With 90+ Categories and 300+ Jurors, the Architizer A+Awards is the world’s definitive architectural awards program. In the weeks leading up to the extended deadline, January 30, 2015, we are publishing Q&As with 2014 A+Award Winners. TO SEE A FULL LIST OF CATEGORIES AND LEARN MORE ABOUT THE A+AWARDS, VISIT AWARDS.ARCHITIZER.COM.
JNZNBRKwas the 2014 Popular Choice Winner in the Architecture+Art category for Behaviours of Light. This temporary installation sculpts light through suspended translucent and semi-reflective triangles.
Your name: Kyle Janzen + Chris Burke
Firm name: JNZNBRK
Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Education: Master of Architecture – University of Manitoba
© JNZNBRK
Behaviours of Light
When did you decide that you wanted to be an architect?
It was during high school design and woodshop classes, which provided exposure to construction and craft.
What was your first architecture/design job?
Started with working for a small design firm focusing mainly on residential and art installation projects.
Who is your design hero and/or what is your favorite building (and why)?
We have a strong appreciation for Iannis Xenakis, who worked with Le Corbusier on notably the project ‘La Tourette’ in France. The project composed space with relationships between rhythm, light, and acoustics.
JNZNBRK’s 2013 A+Awards entry, RAW: Caustic by
Tell us something that people might not know about your winning entry:
We received the commission on very short notice because the original artist was no longer available to do a piece. We were fortunate to have received the opportunity and had to quickly execute the project in a short period of just two months.
Which juror(s) do you find most compelling and why?
Olafur Eliasson. The amount of critical work he has completed at a multitude of scales with a vast range of materials is inspiring to us, as young artists/designers. Specifically, his interventions dealing with light through minimal means have been of great influence to us.
Among your fellow A+Award winners, what is/are your favorite(s)?
Philip Beesly’s The Hylozoic Series is an impressive project with some parallels to our own work. He also is a fellow Canadian.
© Philip Beesley Architect Inc.
The Hylozic Series by Philip Beesly Architect Inc.
Other than your computer (or phone), what is your most important tool?
We find ourselves amassing a collection of light sources, from flashlights and component LEDs to incandescent fixtures and projectors (digital and film). These sources are typically tested on a growing library of reflective and translucent materials in our studio.
Outside of architecture, where do you look for inspiration?
Science and art. Our work tends to fall somewhere in the middle of the two so we constantly surround ourselves with and engage in both worlds. Most days, our tables are covered in scientific texts related to optics and physics, writings on color theory, and just about any book relating to light-art that we can get our hands on. We go to galleries and openings as often as we listen to and read about science.
What do you find exciting about architecture and design right now?
The number of small startups by young designers who are taking a fresh approach to working within architecture. It’s instilling a confidence in fresh graduates to push ideas into an adapting industry.
Behaviours of Light