“Nature is inspiring, but really from a formal point of view; there is so much complex geometry, and you find more complex form in nature than you do in the human-built world,” states Jason Payne, an architect, professor, and head of the Los Angeles-based Hirsuta Architectural Design and Research practice, while sitting in the desert-like wilderness of Joshua Tree National Park in southeastern California. The direct “result” of his conclusion is sitting next to him: a shiny strange object, which reflects the suns rays and its natural environment – a cross between a disco ball and an asteroid.
It is this introduction that distinguishes him from most of his architect colleagues. For him, the most essential inspiration can be found in the natural world and not in theoretical calculations, a minimalistic cool aesthetic or common practices. Always searching for the new and unexpected, Jason Payne transmits his passion to his students at UCLA too. The professor in architecture encourages them to think outside the box, and to question current ways of presentation and representation in architecture. He doesn’t think about visions, but he clearly has an ambition in architecture: “to constantly stay at the edge of experimentation and to remain relevant” – that is his utmost concern and why he admires architecture critic Sylvia Lavin as “the most avant-garde person I know.”
“Sylvia changes minds. She has shifted the discourse not just once, but a number of times. It’s very, very rare for theorists, historians, and critics to have that kind of power,” Payne says and there is no doubt that he is right: Lavin is the chair of the Ph.D in Architecture program and Professor of Architectural History and Theory at UCLA; she previously taught at Princeton and Harvard, and has been a fellow and scholar at the Getty Research Institute. She easily manages to think out of the box and found a follower in Jason Payne, her former student who is still largely influenced by her writings on contemporary architecture and design. Get to know them in the latest Avant/Garde Diaries video:
Learn more about Jason Payne here and about Sylvia Lavin here.
Directed by Katharina Kowalewski / Camera & photos by Antoine Blanchet / Edited by KO.FASHION / Music by Bunnystripes.
Images: Screenshots.
