourne, for example, the team set itself a maximum radius from where it can source the core materials. “We’re working with a local brick manufacturer to develop a certain type of brick and this cuts out a lot of transport and reduces our carbon footprint,” explains Krokene. “But it also gives back to the community by providing financial sustainability and this is something we’ll continue to explore.” The team is also in the process of sourcing local manufacturers for the Hans Heysen Gallery project, which is still in its infancy, but promises to be a major drawcard once completed.
While Goulder’s expertise rounds off the studio’s offering, making it all the more holistic, his appointment also means there’s the practical opportunity for crafted furniture to be incorporated into any built outcome. He’s recently completed the design of a 4.5-metre-long table, developed with the Oslo studio, for a project in Bondi, and although it will very much be the product of his making, the table is an integrated part of the project attributed to the team. For Goulder, the opportunity to grow with the Adelaide studio is a proposition he couldn’t resist. “I didn’t want to work at just any architectural and design practice,” he says. “Snøhetta is unique and I’m excited to work with them because of the pure potential this represents. The Adelaide studio is only starting to tap into our capabilities and what that might represent in the future.”
Images courtesy of Snøhetta.
