Therefore, and More...
Introducing Therefore Volume 6, with Shantanu Starick
First of all, thank you so much for subscribing to this new venture of ours. We are deeply grateful and already feel very energised to be writing again.
Thanks as well to the handful of people who pledged monetary support – while this isn’t a commercial venture for us, it’s always nice to have a financial vote of confidence.
We’re currently working on two longer format pieces, which will arrive in your inboxes in the coming weeks / months. One is on a core architectural influence of ours, Robin Boyd, and another takes a forensic look at one of our favourite construction materials, timber.
In the meantime, we wanted to share some other news, which is that the first ever book dedicated to one of projects is about to be released.
It will also be launched, here in Sydney, this Friday 21st November, at 6pm – tickets are available here if anyone wants to come along.
The book is part of a series called Therefore, which was created by the architectural photographer Shantanu Starick. Therefore can be described as a series of surveys that document architectural works and their environments. As Shantanu puts it:
These are not conventional monographs; they are independently published, free from external constraints, allowing for a rare, unfiltered exchange. Each volume emerges from a direct dialogue, shaping a record that is both intimate and critical.
We had never met Shantanu prior to doing this book; he contacted us out of the blue with an invitation to take part. The books are developing in the manner of old-school chain mail, with each architect recommending another for the next publication, and so on.
Volume 6, of Therefore, and our little book, is on Cloaked House.
The process of forming Therefore was distinctive to conventional media. We spent a day on site with Shantanu, talking as he took photographs. Then, some months later, we met up online - he in Dublin, us in Sydney - to conduct the interview. The text records our instinctive response to each image as we saw it for the first time.
Cloaked House is not short of press - it received two NSW AIA Architecture Awards and a National AIA Commendation, was covered in the Sydney Morning Herald, is in the current print issue of The Local Project and is being filmed as part of Grand Designs Australia. Across all of this media, we have told the story of the project many times, honing the narrative in the process.
Yet, this book presented a very different opportunity. This is borne of Shantanu’s process, which uses imagery to prompt a response, rather than structuring a story from pre-written copy and images. Unbeknownst to us, Therefore allowed us to see our work through his eyes which, in turn, became a way of framing Cloaked House afresh.
We have loved reading the first four volumes of Therefore, which feature discussions with Nielsen Jenkins, Timothy Hill, John Ellway and Projekt V Arhitektura. We are now eagerly awaiting Volume 5, which is currently on its way to us via post, and which documents Autumn House by Studio Bright.
Between Shantanu’s photographic eye, and the candid interviews, we have found that each publication has revealed something new and unexpected to us – even with seemingly familiar projects like Donovan Hill’s D House, which is catalogued in Volume 1.
In each book, the architect’s voice is resonant, and you get a sense of how various actors – photographer, architect, client, and the building itself - overlap and interrelate. All of this is intonated through images, drawings and text in a manner that is suggestive, but not didactic.
It is initiatives like Therefore that provide a genuine counterpoint to so much of contemporary culture (and media). We’ve loved being part of this project and think some of you reading this might, too.
If you are interested in purchasing copies of Therefore, they are available for direct purchase from Shantanu’s website or via Uro here in Australia.
And if you can join us at the book launch, come say hi.
Thank you for reading.
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Current curiosities
I really enjoyed reading this article, titled Large Language Muddle, in N+1 magazine. It is all about AI and, more specifically, how it is transforming creative and educational outputs. As someone with a foot in both of these worlds, it’s been a good reminder that we need not be hopelessly resigned to the rise of AI. While I am by no means anti-tech, it’s a space I’m watching closely.
A few weeks ago, I gave an online talk at ETH Zurich as part of the Verge series, which profiles emerging Australian practices. In the talk, I spoke about the influence of Robin Boyd on our studio’s formation and work. A huge thanks to Lucas Osborn, and the teams at both ETH Zurich and The University of Melbourne, for making this happen – it was such an honour to share our work with an international audience. Both our talk, and the others within the series, can be accessed online here.
Last of all, I was lucky to meet Rasmus from Home.Earth while he was in Sydney last week. Home.Earth is a Danish real estate company who focus on designing, building and maintaining homes that work with the limits of our planetary boundaries. Rasmus is here as the 2025 Robert Garland Treseder Fellow and will be giving a lecture at the University of Melbourne on November 25th. Tickets are available here.