Chris Bosse, director at the Laboratory for Visionary Architecture (LAVA), founded the firm in 2007 with Tobias Wallisser and Alexander Rieck.

Formerly associate architect at PTW Architects, he was a key designer of the Beijing Olympics Watercube, winner of Atmosphere Award at the 9th Venice Architecture Biennale.

Architecture & Design spoke to Bosse about the digital era, what he would change about the Watercube and the mega trends of sustainability.

Your architecture relies on unusual structures and digital experimentation. How different would your architecture look if we didn’t live in a digital age?

A lot of our work is based on principles that are centuries old, or at least decades old, but we combine them with the latest technologies and computation. The Watercube in Beijing would have been buildable and conceivable 30 years ago and it almost was in the Institute for Lightweight Structures by Prof. Frei Otto, but the complexities of the soap structure kept it from happening. Today the 22,000 elements of steel can be coordinated in a simple file of two megabytes.

The Watercube. Images: Peddle Thorp and Walker (now PTW Architects)

I think architecture has to speak of its time, like the pyramids spoke of their time and the gothic cathedrals spoke of theirs. We have unique opportunities now to create architecture for the 21st century, with a technology acceleration that is unprecedented in history.

LAVA has created some unique buildings and other design products. What has been the most unique project you’ve been involved in?

Obviously the Watercube was pretty special because it came seemingly out of nowhere and propelled PTW to the top of the field.

It combined ideas from digital architecture, scripting, etc, with learning from nature and an almost classic urban architectural response to site and historic context. And it created a mesmerising atmosphere, a place never to forget. Outstanding architecture has been referred to as an ‘inverted plane crash scenario’. Ten individual, completely unlikely events have to happen at the same time. And they did.

The Michael Schumacher Snowflake Tower (pictured left. Image: LAVA) was an amazing experience as well. To design something with and for a client that famous and visionary was incredible.

And the 5 km long indoor ski slope in UAE, powered by solar power, which we designed with a team of some of the smartest engineers and climate physicists, was a huge challenge and success of technology over constraints.

If there was one project you could go back and change, what one would it be?

For the Watercube, I would have moved to Beijing the day we won the competition. Often people ask why is the cube a cube and why is the interior straight instead of bubbly and cave-like? The idea was an organic system that gets cut into shape by a human hand. You have to walk the line between the dream and the real world, otherwise the project doesn't happen at all.

What is the most important aspect of architecture to you?

I think architecture has to serve the people and reflect the time and the society that it is in. It reflects culture, technology and the nature that surrounds us. I always question council requests such as art deco facades in Bondi. Art deco was an incredible movement in the 1920s bringing together the best new materials, trades people and technologies to create a unique style. Why can't we do digital art deco in the 21st century with the latest technologies, materials and fabrication techniques?

We live in a different society now than we did 20 years ago, and even three years ago.

Which architect do you admire?

German architect Frei Otto for his soap bubble experiments for the Munich Olympic Stadium in the early 70s. The potential for naturally evolving systems, such as bubbles, spider webs and corals to create new building typologies and structures continues to inform my work.

What changes in architectural design do you think will occur over the next 10 years?

I think we will see nature and technology come closer together again. The mega trends of sustainability and building for more people with less resources will continue. We refer to this as building more with less — more architecture with less energy, less materials and less cost.

What five words describe you as a person (as opposed to you as an architect)?

Adventure, animals, art, ACDC and Asia.

Stephanie McDonald

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