Four Walls Architecture + Material Honesty

Amy Hendry and the team at Four Walls Architecture believe in designing buildings that are in keeping with their surroundings, and use materials that are honest, clean and relevant to the project’s context and the brief. The building’s form can be expressly informed by its materials, with careful detailing and construction a key part of the building’s integrity. They love the decision-making process around materials and it usually occurs at a very early concept stage – materials drive architectural decisions just as a certain fabric does in fashion design.

Amy believes that the honesty of buildings exists when they do not pretend to be something they are not, and the materials used in their construction should be employed precisely for their natural qualities; for example, stone for its strength and wood for its economy and ease of fabrication.

Material honesty and expression in architecture has been a point of discussion for over 100 years, but today, the topic of material honesty has become more complicated as design and construction industries have become more advanced. The complex array of material and products that go into a building’s exterior and interior designs can challenge a team designing a building that not only lowers its impact on the built environment during its lifetime, but also has a lower impact in its construction as well. The selection of durable, low embodied energy materials like brick, wood and concrete for example, can have a long-term impact on not just the operability of the building, but its durability for the long term and overall lifetime impact on the built and natural environments.

Longevity, flexibility and durability are the essence of everything that the Four Walls team strives for when designing today’s buildings, and as building material complexities and performance attributes evolve for the 21st century, designers are expanding material application opportunities to meet their clients’ needs.  The challenge for architects and designers in the foreseeable future will be in deciding how such materials are applied to express their honesty, meet the complex challenges of design buildings that are sustainable, environmentally responsible, and result in built environments that are still aesthetically pleasing where clients and building users can be comfortable and creative.

For further information on Four Walls Architecture please visit the website at http://www.fourwallsarchitecture.co.nz .