2015 UQ Architecture Series with Penny Fuller, Silvester Fuller

In the lead-up to the third lecture in the 2015 UQ Architecture Lecture Series, March 24, we spoke to speaker Penny Fuller, founding partner of Silvester Fuller. 

Tell us a little about your background, and what originally led you to architecture?

There are no architects in my family however there were several influences which in hindsight led me to architecture. Growing up there was always a friendly rivalry between the technical and creative, with my mother being a musician and my father working in mathematics. Architecture considers both positions and I have since discovered they are not opposing forces!

Can you give us a little insight into what a normal work day looks like for you?

My day begins with a short walk from our home to the studio which is located in Rushcutters Bay, close to Sydney Harbour. Depending on the day it is filled with design reviews in the studio, site visits to projects under construction and meetings with clients, consultants and councils. Project work consists of analysis, diagramming and many digital and physical models testing multiple solutions.

What are some daily office rituals or habits you employ to enhance your productivity and creativity?

A key aspect to the way we work is a strong emphasis on collaboration and a contribution by everyone. Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings we have design workshops for each of the projects. Our studio walls are covered with work in progress. Importantly they are not for presentation of completed work but a tool to ensure the involvement of everyone in the development of each project. We also have peer review sessions at key points in our projects. In the studio we have morning tea together at 10.30am. On Fridays we have lunch together with other designer friends at the same little restaurant every week. These informal gatherings allow for impromptu discussions and the sharing of weekly stories.

What principles inform your work?

We have developed and refined a design methodology that is rational and progressive, yet flexible in that it can adapt to each project and it’s individual demands. The success of each project depends on establishing the opportunity to deliver outstanding results. To understand everything that makes a project ‘tick’ and how to realise its full potential, we complete a well defined and intensive process that ensures we assess projects from every angle. We bring a fresh perspective and a rigorous step-by-step design process to each project as we work toward discovering what makes it unique.
Where do you go to get design inspiration?

The ‘inspiration’ for our projects always comes from the project itself. We are always reluctant to conceptualise a design response prior to a detailed briefing, research and strategy stage. It is too easy to jump immediately to a solution informed solely by intuition rather than allow the solution to emerge through an identified design process. Following this process has resulted in the identification of clear, roust conceptual ideas with an inherent beauty borne of their own rationality and responsiveness to the project drivers. We believe in our process and respect it’s ability to allow the design to emerge.

What has been a career highlight for you so far?

It is difficult to pick one highlight, I have been fortunate to have had many wonderful experiences working both in Australia and overseas. To single out one highlight we could identify our first built project as Silvester Fuller. We were fortunate to meet a client willing to take a risk and trust a young studio who presented some nontraditional concepts. The project has been a great success for our client, which for us is the measure by which we judge our own success.

Which Australian or international architecture people, practices, designers or similar do you admire?

We admire everyone who is successfully able to unlock the full potential of a project no matter how big or small it is. Specifically I would say we admire the architects we have worked and collaborated with in the past for many different reasons. We also admire and value architects who are willing to openly share their design and studio processes.
What are your top 5 favourite design books?

1. Envisioning Information; Edward R. Tufte
2. Content; AMO OMA / Rem Koolhaas
3. Informal; Cecil Balmond
4. Life in five seconds: H57, Matteo Civaschi, Gianmarco Milesi
5. The E-Myth Architect; Michael E. Gerber (not a design book, but for any architect running a business very worthwhile)
What can attendees to your UQ Architecture lecture expect to hear?

An insight into our design process, how it has shaped and driven our projects, described through a small selection of project examples which vary in typology and scale, built and unbuilt