Dissecting architecture's dual identity with Annie Chu, FAIA

{"version":"0.3.0","atoms":[],"cards":[["images-card",{"images":[{"url":"http:\/\/res.cloudinary.com\/dpcbzfiye\/image\/upload\/v1685456768\/m0pdgmtywogtkzy1amz7.jpg","id":"6632116"}],"caption":"Autry Resource Center by Chu-Gooding. Photo by Nico Marques. "}],["images-card",{"images":[{"url":"http:\/\/res.cloudinary.com\/dpcbzfiye\/image\/upload\/v1685456838\/zwhs5hi2ajgqxoix7s3e.jpg","id":"6632119"}],"caption":"\u201cVisual Voyages: Images of Latin American Nature from Columbus to Darwin\u201d at The Huntington. Exhibition design by Chu-Gooding. Photo by Brian Forrest. "}],["images-card",{"images":[{"url":"http:\/\/res.cloudinary.com\/dpcbzfiye\/image\/upload\/v1685456905\/dbgv4wl3zjbxtz377cgw.jpg","id":"6632121"}],"caption":"\u201cA Moment in Interior Architecture Space.\u201d Sketch by Annie Chu. "}]],"markups":[["a",["href","https:\/\/chugooding.com\/","target","_blank"]],["a",["href","https:\/\/woodbury.edu\/","target","_blank"]],["b"],["strong"],["i"],["a",["href","https:\/\/www.architectmagazine.com\/aia-architect\/aiavoices\/interior-monologue_o","target","_blank"]],["a",["href","https:\/\/iida.org\/","target","_blank"]]],"sections":[[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"Annie Chu, FAIA, has spent decades devoting herself to architecture\u0027s \u0022dual identity\u0022\u2014the profession and the discipline. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"After stints at Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects and Franklin D. Israel Design Associates, Chu, founded the Los Angeles-based firm "],[0,[0],1,"Chu+Gooding Architects"],[0,[],0," with her husband Rick Gooding. Concurrently, Chu\u2014a Chinese-American who emigrated from Hong Kong in her teens\u2014spent time as an academic, including a decade-long tenure as Professor of Interior Architecture at "],[0,[1],1,"Woodbury University"],[0,[],0," in Burbank. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"We spoke with Chu about what drew her to architecture and academia, how architects can help demolish anti-racial currents that permeate society, some pertinent challenges facing the future of architecture and much more. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[2],1,"What inspired you to become an architect?"]]],[1,"p",[[0,[3],1,"Annie\nChu"],[0,[],0,": I was a pre-med undergraduate in the late 70s when I participated in a\nsummer literature study tour. We went to the Rouen Cathedral in France, and I\nviscerally felt the heft and the loft of the space. The impact was palpable. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"A\ncouple years later, I had a sculpture teacher who asked me why I was in the\nsculpture studio so often as a pre-med student. I said that I have an interest\nin art and science, and it prompted him to ask whether architecture might be a\nbetter major for me. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"After\nthat teacher told me about architecture, which was never on my radar, I went to\nthe library and came across an issue of Global Architecture. While flipping\nthrough, I saw Tod Williams\u2019 "],[0,[4],1,"Tarlo House"],[0,[],0," in Long Island, one of his earliest\nworks. I thought to myself, well if this is what architecture is, then I think\nthis can be cool. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"Much\nlater, when I was working for Tod Williams and Billie Tsien and rummaging through\na closet in the office, I came across that same issue of Global Architecture,\nand I just had to sit down. That\nwas the precise image that had pushed me over the edge to apply to architecture\nschool."]]],[1,"p",[[0,[2],1,"Who are some of your most significant role models or\nmentors?"]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"My\nmost important mentor was the architect and teacher Heather Kurze. She gave me the confidence\nto trust my design instincts and rescued me from dropping out of architecture\nschool in the aftermath of a very prescriptive studio with an instructor who\nnever acknowledged diversity of design approach and never acknowledged me.\nHeather made me stay; without her I wouldn\u2019t be an\narchitect."]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"My\nmost important role model is Billie Tsien. I entered that office when she was\nsteering a new artistically and poetically infused direction for the firm. She\nsteps nimbly between her Chinese and American identities. She showed me the\nimportance of persistence in both work and life. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"Billie\nsees architecture as both an art and service, which is an outlook that I\nadopted. She always said\nthat if you embrace architecture as an art and service, it can be a\nnoble pursuit if it\u2019s done with love. "]]],[10,0],[1,"p",[[0,[2],1,"Why is diversity especially important in architecture?"]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"We\nhave a very competitive profession. The things we work on, our\nconceptualization, problem solving, optimization, and delivery, are constantly\ndemanding improvement. There\u2019s a distinct advantage when you can broaden the cultural\nand experiential diversity within our teams: It leads to a wider spectrum of\nproblem solving. It leads to creativity, tolerance and empathy \u2013 not only for\nour fellow team members but our clients as well."]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"Diversity\nmatters in architectural education as well. Our next generation of architects\ncome through the halls of our schools each year, and pedagogy is typically entrenched in\nthe biases of the instructors who taught us and then, in turn, the biases we have\npassed down to our students. When I was in school, our history courses never\ncovered anything that was non-western, so we don\u2019t\nhave an understanding of that part of the world. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"I\nthink it\u2019s important for us as architects, as\ncitizens of the world, to really attack and demolish anti-racial currents that\nare in our culture. As a Chinese immigrant, I understand that we have the\nstrange burden of being a model minority but at the same time being invisible\nand even hated by so many for looking the way we do. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"I\nhave two architect friends, both very accomplished in their work. In just the\nlast year, both have experienced anti-Asian hate. The first one was beaten up\nin downtown Los Angeles. The second had ugly verbal abuse launched at her and\nher very young child when they were in Berlin. It\u2019s\nunbelievable. These acts suppress so many brilliant minds from participating in\nour society. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[2],0,"In an "],[0,[5],1,"AIA Voices piece from 2020"],[0,[],1,", you talk about the need\nfor architects to think seriously about interior spaces. Can you talk about the\nimportance of interiors to you and your practice and why interior design work\nresonates with you on an intrinsic human level? "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"Over\n90% of our day is spent indoors, and during the pandemic, so many of us came to\nunderstand the importance of interiors because we were inside so often. I\nrealized that when I was thinking of interiors I was thinking about this notion\nof the continuum between interiors, architecture, and landscape. That locates me\nin my neighborhood, in Los Angeles, in California, in the United States, and in\nthe world. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"A\nlot of our memories are staged in spaces; memories so often have a description\nof the space. Interiors are so integral\nto every aspect of our lives and our memories. As an architect, how can you not\nbe interested in this? It\u2019s a more\npowerful way of shaping people\u2019s lives\nthan just standing outside of a building and looking at it. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"The\ninterior is physically, perceptually, psychologically, and cognitively the\ninterface and platform to the world and to our culture. That\u2019s why interiors are so central to our\npractice. \n\n"]]],[1,"p",[[0,[2],1,"You were a professor of interior architecture at Woodbury\nUniversity for nearly a decade. Why did academics and teaching appeal to you\nand how did it shape your practice?"]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"Architecture\nhas a dual identity throughout history: It\u2019s a profession, and it\u2019s\nalso discipline. That\u2019s the teeter-totter\nthat we\u2019re always trying to balance."]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"My\npartner and husband Rick Gooding and I have our roots in practices with architects who also\nteach. Heather Kurze.\nPatricia Oliver, who was\nmy department chair at Art Center College of Design and is now the Dean at the University\nof Houston College of Architecture and Design. Tod Williams. Billie Tsien. The\nlate Frank Israel who I worked for when I came back to Los Angeles in 1990. Our model for what an architect\nis is one who builds, who researches, who teaches. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"So,\nin our practice we critique our projects with the same line of questioning as\nwe would for a student project in school. We\u2019re just\nused to talking about things that way. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"We\nhave a lot of friends who are still in education, so I\u2019m\nalways on studio reviews, symposia, lectures, and panels and installations, all\nof those things are in that realm. Those things continue to push us to see that\nour work and life is an integration of those two identities, the profession and\nthe discipline. "]]],[10,1],[1,"p",[[0,[2],1,"What are some of the biggest challenges facing the world of\narchitecture and what are your thoughts on the state of the profession now and\nin the future?\n\n"]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"Alvar Aalto said that architecture\nbelongs to culture. Our challenge is to have our fingers on the pulse of\nculture and to participate in it so we can be designing to be a part of\nculture. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"I\u2019m also a certified interior designer. As Cheryl Durst, CEO of the\n"],[0,[6],1,"International Interior Design Association"],[0,[],0,", says, \u201cYou cannot design for the world if you\u2019re not of the world.\u201d When we think about the future of\narchitecture, we should think about the future of our culture and how\narchitecture situates itself in that culture. Of course, that\u2019s\na big question. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"The\nfuturist Bruce Sterling spoke of the future as \u201cold people in big cities afraid of the sky.\u201d Of\ncourse, he\u2019s talking about the aging world population,\nthe ever-increasing size and density of the metropolis and the dread of climate\nchange."]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"In\nthe future, can architecture offer positivity and hope? While we join the world\nto combat existential threats, we still need spaces that can lift our spirits.\nWe need architecture to inspire us at whatever scale possible. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"There\u2019s still plenty of applicants for architecture school, which\nmeans society still values the pursuit of being an architect. But schools are\nstruggling to strike the right balance between doing more to prepare students\nfor the profession and pushing the boundaries of theory and research, which\nthey should be doing because they\u2019re universities."]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"A\nlot of people think that if we give graduates practical skills, they can go out\nand get their first job and pay their student loans back sooner. That is of course a valid component of education, but we have to be careful to distinguish the difference between trade, profession, and discipline. It\u2019s again about striking a\nbalance. I think the cost of education is such a hard nut to crack. We need to\ncontinue outreach to broader demographics, who much like myself might not have\narchitecture on their radar. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"Every\nyear we pump out so many graduates, but does our environment really improve commensurate with so many more\nfolks educated in architecture? Why don\u2019t we see significant changes in our\nenvironment? Why are there still so many uninspiring buildings? That quandary\nleads me to think about the role of artificial intelligence. Can AI change\nthings?"]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"There are two thoughts: One is that AI is in its early stage\u2013too\nmany trees on top of buildings in Midjourney images\u2013and the other is the polar\nopposite, that we\u2019re in Oppenheimer\ntimes and the nuclear bomb is ready to go. The positive attitude is making the\nrobots do the grunt work while we create the poetry. Can we as architects do\nthe creative, enjoyable part? The negative viewpoint is robots taking our jobs\nentirely. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"At\nsome point will AI be able to concoct schemes and images, spit out construction documents, order\nour materials, locate the contractor with the right printer? Will AI kill both the architecture and\nconstruction industries? "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"Maybe.\nBut as of now, AI is junk in, junk out. It needs quality input. Knowing what\nsearch terms to put in, or knowing how to conceive a productive and sophisticated search,\nrequires literacy. It requires an understanding of history, culture, machine thinking, skills of\narticulation and human creativity, and illogical and unpredictable instincts."]]],[10,2],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"\n\n"]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n"]]]]}