Looking back on their collaborations both conceptual and realised, artist Jason Bruges, Founder of Jason Bruges Studio, and David Nelson, Head of Design at Foster + Partners, discuss the importance of establishing a shared design language, what art can bring to the built environment, and how nature and technology can be used to choreograph an experience.

DN  Your work seems to enjoy operating in that space between the architectural and the artistic, never committing to one domain. The term ‘design’ might be more appropriate, but it is also too general. On the one hand, you are entirely capable of working with architects and understanding how your work can be integrated into a project. On the other, you can tap into something that might be implicit within that project in a way that only an artist – not an architect – can do. Where do you see your work departing from or extending the architectural?

JB  I have always been interested in the idea that experiences in a space could be choreographed and animated, and how design could install this idea of everyday performance within the built environment. Throughout my training as an architect, I was always exploring performance… so there is a continuity there. The key difference is that as a practising artist today, my briefs tend to be about delivering an emotional experience rather than fulfilling a function. And I enjoy the freedom to experiment that comes with an emotional brief. However, we also use a language of architecture to bring that to light, to cite it. I get stuck when I don’t have something to respond to as I thrive on the conversation between the architecture and the intervention.

DN  It is hard to give proper credit to the scope of collaboration that happens in architecture – especially when architects tend to be the headline acts of building stories. The film industry, with its ‘behind the scenes’ that you just mentioned, is much better at it. The list of credits at the end recognises the film as being a collaborative endeavour. Architecture is not told that way, but I think it needs to be. I wonder, to return to your field, what do you think it is that keeps a collaboration going? How do you sustain it?

JB  One thing that I’ve always enjoyed and that underpins everything I do is curiosity – a thirst for testing ideas and exploring new ways to communicate across disciplines. Each conversation is a little different. If we are working with roofs or canopies, we might be blocking sunlight or we might be redirecting sunlight. We might be creating shadows. In other projects, we might be developing digital composites or robotics. We are also looking at neural networks that control systems, and artificial intelligence that can help us to develop artworks that appears to evolve organically. And my studio can do this because, like Foster + Partners, we have all the relevant expertise in-house. I suppose, within any relationship, conversation naturally ebbs and flows. You have to allow breathing room and you have to trust that disciplinary gaps can and will be overcome.

DN  I also enjoy the ebb and flow. Shared curiosity is good, but soon enough you have to draw it up properly, get granular, test your prototype. Then you can have a dialogue about it. And this all takes time. We don’t meet clients every day; we might leave three or four weeks between meetings so that we have time to properly explore all possibilities. I think the big danger at the moment is that timescales are being dramatically cut across industries. And this is set against, arguably, an increasingly difficult and complex environment to build in. As the design process is being put under increased pressure, having a diversity of perspectives and skills at the table allows us to continue to deliver innovative projects. It is also so exciting.

JB  Yes, it all comes back to having a versatile team who can navigate changes in pace and direction. You need people who can do the sprint finish and people who can carry out longer periods of deep and methodical work, meaning that the quality of thinking and range of experience within a design team is vital. An idea that might appear to be last-minute is often the formulation of thousands of hours of research and consideration. We need to remember this, especially in an age of immediacy, where anyone with a phone can make and publish a song, a film, a poem, in ten minutes. But it takes real skill and expertise to be able to deliver work time and time again, and that is a practice that must be developed and matured. However, I am careful not to be too calcified by previous projects. Curiosity and creative freedom are also key ingredients – they just need to be backed up with a confidence in delivery that comes with experience.

Full article: The Artist and the Architect: Jason Bruges in Conversation with David Nelson