PAM PUBLIC LECTURE
BY CHARLIE SUTHERLAND
Charlie Sutherland is a scottish architect. He studied Architecture at the Mackintosh School in Glasgow
In 1997 He established Sutherland Hussey Architects with his long term colleague, Charlie Hussey, and
completed a number of award winning small scale projects all over the UK. Charlie has been a visiting
critic and lecturer throughout the UK and Europe America and the far East. He has also been on the jury for the RIBA Silver and Bronze Medals for Architecture. He was elected as a fellow to the Royal Scottish Academy for Art and Architecture in 2011 where he is active on a range of committees to promote the
links between education and the Academy and was awarded an Honorary professorship at Glasgow
University in 2013.
He first talk about definite & infinite, which he thinks that is the way architects live in the world between
the real and unreal, imagined and unimagine, and we should imagine projects before they could become real. He also stated that we all lived to realize what is tangible and what is not tangible, what is the
science of architecture and what is the art of architecture, and he often brings those question into their projects.
He briefly showed us where he was born and lived, brought us around to the surrounding and classical
architecture of scotland through slides of photos. He started presenting with the context of nature, landscapes, the beauty of beaches, wide fields, sunshine, chill weather and slowly relate them to his first
project - An Turas, meaning 'the journey' in Gaelic is a collaborative shelter and landscape intervention. Located near to the pier, the structure is intended to act as a ‘shelter’ whilst waiting for the ferry. It is
hoped that it will reflect some of the qualities of the island, the big sky and horizon, the white beaches,
the monochromatic black houses dotted over the land as a line in the landscape.
An Turas is very much a “shelter” that sits perfectly with the nature, white walled corridor providing
shelter and open to the sky and rain, a black, dark open ended box providing shelter from the light but with slats on the lower sides allowing the rocks below to be seen, and finally a reflective glass cube
where, in silence, the visitor is offered wide views across Gott Bay. At various stages along its length the
structure abstracts the natural elements in diverse ways, providing the visitor with an ever-changing experience.
Charles continue to show us the his sensitiveness of the surrounding nature with his next project, The
Love Shack. The site for this modest little cottage is located on the shore of Lake Windermere on a
steeply sloping wooded copse by the edge of Cunsey village. The Shack, as a sustainable holiday
location, providing a compact retreat for two people. The way he uses the materials for the building are in sympathy with the surrounding woods, trees and vegetations. The main body of the building is clad invertical timber boarding, and can hardly be seen from distance as the building is perfectly combine
with the woodlands. He mentioned that being site friendly is important in using materials that is honest
to nature.
He then follow up with two projects that are pretty much related to my design studio projects, the first
one with the concept of adaptive reuse and the second one which is creating space for artist making
art. Lawson Park previously was a historic Cumbrian hill farm, which was established in 1338 by Furness
Abbey to supply wool as part of the abbey’s production chain. Since its decline as a working sheep farm in the early 20th Century it has been used for a variety of purposes including a holiday home and a
hostel for Liverpool University. Again, the scottish architect showed us how works are done with the
beautiful assembled stones, rocks creating a solid and natural facade. Artists are invited to work on
projects, the principle aim being to generate and disseminate new ideas and approaches to how the
land may be used, developing a constructive role for art and artists in a time of immense cultural
change, both locally and internationally.
The latter project, Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop (ESW) are an organisation that offers a base for artists
providing studios, exhibition spaces, workshops and accommodation. The two phases represent an
exploration into the opposite sides of the ‘arts building’ coin. One, the hermetic, practical, messy side of the making of art and the open, accessible and extrovert of the gallery. The building is a combination of vertical and horizontal in exterior. In this project he uses concrete and metal materials in a more
modern designed buildings. The use of skylights and vertical elements very well brought in the natural
light, at the same time providing contrast with the shadow casting at the surface of material.
One of his most famous works, which is different from his previous style of architecture that usually sits
inside the nature, The Chengdu Museum, sits on the West side of the square and maximizes its profile to present a façade of commensurate scale and proportion to embrace and address the huge scale of
this new square and establishes a strong formal relationship to it by forming a simple enclosing
rectilinear profile. The stunning form didn’t cover up the entire building blindly, a cave like open space
offering a large outdoor public space where people can gather, cultural events can take place, even
the local street market extends through to the square.
From nature to cities, from natural to man-made, all the projects can clearly showed that Charlie
Sutherland is very sensible to the surrounding and environment. He doesn’t design a building just to look cool and functional, he actually cares about the bigger picture, the site, the environmental issues and
the quality of user experience. I think the way he expresses his feelings towards the site surrounding, in
the same time, enhanced the atmosphere inside the building, and the senses of human. I personally
truly agreed with the way he viewed architecture not just an individual but more of a connection with
different surrounding elements, and I think the talk is worth listening and many lessons are learned even
though I was facing his back all the time in his presentation. A chance to meet a great and inspiring
architect is hard, but I think I am lucky enough this time and looking forward to the next one.
AN TURAS
THE LOVE SHACK
THE LAWSON PARK
EDINBURG SCULPTURE WORKSHOP
CHENGDU MUSEUM
