Last year we launched our brand new blog series, Spotlight. This series hopes to shine a light on some of the great architectural minds of Hodder+Partners and discover what inspires them, the styles they love and how they expect the landscape to change over the coming years.
For our first Spotlight of 2018 we spoke to our new Associate, Angela Pownall. Read on to hear about Angela’s love of modernism and how growing up in Manchester influenced her decision to enter the profession.
Who is your favourite architect?
I’d have to say Carlo Scarpa. I admire his passionate attention to detail as evidenced in his masterful reimagining of the Castelvecchio in Verona.
What is your favourite architectural style?
My favourite architectural style is modernism. I am still overwhelmed by the startling freshness of the early modernist masterpieces, “the shock of the new” and the beauty of such clean simple lines and intricate complexities of rationalism.
What is your favourite building/structure?
My favourite building is the Casa del Fascio in Como designed by Guiseppi Terragni built in the 1930s. I visited it for the first time last year on honeymoon. It is a fantastic combination of classicism and modernism, a subtle and finely balanced play of cuboid forms in solidity and void, and layering of structural frame and walls.
What are your biggest architectural influences?
Growing up in Manchester the regeneration of disused warehouses and cotton mills in the 90s had a big impact on me, cementing my appreciation of the inventive repurposing of disused buildings and a fascination in the added resonance of a structure hybridised through time and use. I’d admired the work of Manchester architectural practices in the late 90s and early 00s; Hodder Associates at the Cube Gallery and Stephenson Bell at Smithfield Buildings.
What will make the biggest change to architecture in the next 5 years?
It’s a clichéd answer but it would have to be BIM. It is posing a real challenge to the entire industry to move to a higher level of communication and collaboration which can only be beneficial to the quality of architecture produced provided there is adequate buy in across all team members.
What is your proudest achievement whilst at Hodder+Partners?
The completion of Office 3 at St Paul’s Place. I am pleased with the quality we achieved which I feel really makes a positive contribution to the heart of Sheffield’s city centre and its ongoing regeneration.
And that’s it!
We will be publishing a new Spotlight blog every month so you can find out more about our team, so be sure to check back for next month’s instalment.
If you need any architectural help or advice, contact us on (0)161 832 9842 or mail@hodderandpartners.com, and don’t forget to follow our Twitter and LinkedIn for more updates.