Kathy Battista and Bryan Faller, editors of the recently published book, Creative Legacies,talk to Fred Noyes, Principal of Frederick Noyes Architects and son of the architect Eliot Noyes, about Noyes' New Canaan house and the challenges of preserving an architectural legacy.
In the 1970s the work and photographs that came out of these collectives constituted a sustained political challenge. Today, there is much talk of social and cultural challenge – yet this is an anodyne and in many ways amorphous space. The collectives were immersed in the political events of the day – around equality in terms of gender, race, work and housing. The exhibitions and publications that came out of the collectives bristled with political data, sociological analysis and evoked and emulated the protests of the Civil Rights Movement, the protests on American involvement in the Vietnam War and the Women’s Liberation Movement.
Every time I look through the amount of work I’ve produced, which in digitally accessible form is mostly since 2006, I realize what an insane person I’ve been. If I could afford to take a few years off, it might do me some good, but on some level, I must feel that I have to be productive and ‘perfect’ in order to be worthy. Sad.
I’ve always loved and been fascinated by London, as well as it being the city of my birth and the place where I live and work. I almost view it as a friend who is constantly present and in whose company I can never feel truly dejected or alone. For me, this kind of relationship lends the city human characteristics and I thought it might be fascinating to explore what these characteristics might be and how they contribute to the overall image and identity of the city.
I began to think about relations between architects and artists on a visit to Paris. In areas like Montparnasse, there’s a concentration of stylish studio-houses around the Parc Montsouris, many of them designed by architects like Le Corbusier, Perret and Lurçat. Twentieth-century architects are often said to have ignored their clients’ wishes in order to pursue their own ideas. But could that be true in buildings which accommodated particular needs and ways of working? They made me wonder about the importance of the artist-client, and whether the studios built for them actually represented a joint project.
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