Paul Conrad: Working in the Grey
Our editor-in-chief recently had the opportunity to meet architect Paul Conrad, founder of Conrad Architects, at his Cremorne studio to glean an insight into his modus operandi
It was while working in London under the mentorship of a senior partner at world-renowned architecture firm HOK that Paul Conrad learned to appreciate the grey areas that one finds between contemporary and historical design. Compared to Australia at the time, where projects tended to fit neatly into one category or the other, homes in London had both — thanks to the city’s layered history — and a spectrum of grey in the middle. Working on projects that fell within these grey areas gave Conrad the opportunity to learn first-hand the richness that can be achieved by embracing the plurality that exists in the design world.
According to Conrad, while his firm’s work is ‘contemporary in nature, there are strong classical influences and references’, and these are visible in the scale and proportions of their residential interior projects. ‘We like our buildings to have a sense of solidity to them, it gives them a sense of permanence,’ Conrad says, a sentiment that stands in stark contrast to many of the insubstantial residential high-rises that have mushroomed across Melbourne in recent years.
Most of the projects conceived by the small studio are designed from the inside out. ‘While a lot of work is put into the facade and the external expression of the building, it's probably the internal layout that drives most of the design,’ he explains. The materials selected by the team lean toward the raw and natural, providing a sophisticated textural palette that’s both restrained and soothing to the eye.
And while some design practitioners today seem to have forgotten their forebears — the likes of 20th-century masters like Frank Lloyd Wright and Finn Juhl, who designed buildings and almost everything within them — by drawing an arbitrary line in the sand between architecture and interior design, Conrad’s ambitions have always included both, articulated in a holistic vision.
Words / Suzy Annetta
Images / Dan Hocking (Conrad Studio); Derek Swalwell, styling by Simone Haag (Conrad Residence)
