David Chipperfield was interviewed by Heide Wessely in London.
"We always try to think about what opportunities a place offers. Which doesn’t mean that you go to a place and say: everything here is made out of brick or wood, therefore we must make ours out of brick or wood. I think there are all sorts of influences which are not only regional or cultural. But as with all decisions, you would want to articulate why you chose a certain option and not another. In the case of the villa in Berlin I felt that brick was a way to maintain a certain domestic feeling. In Germany there’s a lot of plaster, but it is very difficult to get the materiality out of contemporary plaster; and glass doesn’t seem to me very domestic." David Chipperfield on how the culture and history of the specific locations influence his designs.
"We always try to think about what opportunities a place offers. Which doesn’t mean that you go to a place and say: everything here is made out of brick or wood, therefore we must make ours out of brick or wood. I think there are all sorts of influences which are not only regional or cultural. But as with all decisions, you would want to articulate why you chose a certain option and not another. In the case of the villa in Berlin I felt that brick was a way to maintain a certain domestic feeling. In Germany there’s a lot of plaster, but it is very difficult to get the materiality out of contemporary plaster; and glass doesn’t seem to me very domestic." David Chipperfield on how the culture and history of the specific locations influence his designs.