To Artemis, Chiara, Chiba, Eliška, Greta, Magda, Naz… From Antoni.
Prior to establishing WHAT_architecture, I had the privilege to work for three renown practices whose founding partners were: women. Louisa Hutton (Sauerbruch Hutton), Alison Brooks (Alison Brooks Architects) and Francine Houbine (Mecanoo). Being Maori in London, perhaps I am naturally susceptible to a legacy of women who ‘operate’ at a level beyond, or below, politics and power, and whose organisational creativity is based on something more urgent: the familial. Here I think of: Esther Jessop who established Ngati Ranana. It takes a strong man to stand by a strong woman.
The Mayoralty election in Tower Hamlets…
096agn_Mayor of Lambeth Niraj Patil inaugurates Agnes Riley Park with Reza Parizi of WHAT_architecture… in winter.
069hil_Mayor of Hillingdon Shirley Harper-O’Neill meets Maui Hoete of WHAT_architecture.
069hil_Mayor of Hillingdon David Yarrow meets Olatz de Solaeche of WHAT_architecture.
069hil_Mayor of London Boris Johnson meets Anthony Hoete of WHAT_architecture.
137aus_Lord Mayor of Perth Lisa Scaffidi meets Anthony Hoete of WHAT_architecture. [INSERT image]
000mot_Mayor of Tauranga Stuart Crosby hangs out with Ah!
Akin to traditional Tokyo living where many domestic functions were located outside the house (bath house, okonomiyaki kitchens…), the current WHAT_office is an ‘exploded’ office. Exploded in the sense that our three client spaces are located just outside the office. All three ‘Meeting Rooms’ needless to say are dog friendly:
Meeting Room A: Ace Hotel, 100 Shoreditch High Street;
Meeting Room F: the Forge and Co. at 154 Shoreditch High Street
and finally Meeting Room T: at Time For Tea which is cryogenically frozen in time: that is the 1920s. Local resident Dan Cruickshank, the art historian, BBC TV presenter and architectural chronicler reports on Meeting Room T Johnny Vercoutre’s preservation project on Spitalfield’s Life.