Promoting an architecture of delayed gratification, their “biotecture” entails buildings that allow for the randomness of nature to integrate them back into the environment,the building only reaching its full beauty in a couple of years. “Buildings should get better with time,” they said, while describing how to shroud your house in creepers and tree routes or “paint” it with naturally growing lichen.
Nadine Botha, quoting Sean Mahoney and Pierre Swanepoel of studioMAS architects + urban designers, on Design Indaba (http://www.designindaba.com/news-snippet/blog-day-2-toffie-festival)
“Excellence, naturally”
studioMAS designs are poetic yet rooted in logic. Logic or common sense guides our interpretation of space, land and technology, while poetry amplifies our work to result in memorable form and places. We strive to design places, spaces and environments that offer quality and add value to the end user’s life experiences. Our patrons should expect functionality but anticipate more: memorable buildings and well-loved spaces. studioMAS directors Precious Makwe, Sean Mahoney and Pierre Swanepoel assist clients and colleagues throughout the architectural process, from formulating the initial vision up to realisation of the end product. Their unique insights inspire design, and allow for a re-imagining of the places and spaces of our world. Their values are embodied in the built environment they leave behind-they are proud of their architectural legacy. Respect for the planet and life guides the work of studioMAS. Concern for the environment is not just an aesthetic preference; it’s a measured achievement. Our goal is to design environmentally friendly places that are comfortable to live in by subscribing to cradle-to-cradle principles.
Forest Town, Long House
Cradle to cradle: learning from nature
The cradle-to-cradle philosophy is a holistic economic’ industrial and social framework that seeks to create systems that are not just efficient but are essentially waste free. We at studioMAS understand that we have the power to change the future, today. Every new day is an opportunity to discover new solutions that reveal beauty in new areas. We explore evolving patterns from the best teacher, nature itself, and these become tomorrow’s realities.
Infill House
Design approach
“All larger organisms, including ourselves, are living testimonies to the fact that destructive practices do not work in the long run…Life is much less a competitive struggle for survival than a triumph of cooperation and creativity”.
From The Web of Lifeby Fritjof Capra
Highveld Pavillion
Our ambition is to turn the useful into the beautiful. Authenticity rather than trendiness underlies our work.The intangible experiences that unfold within our spaces form the conditions for life. Stone,concrete,timber and steel are used not for how they look but for how they evoke feeling. Our buildings come to life in courtyards and streets because of the considered relationship between and configuration of architectural elements, space,place, city and landscape.
This is architecture for life: where man is part of nature and is thus fully exposed to its awe-inspiring possibilities.
