This Is What Architectural Innovation Looks Like
While some architects take refuge in the tried-and-true, PLP Architecture president Lee Polisano embraces new ways of doing things, fresh thinking and radical ideas. We talked with Lee about some of his most unexpected inventions.
“When we founded PLP, we set out to establish a practice that stressed the importance and value of devoting time and resources to research. So we set up a research group headed by Lars Hesselgren along with others from the various disciplines within the practice,” Lee (a speaker at Bisnow's London State of the Market tomorrow) tells us.
The company’s research extends to a wide variety of subjects that deal with urban transport, innovation in visualisation and the application of wood construction for tall buildings. One of the results was Skypod. The project examines ways architects can dramatically increase the transport of people within super-tall buildings, Lee says. It's rooted in nonconventional thinking about vertical transport that is liberated from within the central core of a building and therefore can operate on a continuous loop.
Another of his boundary-busting projects, The Edge, is the result of over 20 years of thinking and designing, Lee tells us. It’s billed as the cleanest, most sustainable building in the world. It is 100% carbon neutral and is totally adaptable to activity-based work.
With so many truly groundbreaking projects under his belt, he still gets resistance to some of his ideas. “Development is normally cautious and most projects lack any form of innovation,” Lee says. “Much of our success comes from strategies that offer additional value to our clients and to the cities in which the buildings are built. This enables people to see the benefit in risk-taking.” Lee says the company also spends a lot of time looking at ways it can innovate while using known and proven technologies by perhaps applying them in ways that have not commonly been thought of.
PLP recently finished work on two important buildings for London, The Crick Institute for Cancer Research with HOK and The Innovation Hub for Imperial College. It also just completed a very innovative building for Sky TV.
The company is hard at work on a range of projects from the master plan for OldOak Park, 22 Bishopsgate, a number of new mixed-use and housing projects in London, and projects in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
Join Lee Polisano on Nov. 17 at Bisnow’s London State of the Market event at the International Park Lane. Learn from your peers, network with other industry pros and enjoy yourself. Find out more here.
