RICK JOY

On materiality + form:

I think Rick Joy’s work is phenomenal – in its simplicity, authenticity, and tactile quality.  Honestly, I get kind of jealous of his talent – that he just ‘stumbled’ upon architecture and is so good.  It makes me think my designs are trying too hard!  Works like the Tubac House, lend themselves to a greater composition with the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains.  The forms are gentle and do not detract from the natural environment.  Instead, they gesture towards it, saying “that is the real show, not the architecture.”  I love this subtly and compositional humility.  He is definitely has a leg up to be practicing in the predictable climate of the arid Southwest…rammed earth would not fly in Portland.

On experiential vs. fundamental:

I believe that the experience is clear and bold because of his embrace of the fundamentals. If his works were more complicated or intricate in their technical detailing, they would be diluted in experience and the details would be distracting.  Instead, the simplicity provides the experience.  Joy’s work is also outward facing – so the experience is not intentioned to be limited to the architecture itself, but the landscape.  His work represented in the readings also is functioning programatically as a retreat.  The escape from the complicated and busy world is most clearly represented in the architecture of basic forms.  They are easily understood and create a release of tension, not a cause of tension.

-D. Hoet