Luke Johnson HASSELL

Luke Johnson
HASSELL

GPO Box 5487
Level 2, 88 Cumberland Street
Sydney NSW 2000

www.hassell.com.au

Recently appointed a Senior Associate of the prize-winning architecture firm HASSELL, Luke Johnson is an architect with over a decade of experience in architectural design in the private sector. His projects include educational and sports facilities, transport infrastructure, and public buildings, which are dotted across Australia, the UK, and Asia. Luke is currently engaged in several education related projects, including the Multi-Purpose Building at the University of Western Sydney, where he previously helped bring the joint Law, Business, and Computer teaching building to fruition. Pictured is the design for one of five entry canopies to the new Epping to Chatswood Rail Line due to open in 2008, designed by Luke and his colleagues at HASSELL.

Why did you decide to become an architect?
When I was 12 years old an inspiring art history school teacher introduced me to the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright and encouraged me to draw.

What is your most treasured possession?
A Cowrie shell that I picked up between my toes on a Papuan reef one perfect tropical morning.

If you weren’t an architect, what would you be?
A marine biologist.

Your favourite subject at high school?
Art history.

What books do you have on your bedside table?
Jorn Utzon - by J.Utzon and K.Frampton
Honey from a Weed - by P. Grey

In your opinion, what personal qualities make a good architect?
The patience to observe, the sense to listen, the capacity to think clearly in three dimensions and the ability to draw.

Who would you most like to design something for?
My own family. I look forward to creating a home with, and for, my wife and children.

Favourite tool of the trade?
A pencil.

Your greatest extravagance?
Stepping out of the chaos to enjoy a chance moment of silence (occasionally achieved at sea on my kayak).

Your greatest achievement?
Making a family with my wife.

What is the best moment of the day?
Just before the sun rises.

Best architectural holiday destination?
North Africa.

An upcoming international architectural project that excites you is?
To paraphrase W.H Auden, the best architecture is locally valued and prized elsewhere. I hope that one day we have a Museum of the Pacific which is located along the eastern edge of this great continent, looking out over the Pacific Ocean. I’d be most happy to be the architect.

Do you have a favourite architectural website?
No. The only site truly worth a visit is actual rather than virtual.

What is the biggest challenge you face as an architect?
Arriving at architectural solutions that have the potential to elevate the experiences and facilitate the well-being and activities of all those who will come into interaction with those solutions.

Can you describe an evolution in your work?
Understanding when an architectural solution wants to be as light as a cloud and when it wants to be as heavy as a mountain.

Best vista?
The Sydney Opera House from any angle at any time of day or night.

Worst blight?
The spread of cladding materials that pretend to be something other than what they really are.

Do you discuss your work with other architects?
Yes, we tear each other’s architectural decisions to pieces.

If you could meet one person alive?
Any optimist will do.

One artwork that inspires you is?
“Five Bells” (1963) by John Olsen.

Straight line or curved?
Curved.

The greatest hero from the history of architecture?
The un-recorded inventor of the arch.

The dastardly villain?
The un-recorded inventor of stencilled pavers.

Perfect happiness is...
Diving into the sea.

Any advice for the young?
“Look forward to growing old.”