Sean Godsell: A higher plane
Architect
Interview by Janne Ryan | Photography by Tom Ferguson, Giovanni Nardi, Alessandra Chemollo
Known for his uncompromising minimalism, architect Sean Godsell is rediscovering a higher purpose. Having won the coveted Robin Boyd Award in 2018 (his second), and completed a seminal house on Victoria’s coast, he spoke to Janne Ryan (first for Wish, now for Sparkkle), about the elemental and ethereal aspects of architecture, why it needs more patrons … and compassion.
WHY DO YOUR BUILDINGS ALL LOOK THE SAME?
Yes. That’s about knowing what I like: certain materials, certain structural methods. We’ve talked in the office about Picasso, for example, doing the same painting over and over again. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. Some architects feel the need to be different every time they do a building. I’m just not one of those people.
HOW DO YOUR DESIGN IDEAS EVOLVE?
By training we are creative problem-solvers. Most ideas are really the combination of an architect’s theoretical position and their client’s particular requirements, within physical limitations of site and budget. If, in that process, I discover something I like, or that seems to work, I use it again, nuance it if necessary, and refine it.
House on the Coast. Photo: Tom Ferguson
WHAT IS A HOUSE?
The primitive hut is something architects and theorists have looked at for centuries. The essential components of a dwelling for humans – walls, roof, hearth, table – are fundamental. Fire gives us safety, walls and roof gives us shelter, keeping us safe and warm and protecting us from the elements.
HOUSE OF THE FUTURE?
If you combine these absolutely bare essential components with advanced technology, you get the house of the future. It is feasible to live in intelligent housing that doesn’t lose touch with our humanity or our spirituality.
Elemental with hearth. House on the Coast. Photo: Tom Ferguson
HUMANITY & SPIRITUALITY?
If those essential elements are well composed they encourage moments of self-awareness and contemplation, it is ethereal. You can’t put on a working drawing for a house, ‘Be Happy’, or ask the builder to ensure that the client is content when they sit in the window seat, for example. Building is a pragmatic, physical act. Architecture elevates building to a spiritual realm.
HAVE YOU ACHIEVED THIS?
House on the Coast [pictured] invests in that potential disconnect (between technology and humanity) by ensuring that for all its sophisticated technology, there is always a connection to the hearth, to Nature.
WHAT ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE?
The house of the future is an environment modifying device where energy consumption is neutral (we can nearly do that now), but also with a sense of hearth and home.
WHAT IF YOU DON’T HAVE THESE OPTIONS?
Despite our affluence, Australia continues to grapple with the issue of homelessness and all that that entails. We need infrastructure that is compassionate. If I find myself caught out on the streets, and I have to go to sleep, what do I do? If someone is sleeping rough, where do they get what they need to survive the night? It’s is not so much about ‘what is a house?’, but more a case of ‘any port in a storm’.
House on the Coast. Photo: Tom Ferguson
WHERE IS COMPASSION?
We’ve argued for a long time, that our cities need more compassion. A compassionate society should be designing the homeless in, as it’s a reality of our society. We’ve had situations where we’ve been specifically briefed as architects to make sure we don’t create any areas where the homeless can gather for shelter or refuge. Actually instructed to design the homeless out. Where are they supposed to go?
“WE SHOULD BE DESIGNING THE HOMELESS IN, NOT OUT”
THE ARCHITECT’S ROLE IN CHANGING THOSE POLITICS?
Just keep pushing for change. Back in 2002 we entered our Park Bench House into the Victorian Architecture Awards, New Houses category. Park Bench House is a public bench that converts into a rudimentary overnight shelter for the homeless. We deliberately wanted to poke the bear, and to say, hang on a second, ‘are we addressing this problem of homelessness properly?’ Needless to say we didn’t get very far.
Vatican Chapel, Venice by Sean Godsell Architects. Photo: Givanni Nardi.
“TEMPORARY BUILDINGS ARE CHALLENGING.”
HOW DO YOU RECONCILE THE TEMPORARY, IN A PROFESSION BUILT ON PERMANENCE?
Temporary buildings are challenging. Our M Pavilion 2014, commissioned by Naomi Milgrom, was in the public realm for only four months, before being transposed to the gardens of a private museum in Melbourne, where it now permanently lives.
The original brief for our Vatican Chapel, commissioned by the Catholic Church for the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale, was the same. Erected in Venice, the chapel is destined for re-location to the villages devastated by the 2016 earthquakes in central Italy. Designing something that can be built, unbuilt, transported and rebuilt, is tricky.
Vatican Chapel, Venice by Sean Godsell Architects. Photo: Alessandro Chemollo
“ARCHITECTURE NEEDS PATRONS.”
WERE M PAVILION AND VATICAN CHAPEL BREAKTHROUGH COMMISSIONS?
They are both really important buildings for us. They are also both examples of extraordinary patronage. They demonstrate the importance of supporting ideas in architecture. Architecture needs patrons: Naomi Milgrom and Judith Neilson for example are modern-day Medici’s, supporting architecture to the benefit of the community. The Vatican has commissioned architecture for almost two millennia. Our culture is enriched and our cities are better places because of the vision and generosity of patrons.
