TerraMai
Q&A
Q&A with Holly Street Studio team, designers of Heard Museum North
Who and what are your main design influences? M&D: Vernacular architecture. Scandinavian sensibility. Context in the broadest possible sense.
What and where is your favorite space? M&D: The Malmö Art Museum, Sweden. They remembered that light and sound are just as important as space.
What living architect or designer do you most admire? D: Alvar Aalto and those who have followed gracefully in his footsteps. M: Gunnar Asplund and Sigurd Lewerentz. Warmth, Beauty, Restraint.
What deceased architect or designer is most overrated? M&D: Frank Lloyd Wright. It’s unfortunate that his lack of humility and disregard for a holistic process overshadowed some pretty wonderful spaces.
Who would you most like to design something for? M&D: Children, always children. They are often not given the benefit of the doubt as connoisseurs of good design.
What is your favorite city or town? D: Boston. M: San Francisco. M&D: Both places remind us that we are still not done thinking about the past as we move forward and affect the future.
What building or structure do you most dislike?
D: Anything done with “immediate return on investment” as the guiding force…i.e. the southwestern tract home. M: Or “marketecture”.
What is the best moment of the day? M&D: Story time…after the boys (Samuel, 9 and Alexander, 6) are in bed. The most important job of the day is done and from their peaceful breathing, it has been well accomplished.
What is your design philosophy? M&D: “Find the simplest, most truthful answers,” Fred Rodgers.
What advice do you have for young people interested
in a career in design? M&D: Keep your eyes and your mind open at every step. Know that you are only one piece of the puzzle. Much of what happens in good design is because we stand back and let it happen, while guiding it carefully and stepping in strongly only when necessary.
