WINKA DUBBELDAM
“We should aim to minimize architecture’s ecological impact through prefabrication, smart facades, and waste reduction, allowing us to promote the well-being of both the inhabitants [human and non-human] and their habitat.”
#WomenWhoBuild meet Winka Dubbeldam,
Winka is a Dutch-American architect and the founder of firm, Archi-Tectonics. Her attention to sustainable design, innovative building methods, and adoption of technology has led her to become a leading figure in modern architecture design. Adding to the incredible variety of work that her firm has completed around the world, Archi-Tectonics has just completed the masterplan and two stadiums for the Asian Games in Hangzhou. In addition to her role as CEO of Archi-Tectonics, Winka is also a Professor and Chair of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania.
ArchNative sat down with Winka to discuss sustainable design, hiring talent for such an accomplished firm, and design processes when approaching a new project and interacting with a variety of stakeholders.
Your Wikipedia describes your design ideology as an interesting ‘combination of sustainable materials, innovative and inventive building methods with adoption of digital techniques.’ Could you walk us through your design process from its inception till the final handover?
We at Archi-Tectonics have been developing and designing non-standard buildings since 1994, when it became clear that true innovation was possible by working directly with manufacturers rather then contractor to develop new building systems. We introduced a custom designed folded glass curtainwall as a passive solar device as early as in 2000, one of the first parametrically designed AND fabricated facades. The recent 512 GW townhouse features an adaptable climate skin that escapes zoning regulations and wraps all exterior balconies and terraces through which it enlerges the building envelope and also reduces annual energy costs by up to 45%. Through extensive prototyping and working directly with manufacturers innovation of these prefabricated facades was made possible while controlling costs and schedule. The recently won & completed Asian Games project features 2 hybrid stadiums: one with a suspendome roof that renders the building column free, and a glass diagrid / brass shingled intersected façade that through its smart design and BIM coordination saved 1130 tons in steel and 2M in costs while reducing 20% in overall construction time, the other with a 375’ free span solar wing over its field hockey stadium seating and building.
You have been leading your internationally recognised firm since 1994. We would love to know more about what helped you decided to take the leap of faith? Did you have mentors in the field who helped? How did you approach hiring and managing your own staff?
I did a bit of a “scan” through the architecture world and was in contact with OMA in the Netherlands, and then worked with Steven Holl, Bernard Tschumi, and Peter Eisenman in NYC over a period of 4 years, they all thought me a lot and very different things. I realized that when I hired my own staff that there were an equal amount of things to learn and unlearn while slowly getting into my own practice ….
As someone who has been facilitating and leading academia for over two decades, what are some of the transformations (good and bad) that you’ve noticed in the students?
I have to say I totally admire our Upenn students extreme willingness to learn and innovate while working very hard and all the time. I have not found any “bad”in them. They love transparency and so do I, so we got along very well and they have often been very good advisors for me.
From exclusive exhibitions at Form Zero Gallery, LA, to prestigious design venues such as Venice Biennale, MoMA, Storefront, and Aedes Berlin, your works have been displayed all over the world! Why has exhibiting been an important aspect for you?
I never liked framing architecture drawings, but rather used the exhibits to experiment on architectural thinking & spatial transformation such as the holographic exhibit. From HardWare to SoftForm we made with the MIT media lab that was exhibited in a NYC Gallery and bought for MOMA's permanent collection, or the computer real estate game Flex-City we developed after the WTC collapse that was exhibited at the Protetch gallery and in the US pavilion at the Venice Architecture biennale and was bought by the Library of Congress in Washington. So for us its the discovery and testing and then of course the feedback is what we are interested in
Following the above question, what are some learnings through ideating, curating, and exhibiting one’s works that you could share with our readers?
We get to work with great minds like MIT media lab, inventors of strange speaker systems, but also be ourselves the inventor of ‘other things’ like the gigantic shapes we made for the National Building Museum in Washington where we collaborated with a great team from the bricklayers union! We use this often to come up with new research for future projects.
As a female powerhouse in the AEC industry, how has your experience been while interacting with the different stakeholders?
I really love working with engineers, we like to include them right at the start of the design process to make buildings smarter, more efficient, and more beautiful. As said earlier we like working directly with manufacturers to develop new building systems before we get to the contractor. But then I equally enjoy working with our contractors onsite.
What have been some key takeaways from having designed across the globe? Were there any pleasant surprises that you can recall?
Yes, our project in China for the Asian games’s 116 acre Eco Park with 7 buildings followed our drawings to the T, and surprised us with great coordination processes in BIM.
Our planet is changing, climatically and technologically, at a never seen before pace. What are some critical design techniques and strategies colleges should be incorporating/ introducing for young AEC professionals?
We need to create hybrid buildings & materials that dynamically adapt to their environments and functional demands like organisms. We should aim to minimize architecture’s ecological impact through prefabrication, smart facades, and waste reduction, allowing us to promote the well-being of both the inhabitants [human and non-human] and their habitat.
From the time you started to the present, how would you say the industry has changed its perception of female architects and entrepreneurs in the AEC industry?
Sadly not much.
Interview Conducted by: Megha Balooni
Photograph Credit: Archi-Tectonics