jparchitectus
03-08-2005, 17:47
If you haven't heard of Rick Joy yet you should educate yourself on his work.
Architect Rick Joy, originally from Maine, has lived and worked in the desert landscape of Arizona for over a decade. Guided by an abiding fascination with the desert’s capacity for sensory stimulation, and a commitment to functionality and craft that survives from his training and work as a contractor, Joy has developed a modern architecture that cultivates sensory experience, harmonizes with the landscape, and eschews formal pretense. On April 24, The Architectural League and the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum welcomed Joy to discuss his ideas, his work, and the desert which has nurtured both.
"The desert,” said Joy showing slides of the richly colored Sonoran desert, “is a fantastic place in the most correct meaning of the word; it is at times a dreamlike fantasy of a landscape. . . . the desert’s beauty extends beyond objects and things to an atmosphere of place that is defined by quality of light and other sensory kinds of input.”
Attention to sensory stimulation, what Joy calls “ethereal, visceral experiences,” guides his design work to such an extent that it often “preempts consideration of the formal aspects of a project. Sounds, smells and tactile qualities are often more important than the shape of the object itself.” Owing to this focus on sensory experience Joy’s architecture, while undeniably rooted in Modernism, avoids the coldness sometimes associated with the style. “To this day,” Joy said proudly, “several of my clients don’t believe they have modern architecture projects.”
These are excerpts from a lecture at the Architecture League of NY (http://www.archleague.org/lectures/strategies/joysummary.html) by Alex Kliment
Rick Joy's Website can be found HERE (www.rickjoy.com) I think it is currently down at the moment.
Architect Rick Joy, originally from Maine, has lived and worked in the desert landscape of Arizona for over a decade. Guided by an abiding fascination with the desert’s capacity for sensory stimulation, and a commitment to functionality and craft that survives from his training and work as a contractor, Joy has developed a modern architecture that cultivates sensory experience, harmonizes with the landscape, and eschews formal pretense. On April 24, The Architectural League and the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum welcomed Joy to discuss his ideas, his work, and the desert which has nurtured both.
"The desert,” said Joy showing slides of the richly colored Sonoran desert, “is a fantastic place in the most correct meaning of the word; it is at times a dreamlike fantasy of a landscape. . . . the desert’s beauty extends beyond objects and things to an atmosphere of place that is defined by quality of light and other sensory kinds of input.”
Attention to sensory stimulation, what Joy calls “ethereal, visceral experiences,” guides his design work to such an extent that it often “preempts consideration of the formal aspects of a project. Sounds, smells and tactile qualities are often more important than the shape of the object itself.” Owing to this focus on sensory experience Joy’s architecture, while undeniably rooted in Modernism, avoids the coldness sometimes associated with the style. “To this day,” Joy said proudly, “several of my clients don’t believe they have modern architecture projects.”
These are excerpts from a lecture at the Architecture League of NY (http://www.archleague.org/lectures/strategies/joysummary.html) by Alex Kliment
Rick Joy's Website can be found HERE (www.rickjoy.com) I think it is currently down at the moment.