“It all started with the question: What if I’m going to build my own house?" It was this consideration that prompted Alexis Dornier to note that when he's providing architectural design service he's mostly catering, filtering and catalyzing input from other people that have budgets, preferences and tastes and it’s up to him to channel or organize that and let it "stream through" him. Using his craft to put it in order. "But what if you did not have that other hand [designer's help]? What would you do?”
Archdaily’s Hana Abdel, projects curator, sat down with Alexis Dornier to discuss his latest venture as co-founder of Stilt Studios, a company “focused on making Architectural design accessible to a greater audience of people. People who wouldn’t be able to afford an architect or don’t want to go through the trouble of working with an architect. So, what if we could create a product, or an architecture that almost works as a product.”
Though his empathic and fluid design process, Alexis Dornier works on proposing quality living in a scalable, quick, and affordable way, “moving from expensive to experiential”. Within Stilt Studio’s Canggu Garden, stilted prefab volumes and spaces blend into their surrounding and suggest various design solutions, while maintaining “room for improvement and on the go development […] With the Stilt Studios project, we’re just curious and experimenting a lot”.
There are many layers to the project from the deliberation on the ecological impact of the units, to the development of a “Placeless Architecture that can be adapted to different areas” and cater to different clients.
“It’s about understanding what people aspire to, what kind of motivation they have and then weaving that into [the architect’s] artistic expression or curiosity. So instead of working against or for somebody; I would like to work with people.”
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Through the conversation, Alexis Dornier further explains how Architecture and product design can correlate and offer opportunities to explore. The treehouses are also meant to suggest a balance between vernacular know-how and new technologies, with the ulterior purpose to provide living solutions that can later on be adapted to a less romantic setting and still offer good quality of living to inhabitants and users.
The next experimental field will be the Uluwatu Village boasting stilted recreational spaces and pool as well as some new forms readapted to the arbored site.
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