Movable Type Issue No. 11: Storytelling in Architecture by Kyle Hopkins

by | Jun 15, 2022 | MT No. 11 Articles | 0 comments

Kyle Hopkins  

Storytelling in Architecture

 

A good architect must be a good storyteller. A building without a story is mere construction.

The best architecture has meaning. Great spaces can make you feel like a part of the past, present, and future all at once; they are more than physical boundaries and materials. An architect helps create that meaning by ensuring storytelling is woven into the entire design process. We are all drawn to spaces that feel like they were put together with purpose, that everything is there for a reason.

Every project is unique, and the architect must determine the audience to understand where to begin. The story of a space must be authentic, not a sales pitch, helping turn the lines on a drawing into an experience. The vision may explain how the space will function (show a mother how she’ll turn each corner in their new home when entering the new mudroom after a Saturday soccer game) or how a commercial building will define a public square (showing how light will unveil itself to patrons as the sun travels the day).

Memory is at the core of stories about building. One of my favorite French philosophers (not that I have many) is Gaston Bachelard who wrote in the Poetics of Space that, “Of course, thanks to the house, a great many of our memories are housed, and if the house is a bit elaborate, if it has a cellar and a garret, nooks and corridors, our memories have refuges that are all the more clearly delineated. All our lives we come back to them in our daydreams…”

Reading his book as a student encouraged me to think about my memories and their attachment to a physical space. The damp smell of my Grandmother’s basement, the pile height of my parent’s carpet as I tried to scrub paint, or the smell of mother’s peonies in the Spring. These all contribute to a memory, a feeling, in a space. A simple story.

Architecture is rooted in memory. But by its very nature, new architecture, is about the future. The promise memories to come. Architecture is a story of hope – our attempt make tomorrow a bit better than today.

I offer here, two examples on how architectural storytelling in the real world. The first is a series of townhomes on a complicated site where the audience is an entire community. The second is a historic renovation, where the story centers on a single homeowner.

A Charged Development:
Piccadilly Townes

This townhome project sits at one of the main gateways to Historic Winchester, Virginia. Currently under construction, the project grew out of a unique private/public development in a prominent downtown location.
A few years prior, against some opposition, several older buildings on the site were demolished to make way for a development that never came to be. This life a vacant lot that remained an open scar on the city’s portofolio of historic structures.

Our challenge was to take the empty space and controversial history to create a development for the future of Winchester while respecting the cherished past that remains in full display all around it.

Developer: Aikens Group
Architect: Four Square Architects
Contractor: H&W Construction

DOWNLOAD PDF TO READ THE FULL STORY

 Kyle Hopkins completed an undergraduate degree in interior design from James Madison University.  He then earned his Masters in Architecture from Illinois Institute of Technology, in addition to winning several fellowship, he was selected as a prestigious Morgenstern Scholar.  Before opening Four Square Architects, Kyle worked in Chicago, Illinois and Washington D.C. on a wide range of projects including: single family homes, apartment complexes, commercial build-outs, private schools, and public schools.  Kyle is registered in Virginia, West Virginia, DC, and Maryland. He is NCARB certified. 

 
Learn more about Kyle’s work at foursquarearchitects.com

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