"I feel like a bit of a fake" says David Chipperfield in Dezeen's latest podcast

Dezeen's Face to Face podcast series continues with an interview with British architect David Chipperfield, who describes growing up on a farm, struggling at school, how Zaha Hadid saved him from failing his architecture diploma – and why he still suffers from imposter syndrome.

Listen to the episode below or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts to catch the whole series.

In the Face to Face series, Dezeen's founder and editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs sits down with leading architects and designers to discuss their lives and careers.

British architect David Chipperfield features on the fourth episode of Dezeen's new podcast Face to Face

Chipperfield is one of the world's most celebrated architects, known for his calm, rational style that resists the wild experimentalism of many of his contemporaries. "I was brought up on a heavy diet of good old-fashioned modernism," he said in the interview.

Childhood influences 

Chipperfield grew up in Devon and worked on his father's farm before attending boarding school, where he discovered he was good at long-distance running and art, but not much else. "I was not very good at school," he explained. "Fairly hopeless I would say. But I was good at art."

His poor grades dashed his early hopes of becoming a vet, so he instead pursued architecture thanks to the encouragement of his art teacher. After graduating from Kingston School of Art in London, he attended the Architectural Association school, which was then a hotbed of radical ideas.

Chipperfield is behind projects such as the Hepworth Wakefield Museum in Yorkshire, England completed in 2011. Photo: Iwan Baan

Studying at the AA

Chipperfield studied at the AA at the same time as the late Zaha Hadid, who once stood up for him during a difficult review that could have resulted in him failing the course. "Zaha, until her dying days, reminded me that if it hadn't been for her, I would have failed and that she got me my diploma," he remembered during the interview.

Chipperfield went on to work for both Richard Rogers and Norman Foster for a number of years, despite not being partial to the high-tech architecture movement they helped pioneer.

"I wasn't particularly interested in high-tech, funnily enough," he said. "Although I had the opportunity to go to Paris and see the Centre Pompidou during construction with Richard and I thought that was just the sexiest building I'd ever seen," he added.

Chipperfield completed the restoration of Berlin's Neues Museum in 2009. Photo: Joerg von Buchhausen.

"I feel a bit of a fake"

After setting up his own office in the mid-eighties, his career took off when he designed a series of stores for fashion designer Issey Miyake in Japan.

His practice, David Chipperfield Architects, has since designed acclaimed projects all over the world, including the Neues Museum in Berlin, the Amorepacific headquarters in Seoul and The Hepworth Wakefield museum in England.

However, despite his success, Chipperfield said he feels like "a sham" compared to his contemporaries. "I have a sense of purpose maybe but I don't have innate creative talents to the level of someone like Renzo [Piano] or maybe Frank Gehry or Álvaro Siza," he said. "So in that sense, I feel a bit of a fake."

However, he remains motivated "more than ever" to promote the role of the architect in society as possible solutions to issues such as the housing and climate crises. "Architects used to work for the common good and now we work for the market," he said. "So I think that this crisis is forcing everybody to rethink things that we fundamentally believe."

Read more Dezeen stories about David Chipperfield.

Produced by Dezeen's in-house creative team Dezeen Studio, Face to Face episodes will be released every Tuesday for the next eight weeks. Future interviewees will include Roksanda Illinčić, Tom Dixon and Norman Foster.

The previous episode of Face to Face features industrial designer Hella Jongerius, who explains how she grew up on a tomato farm and discovered her creative ability when she took an evening course in carpentry.

The podcast features original music composed by Japanese designer and sound artist Yuri Suzuki.

Face to Face is sponsored by Twinmotion, the real-time architectural visualisation solution that can create immersive photo and video renders in seconds.

Subscribe to Dezeen's podcasts

You can listen to Face to Face here on Dezeen or subscribe on podcast platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts.

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Mesh and paper-pulp partitions feature inside Nanjing's Shiwu store

Mesh panels dipped in paper pulp, polycarbonate and OSB timber merge to form the textured interior of this lifestyle store in Nanjing, China, designed by architecture studio CATS.

Located along a narrow alleyway next to the city's China Modern History Museum, the Shiwu store sells a selection of products handmade by Japanese craftsmen such as pottery and clothes.

According to Shanghai-based CATS, the area is largely known for its loud crowds, cheap souvenirs and fast food.  In contrast, the studio wanted to create a calming retail space that's closed off from its busy surroundings.

Customers enter the store through an arched wooden door, which they pull to open.

"The gesture of pulling distinguishes the shop from its touristic neighbours," the studio said. "[The shop] reveals its internal quiet and relaxed atmosphere in an unanticipated manner."

Panels of expanded metal mesh wrap the peripheral walls of the store and, in places, extend into the space to serve as semi-transparent partitions.

Polycarbonate shelves and hooks for displaying products are hung from the mesh.

"We carefully selected a custom aperture dimension that best fits standardised hangers, so that there could be no limit in terms of where the objects or shelves could be fixed," the studio explained.

In an effort to soften the appearance of the store's metal surfaces, the architects also dipped each mesh panel in paper pulp to create a slightly webbed effect across its openings.

"After going through many surveys and experiments, we discovered an ancient Chinese formula of paper pulp, which is very fibre-rich and adhesive," said the studio.

"Before execution on-site, we tested the transparency of the pulp web in our studio. We then dipped and dried 20 sheets of metal mesh on the construction site by ourselves," it continued.

"The appearance of these pulp webs is constantly oscillating, due to the unevenness of pulp attachment to the metal mesh. Depending on where the viewer is standing, these webs will look rigid or soft, blurred or transparent, closed or open."

Fixtures and fittings are laid out across the store's rectangular floor plan at a 45-degree angle. A grid of beams made from oriented strand board (OSB) has been suspended overhead.

The 1.4 by 1.4-metre grid functions as a lighting rig, with LED strips embedded into the top of the beams. The lights shine upwards onto a reflective ceiling that's clad with a sheet of one millimetre-thick galvanised steel.

"This system provides evenly distributed brightness that floods over the floor, improving visual comfort and diffusing unpleasant shadows," explained the studio.

The grid is also used to hang swathes of colourful fabric by Japanese artist Reiko Sudo, which can perform as soft partitions within the space.

Across the shop floor, objects are displayed on different-sized plinths and shelves crafted from OSB board with polycarbonate or glossy wood countertops.

An area dedicated to clothing is located at the rear of the store in an elevated, more private zone.

CATS isn't the only studio to make use of paper pulp. Back in 2017, Carmody Groarke sprayed the material across the basement walls of London's Design Museum to produce a cave-like exhibition space for the Designs of the Year show.

Kengo Kuma Associates also threw paper pulp at mesh panels to create light-filtering screens inside Paris' Archives Antoni Clavé.

Photography is by Dirk Weiblen.

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Six singing sharks to be installed in London canal as fourth Antepavilion

Architect Jaimie Shorten's will install six singing shark sculptures leaping from a London canal as this year's pavilion for the Architecture Foundation.

Titled SHARKS!, this year's Antepavilion will consist of six model sharks containing audio equipment. Positioned to look like  they are leaping from the murky canal, the sharks will sing and give lectures on architecture and urbanism.

Shorten's winning design is a tongue-in-cheek comment on Hackney Council's decision to serve enforcement notices against two of three previous Antepavilions, which references a well-known planning battle over a large shark embedded in the roof of a terrace near Oxford.

The annual Antepavilion competition held by the Architecture Foundation (AF) invites participants to design an experimental pavilion that demonstrates an "anti-authoritarian impulse".

"This year's Antepavilion contestants had to contend with two quite challenging requirements," said AF director Ellis Woodman.

"First, the structure had to be located on pontoons in the canal and second it had to respond to the planning battle that the Antepavilion programme has provoked," he told Dezeen.

In 2017 PUP Architects built a sneaky rooftop micro home disguised as an air duct on top of a warehouse as the first Antepavilion.

Next year an inflatable performance venue called AirDraft was constructed on a barge by architects Thomas Randall-Page and Benedetta Rogers. Last year Maich Swift Architects built Potemkin Theatre, a wooden tower on another part of the warehouse roof.

The fourth Antepavilion will draws on the council's reaction to these predecessors and the story of the Headington Shark – a fibreglass shark that appears to have crashed through the roof of a terraced house in Headington, Oxford.

Oxford's city council tried to remove the shark sculpture, designed by sculptor John Buckley, because it had no planning permission. However, it was allowed to remain following a local campaign.

"Russell Gray who owns Hoxton Docks and initiated the Antepavilion programme was also responsible for the installation of a World War II Russian tank on Mandela Way in Southwark which, much to Southwark Council's annoyance, has now stood there for over twenty years," said Woodman.

"So I think Jaimie's proposal resonated strongly with him," he added.

"Of course, the project is challenging to expectations of what a pavilion is but all the jury were impressed by the precision of the response to the physical and cultural context."

Each of the six sharks will be movable so that the pavilion can be arranged and rearranged.

Shorten initially planned for the sharks to be clustered in a tableaux reminiscent of artist Théodore Géricault's 1819 oil painting The Raft of the Medusa, which depicts the survivors of a shipwreck menaced by sharks.

In light of the coronavirus pandemic sweeping the globe, Shorten suggested the sharks could be separated to demonstrate social distancing measures.

Sponsored by property developer Shiva, Antepavilion's winning architect receives £25,000 to execute their design. The construction of the fourth Antepvalion could be delayed due to coronavirus, the AF has warned.

Fans of shark-related design can also enjoy photos of a $100,000-a-night hotel room decorated with Damien Hirst artworks of sharks preserved in tanks of formaldehyde.

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Deltastudio converts concrete warehouse into minimalist family home

Architecture practice Deltastudio has turned a former agricultural warehouse in Italy into a house with a balcony framed with white curtains.

Called Elena after one of its owners, the home sits in a chestnut grove overlooking the town of Caprarola in central Italy.

The original warehouse had two storeys connected by an external staircase.

"The starting point is a structure designed for agriculture," said Deltastudio. "A rough volume articulated on two levels, warehouse in the basement and laboratory on the upper floor,"

Deltastudio used this existing division to create spaces for the family who live there, with more private areas for the parents.

A deep concrete portal frames the entrance, leading into a bright internal stair.

This staircase is illuminated by double-height windows cut out of the corner of the structure.

Internal areas are oriented depending on the surrounding views, with the living space looking out towards the town.

The bedrooms look towards the quieter countryside, and are divided by a central wood-panelled volume.

Elena's upper level opens onto a balcony that surrounds the majority of the building, sheltered by the overhanging flat roof.

A slim, black-steel balustrade connects to a larger steel grid that wraps around this balcony.

This sense of enclosure can be enhanced by drawing small sections of white curtain.

"Horizontal and vertical elements frame the views, define spaces, perform the functions of shading during the day and those of lighting in the evening," said Deltastudio.

Interiors have been kept minimal, with white walls, grey plaster, concrete and pale wood.

"The horizontal surfaces, devoid of geometry, infuse in the rooms a natural continuity interrupted only by the large wooden block that hides and separates the functions," said the studio.

"On the interior scenic backdrops, the light enhances the sculptural materiality of the furniture, simple and bright, a synthesis of a rediscovered harmony between architecture and context."

Deltastudio, which was founded by Dario Pompei, has also turned an old agricultural building in Caprarola into a monochrome home.

Photography is by Simone Bossi.

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Vibrant Skeletal Interpretations of Celebrities and Fashion Icons Define Bradley Theodore’s Paintings

“Anna and Karl” (2017). All images © Bradley Theodore

Energetic brushstrokes, chromatic colors, and the skeletons of pop culture icons make up the prolific work of Miami-based artist Bradley Theodore. His bold use of color is inspired by his roots in Turks and Caicos and the fashionable subjects he’s met in New York and Miami.

The skeletal theme represents something far from morbid. Theodore explained to Omeleto in his documentary Becoming: Bradley Theodore, “a skull for me represents a symbol of a person’s spirit. It’s like I’m wrapping someone’s soul around their skeletal system.” Theodore finds a middle layer of vibrancy that serves as a source of unity.

Theodore is a self-taught painter learning primarily from YouTube and by analyzing the techniques of famous artists, like Salvador Dalí. The artistic practice came from a particularly dark period in his life where he decided that rather than be consumed by darkness, he would metamorphose through art. Theodore spent a year in near-total isolation obsessively painting—so much so that he injured his shoulder from repetitive motion.

Theodore emerged from isolation and painted an outdoor mural of fashion icons Anna Wintour and Karl Lagerfeld together to honor their long-term friendship. The debut went viral and remains one of the artist’s most iconic pieces.

Since then, Theodore has depicted some of the most recognizable icons from fashion, music, celebrity, and history, including Tom Ford, Coco Chanel, Frida Kahlo, Kate Moss, Prince, Cara Delevingne, and Queen Elizabeth. His murals can be spotted on the streets of major cities, like Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Oslo, and Paris.

Theodore is represented by Maddox Gallery in London. Follow his vibrant paintings, street art, and collaborations on Instagram.

“Diana Vreeland” (2017)

“Tom Ford” (2015)

“Kate” 2016

“Frida” (2014)

“Untitled Self-Portrait” (2018)

“Queen Elizabeth” (2016)

“Coco’s Flowers” (2015)

 

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