In 1983, the year the practice was founded, September’s issue of The Architectural Review proclaimed an architecture of ‘Romantic Pragmatism’: an architecture that responds to the exigencies of brief and site, and that is informed by tradition but is not eclectic, responsive but not kitsch, gentle but not weak, systematic but not severe. It resonated with us and ignited a restless process of inquiry and a search for authenticity.
As with the work of the architects in that issue, our search has been concerned with the desire to design environmentally and socially responsive architecture in which recurring themes of space, composition of form, proportion, light and materiality are fundamental. It is a search that is concerned with enhancing the lives of people and placemaking.
The making of buildings underpins the work, not only a consideration of performance, but one of pragmatic construction intelligence. The meticulous consideration of detail was engrained in our education and has been sustained by our knowledge informed by research and successive delivered buildings.
‘…Hodder continues to care passionately about the continuity and culture of architectural excellence: articulating the legibility of each component and junction; honouring the craft of materials and making; and expressing the relationship between people and places. Long may this architectural mission continue, in an industry where these exemplary sensibilities are increasingly under threat.’
Rob Gregory, former Deputy Editor, Architectural Review