Guy Hollaway

You’re dressed all in black today – would you describe yourself as a stereotypical architect – slightly obsessive about attention to detail. If I popped into your home and moved a few things around, would you be itching to put everything back in place as soon as I’d left?! Well, my Red Setter puppy is constantly moving stuff everywhere and she doesn’t wind me up, so no – I think buildings are for people, and dogs! They’re there to be lived in and enjoyed – I’m from a school of thought that believes buildings are for people and people come first. A building’s life is sapped without the existence of humans and human behaviour.

Could you describe the life cycle of a project and how relationships with your clients develop? That relationship is either going to last for five minutes or five years, minimum. Five minutes is if we’re not sharing the same philosophy – five years plus, is a partnership where we are creating something together, something that is meaningful. A lot of people talk about sustainability and perceive that as being how you heat or power something, or how well insulated it is, but sustainability goes way deeper. If we can create architecture like our forbears, who made buildings that were adaptable and have proven the test of time, then what could be more sustainable than that? If we’re creating architecture that fails, is not loved and not beautiful and subsequently has to be pulled down and rebuilt, then that is no good for our planet and we’re not being responsible. I liken it to the fashion industry, it’s the difference between buying a cheap t-shirt that’s going to last you 1 wear, or buying one that’s going to last as long as you do – as long as you don’t put on weight! I always say to clients that when you come to us, it’s a bit like coming for a tailored suit, so you have to watch your diet. They need to be responsible for it. That’s right, buildings need attention and love and sometimes people forget that. It’s like anything in life, you need to look after things and make sure they are loved. When I set out to write our book, From Now On, I wanted to include our client’s experiences as well, warts and all. That’s probably the most interesting part, because they’re going on a journey with us. At the start, I will just draw in front of my clients, they are talking to me and I’m drawing as they’re talking and I invite them to live in the drawing, and push them to think about how they might live, or what the building is trying to achieve for them. Then we’ll go through a process of design, creation, exploration, feeling, emotion, price, commercialism, social economics…so they understand the creation of that building and when they become responsible for it, they will know what it is and how it’s come together, they’re coming from a place of knowledge. I really believe I’ve done my job well if they feel that they’ve designed the building – they’ve been part of that process.

So, that whole journey starts with your drawings and then you go away and research afterwards? No, research first – it’s very much research based. We will go away and deep dive into a place, a site or a brief – we are looking for the inspiration of an idea, the narrative and then the drawing will start. We don’t lock ourselves in a room and then there’s a big reveal moment, we work with our clients in front of us. It’s an interesting process which can be surprising for me because we’re working with highly intelligent people who are passionate about what they’re doing. When somebody is coming here, they’re often spending millions of pounds – some of our projects run into hundreds of millions, so the choice of their architect is incredibly important. At the same time, we are working for private clients who may be designing their own houses and all of that money is therefore coming from their back pockets, so this might be the biggest investment they make in their life. All of our clients need to know they are in safe hands, that they’re going to get to the end successfully and we will be with them on that journey.

…our clients need to know they are in safe hands, that they’re going to get to the end successfully and we will be with them on that journey.

I presume when a new client approaches you, they will also be considering other studios? I’m amazed about how much people know and understand before they even step in the door, there’s so much information available now to be considered before making that decision, especially those who may only appoint an architect once in their lifetime. But then, we also have clients like Roger DeHaan, who I’ve lost count of how many buildings we’ve created for, where there’s a continuing relationship – you know each other and the initial conversations are therefore quite quick. What persuades people to appoint Hollaway – do you think you form part of that decision making – your personality, your vision? I’m very lucky that I have 5 great partners who have been with me a long time and I’m a great believer in surrounding myself with the cleverest people I can, because I’m only as good as those around me. What I’m doing is creating the platform, the philosophy and the approach for that team. I do get involved in most projects and my value usually comes during the early stages. A huge amount of research is undertaken and I filter that information down into a concept, or an idea, which is a building form. Sometimes an idea has a lot of stress on it, due to economics or the planning system, but quite often those first marks on the page will be the ones that get built, which is really quite extraordinary and gives me great pleasure.

Is it the hunt for that solution that you enjoy the most from a project, or seeing the completed building? That’s a good question. When I see the final building, I’ve pretty much imagined how it will look in my head. I think what gives me joy and real pleasure is seeing how a building is used and I’m very privileged because I’ve decided to commit my career to where I live. My family are here, my mother lives in Herne Bay, my sister in Faversham and my brother is nearby in Brabourne – my roots are here and my friends are here. I get to eat at Rocksalt, go to Curious Brewery, go to the climbing wall (I don’t skate by the way!), attend a concert in a concert hall, go round to my friends’ houses and I get to go to a gig at Dreamland. My work is all around me, so I feel that I carry a greater sense of responsibility because it’s where I live and it’s for people I know. It means I get a lot of feedback (Guy laughs) but it’s normally good. Do people ever say, you know what Guy, I’m not sure you got this one right? Sometimes we find that during the planning process. People sometimes find change difficult and we understand that. When we were walking around the studio, I showed you The Wave project that we’re trying to create at Betteshanger. I think it will be amazing for the county but there is understandable local reaction…I understand that completely, but I’m very passionate about trying to bring that to Kent. And is the conceptual stage of a project a linear process or does it twist and turn along the way? People often think that a client will walk through the door and say, Guy build me X, but it doesn’t happen like that.

I’ll give you an example of a conversation I had with Roger DeHaan recently – he called me and said,
Guy, I’m thinking about buying a site in Folkstone
Ok, which one?
At the top of Tontine Street
Where the old bingo hall is?
Yeah, what do you think I should do with it?
Knock it down, it’s really bad!
Yeah, of course knock it down, but what should I do with it?
It’s a really difficult part of town because it’s an island, that’s tough…
Well, we’re building some new flats on the seafront, so we’ll need some parking
I could design you a multi-story car park
Okay. Why don’t you do that?

So, I designed a car park and showed the drawings to him and he said, ‘it’s a bit boring’. I reminded him it was a multi-story car park! He paused and then said, ‘There’s a skate park on the beach – why don’t you go down there and have a look at it? We’ve got to move it to make way for the flats, so it’s going to need a new home – maybe you could think of something for that’. So, I went away and researched skate parks – Dog Town California, the birth of skate parks, how it all came about, looked at how skate parks work and thought, I know, I’ll put a skate park on the roof of this car park, so I drew it up and showed him. He said, ‘Wow, this skate park is amazing…but those cars are boring. Let’s get rid of them’. And from that, the whole idea of how we could create the world’s first multi-story skate park was born – it was through dialogue and conversation. Admittedly, he’s quite a unique client and not many people would commit to a £17 million gift of a skate park to a town, but these conversations need to be allowed space to breathe in order for them to happen.

A similar kind of thing happened with Brompton Bikes. At the time they were looking at Manchester, Birmingham and Ashford as possible locations for a new bike factory and global headquarters. It was a big investment and naturally Manchester and Birmingham were falling over themselves to be selected – Ashford was way down the list but they were considering it. I was introduced to Brompton by Locate in Kent and a conversation started. Locate in Kent gave me a potential site and I did a sketch for them and went to talk with Will Butler Young, their CEO. He looked at it and said, ‘Guy, it’s really interesting and I’m sure you could design us a wonderful building but it’s on an industrial estate. We’re on an industrial estate now. It doesn’t feel very Brompton.’ I thought, I’m losing him. I’m losing the project. My brain was whirring and I said, well, there is another site, so he was like, okay, where is it? I said, well, it’s pretty big – around 100 acres and it’s really close to the station. He cautiously said, right? I said, it’s next door to the Ashford Outlet Centre, which has 3.5 million people visit it every year, you can cycle to it in 5 minutes, you can walk to it in 10 minutes. I feel there’s a but coming to this story. There’s a big but coming. He said, ‘blimey, that sounds pretty amazing, where’s the catch?’. I said, well, it’s in the flood plain and he said, brilliant – but not sarcastically. I said, no, you don’t understand – I would have to build it on stilts. He said, ‘amazing’. I was like, oh my God, this guy’s crazier than I am and we won the job. We have designed this building in 100 acres, it’s got a ramp that goes all the way around it, it sits on stilts and it’s, well, pretty nuts.

Where is that project in its life cycle? We are in planning and fingers crossed, we’ll get planning in March. That sounds huge. It is huge – there will be 3 phases. First phase is where they will build their e-bike, the second stage will be moving their existing manufacturing process and we haven’t decided what the third phase will be yet, but if you imagine you’ve got 1.5 thousand people working there, some of the best brains in the country, they’re going to come up with a new concept and they will then need that space. It will probably be a 15 year project in total, huge for Kent and really quite amazing.

And do you consider how these buildings will be your legacy? Yes, I feel very privileged. We work in London, around the country and abroad, but really I am totally passionate about Kent and will work here 10 times over rather than anywhere else, because I can make a difference. I can join the dots. I can unlock possibilities. I can get from A to B faster. I know the supply chain, I know all the local contractors and I can pull these people together to make something happen. I can regenerate and nothing gets me more excited than going to a place that is really ramshackled and turning it into something amazing. I remember Ashford when it was called Trashford, but nobody calls it that anymore. We’ve done some incredible schemes there and master planned the town, and then to have the privilege of working in Margate where Dreamland was falling apart, and you had a burnt-out scenic railway – it was like a black hole in the town – it was just sucking the energy out of it. To work with Heritage Lottery money and rebuild the scenic railway and work with Wayne Hemingway to bring history back to life. Turning Margate back to its essence of tourism and hospitality, the things Margate is famous for, really understanding the roots of that place and reinventing it for the 21st century, was an absolute privilege. On the back of that, we’re now working on the Nayland Rock Hotel and doing other projects in Margate which will make a big difference to the town.

I think what gives me joy and real pleasure is seeing how a building is used…

There isn’t a town, or city, in Kent that I don’t think we’re working in and they all have their own character and identity. We understand that identity. We understand the roots of Canterbury and its historic core, for example. We’ve put a thousand student beds and a hotel right in the centre. We are creating contemporary architecture but it’s coming from a place of knowledge and history, understanding and context.

When you look at what you have achieved in Ashford, it makes me question why every town or city isn’t adopting the same philosophy of using a central architect to create a master plan? Well, the planets have got to align – the leader of the council at the time, Gerry Clarkson, was a go-getter sort of character, and then you had 2 great chief execs, John Bunnett, and now Tracey Kerly, who is amazing. What they did was really interesting, the town was in a poor state and central government was trying to make a difference but it was just not going anywhere, so they said sorry guys, but we’re going to take over. They were really brave and put their money where their mouth was so we could develop pivotal schemes such as Elwick Place – the first new build picture house in the country. Add to that a hotel, restaurants and bars and we created an exciting night time economy. We were then approached by a developer who had a vision of what they wanted to bring to the town but they didn’t know how to unlock its potential. We were working for Fraser Thompson, at Chapel Down, at the same time and they had an ambition to create their own brewery. By combining the ideas of these 2 clients, I thought we could unlock the whole master plan and the idea started to grow from there. Suddenly, people have started travelling into Ashford, which they didn’t do before, apart from a night out. Now, they travel in on the train because they can go to the cinema or the brewery and then back out on the train, which means they can have a drink. We didn’t plan for that, but I love it.

Another example was Newtown Works, a challenging listed building that, again, we needed to unlock – we needed a hook that would enable us to unlock the potential of that sensitive site. We were also working with some film studios at that time and saw an opportunity to create something similar in Ashford, but then to also mix that with a hotel, alongside residential. So, would you say that you’re putting together a sales pitch as much as anything? I wouldn’t like to call it a sales pitch, I am drawing threads. I assess a situation and pull people together – if you can pull the right people together with the right threads, then you can create something special. It’s about understanding how pieces can come together to make something whole, and then creating a design and vision that everybody can get behind – that’s where the architecture comes in. But it’s also understanding the social economics, because there’s no point creating a drawing that economically won’t work. So, having a really deep understanding of how that is going to work is really important – how you can add value. It’s one thing to design a building, it’s one thing to build a building – it’s another thing to design and build a building that looks good, functions really well and is going to last the test of time. That’s quite a task.

It sounds ridiculously complex. I can’t visualise how I would be able to pull all of those elements together. What’s your favourite sport? Rugby. Okay, so I’m a fly half. I understand the game. I’m reading the game. I’m the bit between the forwards and the backs. I’m the play maker. I decide whether the ball is going to be thrown out to the backs, or if I’m going to kick it ahead. I have to see and read the whole game in front of me. And the fly half needs protection – you need a decent flanker to make sure he doesn’t get sacked every 5 minutes, because otherwise his head is going to be elsewhere. I played fly half, so I understand that position well, but I could do that analogy for any sport. A good architect needs to be able to see everything in front of them and have a good team around them to help them achieve their vision. I will not start a project unless I can see the end. I need to be able to see the beginning and the end, everything in the middle is just a journey. It’s not just about visualising a pretty building, far from it, I need to see whether it’s going to stack up economically, that it’s going to contribute, that it’s a project that is going to flourish in the future – I need to see that end point. A fly half will often make instinctive decisions – do you use experience or instinct? If you stepped onto a rugby pitch for the first time, you wouldn’t have those instincts, so it’s purely experience. But is instinct ever used? I was in a meeting this week with the planners and conservation team. We had put 4 designs of a particular solution to them and they said they liked options 1 and 2, but they would like me to tell them which option I preferred. I had to read the room very quickly to make that right decision, and I made it.

I understand that not everyone has the same drive, or motivation, or ambition that I do and I do warn people that I can be exhausting…

You seem to have the ability to empathise with your clients well, read them and relate to them. 100%. I have to put myself in their position. I do it constantly. There is a perception that creatives can be temperamental, especially when their ideas are challenged and that can naturally put people’s backs up. If I ever have to say no, it will be because what has been proposed is a pretty silly thing to do. I do have to say no sometimes, because it would be irresponsible of me not to, but it’s quite rare. What’s more common is that you talk these things through and the client understands our way of thinking before we have to question anything. And that’s the positive of having those ongoing relationship, where that trust can be built. Absolutely. Trust is everything. Really everything.

As much as I would like to carry on this conversation, I think we’ve been beaten by time, but I’m conscious that you’ve managed to avoid me asking many questions about you, so it would be remiss to not give this a go before we end! So, let’s finish things up by asking you a classic interview question and put you on the spot. Please can you tell me 3 of your most positive, and 3 of your most negative traits. I can exhaust people. That was a quick answer – how do you exhaust them? I understand that not everyone has the same drive, or motivation, or ambition that I do and I do warn people that I can be exhausting…I am aware of that. You revealed a negative characteristic first. I would rather put myself in the other person’s position first…I think if someone comes to work here, that decision is more important for them than it is for us. I’m looking for somebody who really understands the culture of who we are so they will invest in the studio and at the same time, that we are the best for them and their career.

There are three main things that I do – I design, win work and recruit, but actually I should really put those around the other way – I recruit, I win work and I design, because who works for us defines us and that is the most important thing. We have a graduate program here where we employ 5 or 6 graduates every year. They will be with us for 1 or 2 years, then they go back to university before a few of them may come back to us again to do their diploma. We hope that from those original 5 or 6 students, 1 or even 2, if it’s a really good year, will go on and grow within the practice. We’ve been doing this for something like 15 years and now all of that development is beginning to flourish. They are now partners or at associate level. We have in the region of 50 people in the practice but I can’t remember the last time we employed anyone at a higher level because it’s all grown from within, we’re growing and developing a culture. Those individuals feel secure in what they’re doing, they feel happy in themselves and they can see a career progression. We can nurture them through that process and as a result, they become more effective so much quicker, because they’re investing in the studio and in themselves. Sorry, that’s got away from your question, hasn’t it? Yep, you deflected that pretty well. Ok, positives – I would say that I’m a good motivator. I like to think I inspire people. I employ my creativity intelligently. When you’re dealing with architecture, it’s as much function as creativity, so there is that push-pull. I’m not saying being creative isn’t intelligent, it is, but there’s a different sort of discipline with architecture which is more scientific. You need to have two sides of your brain working in harmony, the practical side of your brain working with the creative side of your brain. Those two need to meet in order to be successful and when that happens, the results can be truly magical.

From Now On

This book documents Hollaway’s inspirational buildings, brought alive by client testimonies. It reflects on where the practice has evolved from, where it finds itself today, and what the challenges of tomorrow demand of it – told in the words of those who make it what it was, is, and will become. Click here to purchase.