An Interview with astudio founder
Richard Hyams
by Antony Holter
1:- Over the past couple of years
we have seen a huge increase
from Architects taking the
modular approach. Why do you
think that people are now taking
this approach more so than ever
before?
The industry as a whole is seeing a
lot of cost pressure. Construction
is becoming more expensive across
resources, skills and materials with
shortages everywhere.
Just last year there was a brick
shortage, for example. There has been
a reluctance, up until now, among
architects towards modular because
many architects used to believe it
limited creativity, skills and design.
We don’t believe that.
We believe that because there are
myriad ways to use modular - from big
volume builds right down to smaller
projects - that you have to be more
creative, partly because you are using
bigger components.
In fact, it demands more skill to work
with these larger building elements.
It demands more of an architect, not
less. But one of the main drivers of
increased interest is obviously that the
government is investing in it.
When the government invests people
tend to listen. So, there’s a drive
towards it. If there is funding things
will happen.
2:- Obviously with Astudio
having an in-house
environmental engineer
the environment and the
sustainability involved in each
project must be something that
is key to each project. Is this
something that must always be a
key focus for you when you take
on each project?
To put it simply, yes.
The whole point of us having an
environmental engineer in house is
so that from the first design we have a
strategy for limiting carbon and energy
use.
It’s part of our design, so it’s embedded
in what we do.
16