01
An architecture of light.
How it is permitted to enter. Mies' glass tower of 1921 became the sacred cow of the modern century — and a thermal disaster. Light is a guest, not a wall.
Est. 1962
The Shape of Energy.
Architects talk about shapes. Scientists talk about energy.
I let the energy give me the shape.
§ 01 — The Third Skin
“The house, like all animal architecture, becomes an extension to the organism. Our first skin sweats. Our second skin clothes us. The third skin is the building — and it must breathe.”
— Mick Pearce, The Architecture of the Third Skin
§ 02 — Philosophy
The Shape of Energy
The shape of energy is found in an architecture of light, of weight, of heat flow, of process, of movement and of material — six forces that, taken together, govern the form a building wants to take.
02
An architecture of heat flow.
A chimney is a vertical tube between a difference in temperature and weight. Stack effect, humidity, surface wind, diurnal shift — the building's lung does the work; added fan power is only ten per cent of an HVAC load.
03
An architecture of weight.
How the weight of a building, people and objects within are distributed throughout its structure.
04
An architecture of material.
Termites build the whole mound from one substance, carried up from the water table to the top of the tower. A building, ideally, is made of the place that fed it.
§ 03 — Selected Works
Buildings shaped by the forces acting on them.
01
Eastgate Development
Harare, Zimbabwe
1991–1996
→02CH₂ Municipal Offices
Melbourne, Australia
2002–2005
→03The Vanke Tower Laboratory
Dongguan, China
2009–present
→04Vanke Research Centre Dining Hall
Dongguan, China
2010–present
→05Vanke Research Centre Dormitory
Dongguan, China
2011–present
→06Vanke Tropical Research Greenhouse
Dongguan, China
2011–present
→07The Vortex
Gippsland, Victoria, Australia
2006–2009
→08Theatre at Harare International School
Harare, Zimbabwe
2001–2002
→09Centre for the Environment
Zolda, Belgium
1998–2002
→10Hindu Temple, Harare
Harare, Zimbabwe
1989–1991
→11Chinhoyi Provincial Hospital
Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe
1990–1995
→12Land Management Faculty
University of Zimbabwe
1986
→
§ 04 — Measured by physics
90%
Reduction in HVAC energy at Eastgate vs. comparable office stock
6★
Green Star rating awarded to Council House 2, Melbourne
62
Years of practice across Africa, Asia, Europe and Oceania
0
Mechanical chillers in the buildings he is best known for
§ 05 — Approach
Prince Claus Award Citation — 2003
“Mick Pearce is among the most ingenious critical tropicalist architects practising today. He has designed large-scale urban projects that successfully adapt sophisticated technologies to minimise economic and ecological cost.”
Liane Lefaivre and Alexander Tzonis — Prince Claus Award, 2003
§ 06 — In his own words
“Termites are blind builders working to an algorithm — not to an architect's drawing. The form that emerges is shaped by energy.”
Honoured
Prince Claus, 2003
§ 08 — Continue
In the beginning there was fire.
Vitruvius wrote that fire led to assembling, to communication, and at last to the first huts and to human society. The argument is older than architecture, and it continues.