ANDREAS STADLMAYR
COURAGE TO COMPLEXITY
Andreas is an Architect who just finished his Master’s degree at the University of East London. I first saw his work on instagram and was fascinated, not only by his projects, but by his creative and visualization process. Andreas believes that by sharing our knowledge, our experiences and our ideas, we can shape the future of Architecture, and that is exactly what his projects are all about.
For this interview, Andreas will be talking about his inspirations, ideas and more.
Andreas, please tell us a little bit about yourself and your work.
I come from a very modest and rural area on the edge of the Austrian Alps. As a little boy I brought my fantasies to life with Lego, wood or stone. I have searched for this creative exploration again and again during my varied education from carpentry and furniture designer to interior design and architecture. I have just finished my master's degree in architecture at the University of East London (unit 6) and try to take this experimental thinking and creating of object and space into the professional environment.
What does Architecture mean to you? What’s the philosophy behind your projects?
Architecture is my instrument to express what occupies me, what I think, what I feel, what worries me. Through the elaborateness of architecture, I can do this in different ways and can reach people on different levels, inspire them, change their attitude or what they believe in, and sometimes it changes their mind. Then it starts to get really interesting when you have the opportunity to set something in motion. I see architecture as well as a big responsibility, because the interventions often have an impact with a large reach. In addition of taking local circumstances into account, an important part of my projects is always the global perspective. Unfortunately, people and most architects today think much too short-term and comfortable. When you design something that has the task of solving a single, short-term problem, it's relatively simple. But when you add more and more factors such as sustainability, flexibility or lokal identity, the complexity increases considerably. Architecture must not be a useless disposable product, it is built for many years and this is how it should be thought. It's incredibly important to me that people not only wonder why this building looks so different, but start to think about it, be inspired by it and learn from it.
“Architecture is my instrument to express what occupies me, what I think, what I feel, what worries me. ”
Your images have, overall, a beautiful monochromatic tone; yet your projects are very complex. Why do you choose to represent your work this way? What does the lack of color, or the selective use of it, represent to you?
First of all, each project has a multi-layered character in my imagination. Sometimes I see this character clearly at the beginning of the project and sometimes it has to be created in the course of the project. Colour is an integral part of this character, if necessary, but whether and how colour is used depends on the message of the illustration to give the viewer the right information. Therefore, technical drawings or drawings with focus on shape usually remain colourless, others which are supposed to convey atmosphere or haptics, get colour. In my current projects, this has often been achieved through the natural appearance of the material. This is because of my interest in how we consume and use architecture, which has always given the used material a high priority in my designs and, accordingly, I presented it.
Who or what influences you graphically?
Of course you look around to see how others present their ideas and express their thoughts, but since I try to give each project its own character, there is no special style that I force or personality on which I orientate myself. I just try to keep continuity within a project. A principle that runs through all projects is the attempt to present the information as simple and clear as possible and to focus on the essentials. I think this is crucial for a good presentation, especially if the project has a certain complexity. I always imagine a person who has no connection to the architectural environment and wonder if this person would understand it. You could say that this is the basis for my style, but the intention is of a different origin.
Where do you seek inspiration for your projects and how to represent them?
At the beginning of a project I love to think very abstractly and always seek my inspiration outside of architecture, for example in photography, arts or in films. By doing so, I try to circumvent indelibly printed imaginations in my memory and push my understanding of architecture into new and unexpected areas. The inspiration is at the beginning of an experimental development process in which I crystallize the qualities and transform them step by step into architectural proportions.
What advice has influenced you as an architect?
A tutor of mine once said, "Do what you want as long as you enjoy it." And this is the way I've always made my decisions, and I've gone an educational path that's fun rather than classic for an architect, accepted jobs that were fun and not better payed, or designed architecture that's a bit provocative and doesn't always follow strict the tradition. It takes away all the compulsion and tension of one and I think that's exactly what I need to be creative and to be able to enjoy what I do.
You have done a few tutorials on Instagram about how to create images like yours. Why did you decide to share your process? Have you thought of making more visualization tutorials?
I wonder why others don't share their process. Architecture is a discipline that is currently changing radical, trying to reinvent itself, compared to other disciplines that are already much further ahead in this evolution, exactly because there is still a very strong competitive spirit in architecture. But I am confident that with the coming generation and the growing shared-economy, people in architecture will share their knowledge and experience in a more straightforward and generous way, and architecture as a whole will gain in value. In my case, the demand and interest in my work was very high. I received a lot of positive feedback about my tutorials, so it will definitely not be the last!
On that note, could you show us / talk about the process to create one of your images? What tools do you use? What’s the most important part of your visualization process?
When we talk about my digital visualizations, of course there is a logic in the order that probably every visualizer follow, but the used tools and how strongly they are integrated in the process vary. In the example of my current rendering for the project “Autonomous non-standard spaces”, it starts with a 3D model, the outcome of a long development process. Depending on the design language of my proposal, the corresponding tools are used and not the other way round. Especially this design was mostly created in 3ds Max, due to its topological shape. After the light adjustments on the plaster model, the materials follow step by step. As render engine I used V-ray and Photoshop for the postproduction, whereby the proportions between the two can be very different. For this visualization I only created the base of the building as a 3d model and rendering and most of the scene I created later in Photoshop. In this part I work with a reference for atmosphere and colour and follow the basic rules of photography. So there is no secret or hidden ingredient behind the process. Nor I can claim that one element of the composition or process is more important than the other, because if only one is not well tuned, the whole end result suffers.
What do you believe is a key element in creating a good composition?
I think it is exactly the consideration of all components and every detail and information layer of a composition what makes it unique. I follow the simple rules of photography, typography or graphic design. Simple does not mean easy. Despite all this, it takes time, patience and a little sense of aesthetics, but sometimes these rules have to be broken in order to emphasize the uniqueness of the design proposal.
What advice would you give to young designers?
The creative disciplines around architecture are not easy jobs, so they should not be seen or practiced like that. They bring with them a certain amount of complexity, not only in terms of aesthetic expression, but much more in terms of the actual task, beyond how architecture is used and consumed. Architecture is not a pure form of art, it also has responsibility! This is the complexity that you should not be afraid of, on the contrary, you have to develop curiosity for it. Not the easiest way to solve a problem is the best way, therefore it is important to share your ideas with others to find clever and better answers in cooperation. So, courage to complexity!
“It’s important to share your ideas with others and work together to find clever and better answers. ”
Andreas, thank you for taking the time to interview with Arch-Vizz and talk about your amazing work and creative process.
You can find more about Andreas' work on his instagram @andreas.stadlmayr.
Interview & Images Courtesy: Andreas Stadlmayr
Interviewer: Stefani Fachini