Lyons, The Pursuit of Ideas

Lyons Architecture Firm - http://www.lyonsarch.com.au/

I have recently read an article regarding the methodologies and practices from a band of brothers that form Lyons Architecture. Their unique approach to design design has helped expand their company rapidly since 1996. Their complete design methods have been both marvelled and criticised. Marvelled for their strong aesthetics and criticised in the terms that it diverts from the complex understanding of how a building functions. Their firm collaborates within the office as a studio environment, working heavily with the client to encourage them to take initiative and ownership of the design outcome.

This allows them to move quickly through all aspects of the brief and focus on the areas of potential innovation and interest. This reminds me of the last blog I posted about the function of ornament. Lyons aim at developing an external shell that aesthetically relates to the surrounding environment. It is interesting to note how they use computers to generate a new form of compelling surfaces through an abstract digital image.

A great example is the Online Training Centre in the St Albans campus of the Melbourne University. The building is coated in a skin of digitally patterned repetitive vitrapanels that plays on the illusion that it is a 3D element. The playful nature of this texture allows for interaction as it is only upon touching the surface that you acknowledge it is a flat surface. The pattern is an abstract form of the colours taken from the rocks and grasses of its surrounding landscape.

This interaction is this building has with the landscape comes from three different scales; the distance, approaching the building and entering the building. Upon each phase, recognisable features begin to immerge. From a distance, the building's geometric colours and patterns blend into the landscape to create a unison. Approaching the building, you begin to see defining elements and recognise key structural elements and as you enter the building, the human scale is restored and the function of the building becomes clear.

I think this approach is a very interesting aspect given to the design. It allows for a strong external connection for the building and its environmental context. This sort of process is important to relate the built environment with the surrounding environment.