James Stockwell <br />James Stockwell Architects

James Stockwell Architects
PO Box 220
Surry Hills NSW 2010

http://www.jamesstockwell.com.au

Award-winning architect James Stockwell, principle of James Stockwell Architect, has risen to new levels of prominence with the completion of his most recent projects – Leura House and the extreme weather tolerant Snowy Mountains House. Both projects took out state and national Australian Institute of Architects Awards, highly regarded for their inventive designs. Graduating from Curtin University, James was project architect for the two Robyn Boyd award-winning houses whilst working under Peter Stutchbury in 2000, before establishing his own Sydney-based firm. With a particular tendency towards natural low embodied energy materials, James specialises in producing sustainable residential housing, with the aim of simultaneously adapting them to the surrounding setting, whilst also enhancing the experience of said landscape. Few projects are taken on concurrently, ensuring maximum attention to detail is given to each one.

Why did you decide to become an architect?

Mum told me to. If you weren’t an architect, what would you be? Botanist and herbalist – nature has many unknowns.

What is your most treasured possession?

 A block of land on the Hawkesbury.

What books do you have on your bedside table?

 Collapse by Jared Diamond, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, A History of Herbal Plants by Richard Le Strange and False Economy by William J Lines.

 In your opinion, what personal qualities make a good architect?

Lateral thinking, affinity and care for clients, tenaciousness, patience, charisma, idealism, and of course, piercing good looks.

 Who would you most like to design something for?

 Wise retirees and Guggenheim.

Favourite tool of the trade?

Any pencil softer than a 2B, balsa wood and the Mac.

 Your greatest extravagance?

 A lot of travelling.

Your greatest achievement?

 The design of the Snowy Mountains House.

 Best architectural holiday destination?

Any ‘undeveloped’ country to see how they manage the climate with passive techniques, some of which evolved over thousands of years.

An upcoming international architectural project that excites you is?

 The Venice Biennale.

Best vista?

Hadrian’s Villa.

 Worst blight?

East Circular Quay in Sydney – what an opportunity lost. 2-3 stories would have been perfect for restaurants and we’d have a Quay flanked by a peninsular park – what uniqueness.

 Do you discuss your work with other architects?

Yes, but not enough. Sydney needs to talk more, we’re too happy in our own bubbles.

If you could meet one person alive?

 Culpeper, a famous herbalist, writer and medical practitioner of the 1600s.

One artwork that inspires you is?

 May Barrie’s sculpture at the 2009 Sculpture by the Sea exhibition. I visited her once and I think the work is a great three-dimensional clue of the symbiotic relationship we must develop with nature. Also, anything by Jon Tarry, a West Australian sculptor. Straight line or curved? Both, but leaning to the magic of a curve in three dimensions.

The greatest hero from the history of architecture?

Oscar Niemeyer, Alvar Aalto and Bruce Goff.

The dastardly villain?

Any greedy developer who would trade the beauty of a place for money.

 Perfect happiness is . . .

The world’s population stabilising.

Any advice for the young?

 Just go for it, but while doing so, listen to and ask older people a lot of questions. Find mentors. In my case they were Bill Busfield, Craig Burton and Peter Stutchbury. +