Poetic Justice

Poet, artist or design extraordinaire? Whatever you call him, design consultant, Hans Brouwer's body of works has graced glossy international magazines like Wallpaper and House & Garden. Interview By Khalil Adis Talk to Hans Brouwer and his artistic and poetic side shine through as he waxes lyrical on how architecture should inspire and move the human spirit. Then again, Brouwer is no ordinary designer. Founder of HB Design, Brouwer's design work for a residence in Whitehouse Park in Singapore has landed on the cover of 25 Houses as one of Singapore's most adventurous homes. In addition, his works for Lush, Singapore and Kim Residence, Hong Kong, have graced respected, glossy international magazines such as Wallpaper and House & Garden, respectively.We're part art, part technology, part service and part poet. It is these contradictions that keep architecture and design challenging, maintaining my interest throughout the years," Brouwer, a design consultant, says from the comfort of his Singapore office on River Valley Road, on what has kept him creating and pushing the design envelope. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Brouwer began his architectural education at the Federal Technical Institute (ET H) in Zurich. He then transferred to the University of Southern California (USC) where he graduated at the top of his class in 1986. As part of his fourth year programme, he joined the Syracuse School of Architecture in Florence, Italy. During this time, his glass bridge proposal for the Venice Biennale design competition was one of the few to be selected for display at the exhibition during the summer of 1985 and featured in the book that accompanied the exhibit. Brouwer then joined Sir Norman Foster and Partners upon graduation in London. He was made an associate of the firm within a year-and-a-half and then sent to Tokyo in August 1988 to establish the design office there. At the end of 1992, he was made a project director and sent to Frankfurt, Germany, to set up the design office responsible for the new headquarters tower for the Commerzbank. His stint at Foster's firm, he says, has influenced his style and forced him to think through his design process as well as question it, much like an artist does. "There is no doubt that having spent eight years working in Foster's office has been influential to my career," he says. "To design a building that is in response to the brief and environment and yet does things that lift the human spirit, that make us happy or in awe of space." His overseas postings also helped him garner a greater understanding on how the culture of each city influences building designs but with his artistic (or in this case, design) integrity still intact. "I was lucky enough to be sent to Japan, then Germany and finally back to London, being thrown into different cultures and realising that the same issues still translate. You can still do your thing, you can still practice in the same way, just taking on board new influences, remaining relevant and staying in touch with your basic principles," he reflects. With his experience in designing buildings that are sensitive to their surroundings, Brouwer refuses to pigeonhole his architectural style, calling it akin to fashion and dangerous. "Now we have an era where every two years, some groundbreaking technology or material comes about and you end up with a whole new generation of buildings. So, all of the sudden style becomes a bit more like fashion, it's very quick (snapping his fingers). Spring season's here, oh that is so last season. It's dangerous for architects to dabble with style because then it becomes as fleeting as fashion," he gestures during the interview. Instead, he prefers to call his style "appropriately responsive" to the culture and environment of where his buildings are sited. Hence, Brouwer's portfolio of works is eclectic and cutting-edge with a clean, contemporary expression that responds creatively to the unique requirements of each project. During his posting in Tokyo, for instance, Brouwer was involved with and responsible for the design of Century Towers, a mixed use office building. As evidence of its cutting-edge work, Century Towers remains till now, the only office building in Tokyo with an open atrium that incorporates the latest in high-rise technology and fire-fighting systems. Brouwer also designed another building called the Kawana Houses, situated on a cliff overlooking the ocean. Both projects have since been commemorated in hardback publications. Another project which he designed, called The Commerzbank HQ in Frankfurt, was considered the first ecological skyscraper with 'sky-gardens' made of environmental-friendly technologies to reduce energy required for heating and cooling. It was also the first skyscraper in Germany where steel was used as the main construction material. Yet, despite his many accolades and achievements, Brouwer admits that designing a good building that transcends basic architectural codes and building regulations is never easy. "Trying to do a good building or an exceptional building or a building that moves the emotions, that's another level of aspiration all architects have. In practice, you realise, how difficult it is to achieve it," he admits. After over eight years with Sir Norman Foster and Partners, Brouwer decided to strike out on his own, determined to practise his own style. Whilst he admits that Foster's past industrial style of architecture and palette of design materials made his buildings look very distinct (think steel, glass and aluminium with colours limited to grey, white and black), Brouwer felt that this can be limiting. "In the day you would never think of using load bearing bricks for a building or timber structure for a roof. Today is different, Fosters has a whole range of buildings that they are doing. There are no right or wrong materials. There is an appropriate material that is relative to the question you are trying to answer," he philosophises. So, he moved back to Asia in 1995, to establish HB Design in Hong Kong. His most notable work there was Joyce Boutique which till now, still maintains its position as Hong Kong's premier fashion establishment. In 1998, he moved to Singapore (where he is now a permanent resident) to establish HB Design's Singapore office. In Singapore, he designed Centro 360 and StarHub's offices. In 2003, he opened another HB Design office in Phuket. Currently, Brouwer is involved in a number of world class residential projects in Thailand by developer, Raimon Land. The Heights in Phuket is an inspired contemporary expression designed to complement the site's unique natural environment. The River in Bangkok is set to be the tallest residential structure in the capital. Another development in Bangkok, the 185 Rajadamri, will be a pair of residential towers with generously proportioned, ultra-luxurious contemporary condominiums, duplexes and penthouses. Elsewhere in Pattaya, his design works on Northpoint aim to raise the bar on grade "A" beachfront living. As we speak, Brouwer's firm is involved in designing a mining village and a new masterplan for a town in the Gobi desert, as well as an orphanage in the capital of Ulaan Bataar in Mongolia. The mining village, has been planned to last for at least 50 years, has been breaking new grounds in the areas of culturally and environmentally responsive designs. In the midst of the harsh Gobi desert, Brouwer did a lot of research, plied through books and travelled to Mongolia to come up with the mining village's architecture. From there, he developed a two pronged approach which would respond well to Mongolia's culture and environment. "One was the Tibetan Buddhist approach, which is reflected in the geography of the site organisation. We used the Tibetan mandala as an organising principle, which is very geometric - very helpful for architects. It has a lot of overlaps, concentric geometry, circles and squares which all have auspicious meaning. In addition to that, we also made the overall master plan 1008m by 1008m which is also an auspicious number - from that we generated a geometry that could be also looked at from the sky, one that looks like a Mandala in terms of its underlying pattern," he says. The second, was to construct the village to look like a 'yurt' (tent-like structure used by Mongolian nomads) so that it can weather the strong desert winds. Pioneered by the Mongolian nomads, the yurt can be quickly assembled in 30 minutes and then torn down. Its oval shaped architecture give gives it an aerodynamic shape so that winds will just flow over it. It also has a South East entrance to protect against the winds blowing from the North. Brouwer used these elements to form a giant yurt with prefabricated materials to hold 40 miners to adapt to the harsh conditions. He also went to the building department in the National University of Singapore (NUS) and then commissioned them to undertake tests of his design to see how it might perform in high winds. "It was a great challenge to marry two cultures - Buddhism, which isn't my religion, and the nomadic Mongolian typology of the 'gur' or 'yurt' into a modern contemporary interpretation. At the end of the day, we ended up taking it to the next level," says Brouwer.