Sarah Wigglesworth

AR0891 SMART ARCHITECTURE

Joost van RooijenTom Maddick

Why is Sarah smart for people?

• She engages her client in each project, using their input to develop the brief

• She focusses on the social aspect of architecture, how people interpret and interact with spaces

• Her architecture is therefore people-appropriate, and designed around their needs

• Her architecture is understandable (to the lay man/woman)

• She is engaged academically, instructing new architects, and furthering our shared knowledge base through research

Sarah engages her client

• Central to her design process is to engage her client and to incorporate their own aims into the design

• This ensures their engagement with the project, increases the relevance of the build, and helps the client understand the design/technologies

Sarah focusses on the social aspect of architecture

• In her research and practice Sarah is aware of the social functioning of spaces and buildings

• Stock Orchard is designed around the concept of a kitchen table, and the multitude of social interactions that take place there, for example

• The people aspect also informed her approach for the Siobhan Davies dance studio

• Flexibility can be seen throughout her dwelling designs – as an inflexible floorplan does not accommodate changes in lifestyle

Sarah’s architecture is people-appropriate

• A result of client engagement and her own social focus, Sarah’s buildings are people appropriate

• The Exemplar school has a range of spaces, inspired by student’s suggestions, and made functional

• Human movement was incorporated into the roof design at Siobhan Davies’ studio, and provides a large, well-lit studio space

Sarah’s architecture is understandable

• In Stock Orchard St, for example, the main focus was to have readily available (local, cheap) materials & simple building techniques so that ‘normal’ people could understand and adopt aspects of the build

• G-box (a house in a box, essentially) is designed such that it can be assembled and used by anyone, of any educational background

Sarah is engaged academically

• Sarah has long participated in research and teaching, to further architectural understanding and benefit later generations

• Despite being in private practice since 1994 she has maintained this emphasis on academia and was awarded an MBE for services to architecture in 2003

• She travels to competitions and festivals to engage the non-architecture public, such as at the Adelaide Arts Festival, Australia (April 2003)

Why are Sarah’s designs good for profit/prosperity?

• Sustainable design (low energy costs)• Flexible designs• Use of cheap/local materials• Reusing old buildings

Sustainable design• Sarah creates sustainable buildings which require little energy• Cheaper in use• Smart design to reduce high investment costs

Stock orchard street

Efficient design• Every element in Sarah’s designs have a purpose and reason.

Nothing is unneccesary or extra • Efficient use of materials• Multiple uses/functions for rooms

exemplar primary school

Flexible design• Sarah’s buildings are flexible and can adjust over time to fit the need of the user.

Scotswood house

Local/cheap materials• Sarah uses and experiments with local and cheap materials• Local materials require less transport and are thus cheaper

Stock orchard street

Reusing old buildings• Sarah reuses old buildings which is cheaper than demolishing the whole building and rebuilding something complely new

Siobhan davies dance school