Leverage: Better services through design
Kieran Wong: I’m a little disappointed we’ve ended up having a one-on-one virtual conversation when we had planned a conversation with 1,000 people [at the 2020 National Architecture Conference, which is not going ahead as a result of COVID-19]. Hopefully we’ll see you here in Australia sometime – in the interim, thanks for taking time to chat.
It seems to me that there are many connections between the theme of Leverage and your practice. We are interested to discuss how Mass was established, and how it now works to amplify impact.
Can we start with the practice itself, which is a charitable not-for-profit? There aren’t many architectural organizations working in this way. Why did you adopt that practice model? What impact does it create?
Alan Ricks: Thanks for asking about that. We’re in a global crisis now, which is not unlike the recession we were in when Mass was founded in 2008. It was the peak of the globalization of the “starchitect” model. Amazing projects were being built all over the world – really pushing boundaries of creativity and constructability – but what was missing was an emphasis on the public realm. This work reinforced a business model that privileged serving the wealthiest – the people in power, the people with capital. Architecture had basically become a commoditized product because architectural services are so
