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MBIArch Notes: Chris Wise

MBIArch Notes

After taking part in last year’s Energy Seminar, directed by Agustí Obiol, Chris Wise was invited to give a lecture for the MBIArch Master in Architecture program’s Building Technologies department, as part of the Building Structures class.

Chris Wise was named Royal Designer for Industry by the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) in 2007 and has been Professor of Creative Design at Imperial College, Davenport Professor at Yale University and an examiner for the Emergent Technology course  the Architectural Association in London.

In the context of the MBIArch program, Wise’s participation brought a fresh take on some of the issues addressed in the earlier sessions of the Building Technologies course. One of these concerns was the empathy (or lack thereof) between different profiles involved in the development of architectural projects–particularly between architects and engineers–and how it drastically affects the outcome of any project. Wise emphasized the need to know what other members of a project team do, and to demonstrate an interest and curiosity in their particular contributions, in order to optimize the development of the project.

Using some of his own key recent projects as examples–the Velodrome and Velopark for the 2012 London Olympics (with Hopkins Architects), the conversion of the former Las Arenas Bullring in Barcelona (with Richard Rogers), and the Greek National Library and Opera House in Athens (with Renzo Piano)–Chris Wise demonstrated the importance of optimizing resources (material or human) based on simple parameters that are typically considered of little importance or simply ignored. These parameters range from basic yet vital technical knowledge and skills on the part of the architect to simple introspection exercises in order to discover “what kind of architect one is” and how to build the right project team, with the aim of bringing the best out of each of its components.

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