Architecture

Pattersons Associates Architects

Patterson Associates Architects was founded in 1986 by Andrew Patterson. The practice was formed on a simple idea; “if a building can feel like it naturally ‘belongs’ or fits logically in a place, then the people that inhabit the building will likely feel a sense of belonging there as well.” Since then, the practice has gone from strength-to-strength, featuring in multiple publications and awarded countless accolades.

Pattersons today serves clients as far afield as India, Singapore, and Europe.

The practice was recently involved in the design of the Len Lye Centre, which forms a single art destination with the adjacent Govett-Brewster Gallery. It is the perfect building for the Instagram age: its undulating stainless steel skin is polished to such a reflective sheen that it begs you to take a selfie. The early renderings of the building looked seductive but also slightly unbelievable: it was easy to think the promised spectacle could never be achieved. Happily, the opposite turns out to be true: the finished building has more “zizz”, as Lye would put it, than anyone could expect. Its façade evokes the sass and verve of Lye’s work, the exterior undulating in a syncopated rhythm like the jazz backing track of one of the artist’s lively film shorts. Sunlight bounces off the stainless steel to form dynamic patterns on the footpath like Lye’s pioneering scratchings on celluloid. The building is simultaneously monumental and irreverent, equal parts pop and pomp.