Inside the Archive - Luke Fox

I joined the office in 1998. I was working as an architect. I studied in Australia originally and I was working in New York. Then I applied to work here and managed to get an interview, which was difficult to get in those days, and started in '98. I think the importance is that we really do use the full consultant team, the whole support team to create the ingredients of the design that we can assess and create something unique out of, rather than imposing an ego directly on the scheme. What I thought was amazing when I first moved here was the unquenchable thirst for options and testing and analysis. I thought the office would really make a decision right out of the gate at the beginning, but the process I find is much better because you really leave no stone unturned. The use of prototypes and mock-ups is crucial. Norman set that up through the very early days of the practice and we've continued to use that. It's great for us, great for the client, and great for the contractor so they can all see how the project is going to be realized. They can test and find where the problems are, learn from that, make it easier during the actual construction process. It was one of those moments where I sort of asked whether I was interested to go and I had to make the decision that day. Basically my wife and I had just been married and we moved down there within about a week, so it was a very rapid movement down. But I thought the opportunity was enormous to design the airport there for the Olympics, so I really jumped at the chance. I thought the whole experience of being on site, I really learned firsthand how to build something in China with a client who was determined to use everything made in China. So we had to use the local abilities and technologies to create a project that still was something we had originally envisaged. But I think the end result was extraordinary and delivered in less than four years for one of the biggest airports in the world. To see something happen so quickly and to realize the importance of good design and the good premise of design straight at the very beginning, because there was no opportunity for change really on that project, it was a very quick process. Russia Tower was one of those projects which unfortunately hasn't been built. It was a victim of the financial crisis back in 2007. What was unique about that was creating a 600-meter tower that could accommodate a whole range of functions with residential at the top. The whole principle of that was to create the most stable structure we could possibly think of at that point. The whole design was driven by the structural diagram where we take all the weight of the building down through the structural legs to the corners on a sort of propeller plan, a 120-degree plan working in close collaboration with the engineer at the time, Bob Halverson. That was crucial because we came up with the diagram very quickly by listening to him to say what is the most efficient structural diagram we could use here. That principle is what I was saying before about the importance of being truthful and honest with the materials. It played a very much part in the future development of other towers that I've been designing with my team, with the design board around the world. The role of the architect becomes even more important in this era of AI and automation. I think the importance of lateral thinking and creativity is something society always needed and will continue to need. The way the office works, in the way Norman has set it up, has shown its resilience. Listening and being honest and truthful with the design as much as possible, these become guiding principles for the rest of the office. So with the design board and the design studios, I think that has a fantastic longevity ahead of us.