Architecture, Advocacy, Access
& Agency
VAULT looks at the work of architecture studio Sibling, whose projects are designed to enhance social cohesion within the built environment.
Image credit: Sibling, Hello Houses, 2018. Photo: Christine Francis
An architect’s motivation can often be read through the buildings they make. This is particularly the case when those motivations are consistently pursued. For architecture studio Sibling, a continued and determined line of enquiry is legible throughout their work. Spanning residential, cultural, educational, commercial and research-based, their projects are focused on social, as opposed to formal, outcomes. Rather than a pursuit of aesthetics, founding directors Amelia Borg, Qianyi Lim, Nicholas Braun and Timothy Moore, along with their team, use each project to develop architectural mechanisms that cultivate comfort, access and agency for the people who occupy their built spaces.
“In our smaller, experimental or research projects, which are for the most part presented in galleries or designed as exhibitions, we’re always looking at social structures and how different spatial dynamics effect interpersonal relationships,” explains Amelia. “Every time we sit down and look at a project the starting point is analysing and anticipating the social dynamics of what will occur on the site. So rather than designing for an aesthetic or certain object-driven outcome, it’s always the social relationships and the way that people use the space that’s driving the design.”
As a result of this approach, Sibling’s portfolio of work encapsulates repeated design decisions that, while specific to each client and site, have proven reliable in achieving the dynamic social and spatial outcomes the studio is now well known for. Spatial arrangements and surfaces are generally layered, sheathed or cut-through in ways that allow for varied levels of porosity between rooms or internal and external environments. Similarly, across all projects materials are decided by their potential to provide ...Subscribe to read this article in full
