ALEX H. LEE
(b. 1978, Copenhagen)
2004 Lundgaard & Tranberg architects
2006 Bachelor of Architecture (Royal academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, Denmark)
2007 Hiroshi Sambuichi architects
2008 Master of Architecture (Royal academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, Denmark)
2009 Opens atelier a.lee
Essentially, architecture is but a shelter for humans to live in nature. The architecture is itself a part of that nature, an inhabitable hull of the landscape. It is from the frame of this shelter that we perceive our environment. Like a cave that protects you from wind and rain, through the opening it gives you a perspective from which you understand our world.
Thus, I see architecture providing 2 main functions: a shelter from climate extremes and a frame for human interaction with Earth. My great interest lies in providing the vessel in which we conduct our lives, spaces that provide safety and a framing of the greatest potentials of nature as we see it.
Presently, I see both of these basic characteristics of architecture being challenged. Todays architects seek to break the frame, to live fully emersed in our environment, buliding with transparencies in a way that seems to eliminate the actual architecture. At the same time challenging the safety of the shelter, making structures that seem to defy gravity. I see these trends as superficial acts of illusion, they intrige as pieces of art, but as architecture they cause worries. Tectonics and the acknowledgement of architecture as a frame, the quality of light as well as darkness, of big spaces as well as intimate spaces are among the most important qualities that I seek to maintain.
My interest in the relationship between architecture and nature does not mean that I dont care for urban situations. Rather, I see the city as a landscape grown by the development of technology and human evolution. As such I do not believe in detailed planning of cityscapes, as I rely on nature to provide life to architecture. Again, this is my approach to architecture, I do not seek to artificially give life to architecture in making shapes and surfaces, but rather to give spaces that provide optimal conditions for life to develop.
PUBLICATIONS:
GA Houses #98, GA Houses 103, Shin-kenchiku 2008.5, Casa Brutus 2008.7, arkitektur DK 2008 #5, Arkitektur Magasinet 2009 #1, Arkitektur Magasinet 2009 #2
© 2008 alexhlee.net / atelier alee