The first thing that greets you when you walk into the office of  architect Stephen Collier is his large red bookcase.  Stephen is passionate about books and this comes out within his collection  sourced from his travels, exhibitions/museums/galleries and local bookstores. His bookcase goes beyond books on art and architecture and all are well loved and used as they spill out of the case and onto the work spaces.

Stephen let us peer into his bookcase to share with  you.

When I was working in Barcelona, the urbanist architect I was working for had a library – this revered  space  with an amazing collection of books – all in glass cabinets around the room.  I studied in an environment  where the people I looked up to – my  mentors saw the value of establishing a library.   They would always talk to/with the books – they would just grab books out when talking about a project or to  a client.

The architecture and art books that I use for work are critical to actually  see the printed work. 

Stephen brings down a large hard covered art book from the shelf. I picked this up in Italy and it is so heavy.  There is nothing like that and  no way you can reproduce that smell or the feel of a book in any other format.

There is a richness to it – I could never get rid of these and I am still growing it and I don’t plan to stop.

Five books Stephen  would not part with include:

Felix Gonzalez – Torres edited by Julie Ault | Everything that I love about art and the creative process (in architecture too) is enshrined in this book.

 Carlo Scarpa |  Scarpa inspires me with his brilliance. He combined new with old in an unparalleled way. He understood material and space. I aspire to do both.

Zenithal Light  Elias Torres | A huge part of the architect’s task is to shape the way light enters a building. This book is a quirky and beautiful catalogue of light and its emotional resonance. 

Lighter Wolfgang Tillmans | It’s just plain beautiful. 

We let Stephen put in a 8 volume box set as his fifth book.

Le Corbusier: Oeuvre Complète (Complete Works) | Le Corbusier was the master architect, who links us all back to antiquity. Pretty much everything that architects do today can be traced back to him, and much of what he did goes back to the ancients. And as so much about architecture is learning how to copy the best in others, why not go back to the source? 

Is that five already? I need some more!

The book which surprised me the most out  of my collection is “We are the animals”  by young new writer Justin Torres – is about someone growing up gay within a working class New York family.  The book is devoid of any style and there is no pretension, simply rendered and so touching. The voice is there but very light when reading the story.  Some books like that one are a revelation – the characters foibles, insecurities and intelligence come through so strongly.

When I am travelling around finding  books become a surprise. I was in Rome, it was late at night and walking back to the hotel.  I came across a bookshop – taking it all in – I found a beautiful book on Piranesi – to find something like this is so rare.  On the same trip we were  walking past a publisher and came across a book with  original drawings of the buildings of Roman Colosseum and original manuscripts.  Every time I go travelling, I buy books and sometimes when I come back  my suitcase is mostly full of books rather than clothes.

I picked up “In Praise of Shadows”  years ago and carried it around with me.  Written in 1933 by Junichiro Tanizaki, a Japanese writer – who wasn’t an architect but writes about darkness and shadows in his home and how it is quite critical  to not be afraid of dark spaces. Most houses/architecture are densely flooded with light and you don’t get a sense that you can have that darkness.  Tranquillity is as much as about shadow as it is light.

The Patrick White biography, “A Life” by David Marr made me feel like Australia was a place I wanted to be in and as a cultural place could generate interest.  

I read “Forbidden Territory and realms of strife.  The Memoirs of Juan Goytisolo” (and another book of his called “Marks of Identity“) when I was doing my PhD. When I discovered Goytisolo, I was no longer living in Barcelona but many of the themes (political strife of the Spanish Civil War, communism, the search for a creative identity) and places (in Barcelona) that he talked about were familiar to me. It was a moment in the research when all sorts of new & interesting connections were starting to show. I was deeply moved by the way he was so brutally and painfully honest with himself, of the things that had motivated him in life and of the disappointments (many of which challenged previously held beliefs). It was also the work of an exile, someone writing in a tough but fresh way about the love-hate relationship they have with the country where he grew up: looking piercingly at the things that shame them as well as the things so that irrevocably make them who they are as ethical people. He helped me to find my own narrative for writing about Australia in the PhD.

I am not into being precious about my books, but my recent foray into books of that nature is a display book part of the Thomas Demand exhibition  last year in Sydney – the whole book opens up as spiral which is basically all the photos that were part  of the exhibition which was in the MLC building – the old commercial club. Each of these  rooms had a photo in it and the book is a representation of the exhibition.

 As I have gotten older, worked on different projects and have been  attracted by different ideas, the books I look for have expanded and  tend to be more specialised. I have become more eclectic and universal in my tastes.

About Stephen Collier

As part of his PhD Stephen published  Paradigms of Observation A Blue That is Almost Black (Un Azul Casi Negro) based  on desire, memory and beauty.

Stephen’s essay appears within the book Public Sydney – Drawing the City which was launched this month at the Museum of Sydney.

Stephen Collier is an award winning architect based in Sydney | Stephen Collier Architects | http://www.collierarchitects.com

Leigh Russell and Kathy Luu spoke to Stephen Collier on Friday 22 March 2013. Images by Kathy Luu.

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