INTERVIEW: WALTERS & COHEN Q
Do you find it surprising that your
practice is the first in the UK to be set up by two women, and remains the only to be predominantly led by women? (Seventy percent of the Walters & Cohen workforce is female – this drastically outweighs the national average).
We only discovered this fact, if indeed it is true, many years after starting our practice. We never set out to be predominantly women led. We were friends at university, which then developed to starting a business in London. This is often the way architectural businesses start. Since then we have always employed the best person for the job, regardless of gender. We are not surprised, but hopefully the balance is being redressed.
Q
What do you think has been the key
to your success as a
partnership and as a practice?
Our staff come first; the practice would be nothing without them. We have also been friends for a very long time, which transcends petty disputes. We are not arrogant, we try to be good people to work with and we let our work speak for itself. We are committed to a strong design ethos and producing beautiful work, which we believe is the key to our success as a practice.
Q
The judges recognised your “active
involvement” in teaching and examining at architecture schools – how important is it to you to share your skills?
We are committed to making beautiful buildings that have civic and social purpose. Sharing our skills is vital to our practice culture and, we believe, to the survival of any organisation. Being actively involved with teaching and examining at architecture schools is very important to our ethos. We aim to provide a creative and supportive working environment within the practice that translates to our designs.
ArchitectNews.co.uk | Architects Choice | 13 Q
How has the industry changed in the time
that you have been practicing? Have the attitudes towards women altered, and if so, in what ways?
When we started Walters and Cohen a male colleague told us we were 'too young, too foreign and too female' to ever succeed. Since then we believe the industry and the world has changed forever; the two honoured guests at the AJ WIA lunch were aspirational, generous, highly successful women, one from Iran and one from Iraq, and they were the stars of the show. Of course we only have our own practice to gauge, but clients come to us because they appreciate our body of work and feel they can work with us, not because of the gender balance in the office.
Q
What changes could be made to the culture of
the architectural profession to encourage females to enter and stay within the industry?
The Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
It is a demanding, but fantastically rewarding career regardless of gender. Lobbying central government to provide good quality, affordable childcare would be a step in the right direction, but that doesn’t apply only to architects, nor only to women. We would encourage anyone in the industry to find supportive partners in life and business and to enjoy what they do.
Q
Do you agree with those who suggest
that it’s more difficult for women to get the opportunities to design the most interesting projects?
Architecture is a very competitive and personal profession. We have recently completed two fantastically interesting projects. The first was Hylands School, completed in June 2011, which provides 420 pupil places and a 30-place nursery. Every classroom has direct access to the outdoors, and the roof terrace has fantastic views across London and serves
as a fun learning and play area. The second project, completed in December 2011 was the design of a new Garden Pavilion on the terrace at the Horniman Museum and the restoration of the Victorian Bandstand. Our designs are intimately connected to context and function, developed through rigorous analysis of the site, development of the right brief and constructive dialogue with end users, which is wonderful and fulfilling.
Q
What’s next for Walters and Cohen?
As well as wanting to expand our education experience into university accommodation, we are keen to break into new sectors. We have some excellent ideas for social housing and would like to build more civic and community buildings, such as libraries, museums and theatres. Having completed a number of small projects abroad, we are also actively looking to secure larger projects in Europe
and South America.
Image: ©Dennis Gilbert/VIEW
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