Nick Taylor: Design has social responsibility

Designer Nick Taylor has designed a nine-storey building in Cayman Islands. Photo / File

Dwell Architecture designer and director Nick Taylor has recently designed $50 million worth of Caribbean luxury beachfront apartments. He chats to Mark Story about his work and philosophy.

How difficult is it to win overseas contracts with designs done locally?

It really depends on your experience, which in a way is similar to being accepted on a local project. With the work we are doing in the Caribbean, I lived and worked in the Cayman Islands for five years, so I am well versed in the local requirements.

These being firstly hurricanes and how this affects building design, it's a high salt environment (Cayman is a dot in the ocean), high humidity being the tropics, the government regulations, and knowing the consultants to the building industry and how the industry operates locally.

Also, the work I do over there is very specific in its market, typically boutique, high-value, residential and commercial projects. In saying that, the skill set I have from this experience would also be well suited to the South Pacific, and I do plan to pursue opportunities in the islands.

Also working with international clients means crossover with time zones is important. From New Zealand we are well suited to communication with the East Coast of the States, all of Australia and central Asia, with New Zealand experiencing at least a half a day time-zone overlap in each area. I can meet clients in Grand Cayman in the morning, and then meet with my Hong Kong clients in the afternoon.

Tell us about the "bachy feel" that is so desirable – and how you would describe that feel.

In New Zealand, Dwell Architecture is doing a number of coastal and inland baches, and our clients typically want clean modern design, with smaller well-crafted spaces, while retaining that "bachy feel".

A bach is typically a more casual environment than your primary home, it's about being at the beach or in the forest or the valley, spending time with the family and friends, getting the sand between your toes and relaxing.

The bach needs to operate at a range of scales when you think about it. It could be just you and one other, or it could be a whole crowd, and if you can pull that off you're on to a winner.

While people do often want a more polished look nowadays, we keep the bachy feel with building scale, material selection and colour, and then inject architectural car ports, outdoor showers, bunk rooms and other well-designed functional elements that have a stripped-back nature like an old-school bach, but with the modern clean lines of today.

Who's your favourite New Zealand architect (living or dead) and why?

It is very hard to pick a favourite. There are a large number I admire and for varying reasons. My top picks are: Gerald Parsonson Architects, Herbst Architects, Fearon Hay Architects and Stevens Lawson Architects.

They all have well-crafted and high-design projects from a plan, elevation and spatial perspective. Their projects are extremely well put together and resolved. Everything is designed well and, having visited a few of their projects, very inspiring.

And your favourite piece of architecture in Hawke's Bay?

Another hard question, there is a lot that I have still not seen. I got the opportunity to tour the Blyth Performing Arts Centre at Iona College while on the judging panel for the NZ Institute of Architects awards, and that is fantastic.

I recently went to a John Scott house in Greenmeadows and that was amazing – the interiors read like a piece of furniture, and it was in incredible condition. I'm also a fan of Art Deco, so many of the facades, interior foyers and stairwells in these building are beautiful. So it is very hard to pinpoint a favourite.

If architecture has a social function, what is it?

I agree with the words of renowned architect Richard Rogers, one of the most innovative architects of the 70s and 80, best known for the Georges Pompidou Centre in Paris, who said architects "have a responsibility to society ... that gives us a role as architects not just to the client but also to the passer-by and society as a whole".

I believe the social responsibility of designers lies in believing that architecture can affect society and thus the aim must be to create better places, better for individuals and better for the community.