CHANCE ENCOUNTER

Keeping things fluid, embracing chance and being open to the unexpected keeps these architects in delight.

-  ALANA LANDSBERRY 

I LIKE THAT SYDNEY A RCHITECTS David Welsh and Chris Major of Welsh + Major describe themselves as ‘modernish architects’ and when asked to unpick this notion they say, “It’s about a sense of discipline drawn from a broadly modernist tradition, but then there is an implied looseness, an openness to opportunity that allows for something unexpected to happen.”

They talk about how chance is embedded in their thinking and how the iterative process of design, with all its challenges, can be turned on its head to deliver something different and delightful. “While we often have something on paper for our first client meeting it is more to flesh out a brief, to determine a direction, and to explain that it will be a process of testing ideas,” says Chris. A good example of this is their Seagrass House set in a flame zone in Tathra on the NSW South Coast, with its demands dictated by, at times, extreme climate, site and the client brief.