Andrew Maynard, Andrew Maynard Architects in:situ - The New Zealand Institute of Architects Conference 2015 Introduced by Aaron Paterson Wednesday, 10 February 2015 Sponsored by Masterspec Catalogue text: Andrew Maynard is a Tasmanian architect now living and working in Melbourne. He established Andrew Maynard Architects (AMA) in 2002, soon after winning the Asia Pacific Design Award for his mobile work station, The Design Pod. Maynard says AMA attempts to “strike a balance between built projects and bold, polemical design studies”. His highly crafted built work and socio-political ideas have attracted global recognition. Wallpaper* magazine, for example, describes AMA as “unafraid of mixing big conceptual designs with beautifully conceived small-scale works”; Inhabitat says that in Maynard’s “diverse collection of projects we get a picture of an architect whose ideals run as deeply as his talent for good design.” Slightly more ambiguously, The Melbourne Age reports that Maynard’s concepts “include a man-eating robot, a bicycle made of plywood and a ‘Poop House’ – a structure made from human excrement and food.” “Images of the archetypal mad scientist spring to mind, but architect Andrew Maynard, like his designs, comes across as measured and eloquent.” The Hill House (2012) illustrates Maynard’s unorthodox response to design. Rather than undertaking a typical extension to an existing house, Maynard proposed a new structure on the rear boundary, the southern edge of the block, upon the footprint of what had been a back yard. The new structure faces the sun, with a pure cantilevered box above acting as the passive solar eave, cutting out summer sun, while letting winter sun in. Soon it seemed necessary, he says, to pursue an opportunity to activate this new, once shaded, now sunny facade. “A seat along the new northern facade? Perhaps a series of steps like the Scalinata della Trinità dei Monti? But how does one lounge in the sun on steps. Perhaps a slope instead ...”

• published: 04 Mar 2015
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