I will start this talk with a loose definition, a very short story and some questions that we frequently think about.

A LOOSE DEFINITION

In a literary piece, a motif is a recurrent image or form that develops or explains a theme, while a theme is a central idea or message.

Can this be said about an architectural work? Can it be said about our work?

A VERY SHORT STORY

In 1953, philosopher Isaiah Berlin suggested – half mockingly – that one can divide writers and thinkers into two categories: Hedgehogs, who view the world through the lens of a single defining idea (e.g. Ibsen), and foxes, who draw on a wide variety of experiences and for whom the world cannot be boiled down to a single idea (e.g. Shakespeare).

SOME QUESTIONS

Does this division apply to architects? Is there a recurring theme in the production of Manthey Kula? And if so, are there motifs used to support this theme? To sum up: Is Manthey Kula a hedgehog or a fox?

I understand these questions as relating to architectural temperament, and today I will not argue for an answer. However, it might be an interesting lens to apply looking at the five projects I will share with you.

As for the title of the lecture series, The Art of Analysis, I must come with a confession:

We at Mathey Kula have no formulated analytical method that we make use of in our work. We interpret, we associate, we let ourselves be inspired. We search and we recognize, we do not research.

We work with rather small projects where the architectural challenge is not in the organization of complex functions or solution of large constructions, but rather to give form to, and make sense of, programs where neither sense nor form is evident.

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Beate Hølmebakk visited the Royal Danish Academy for the international lecture series The Art of Analysis on May 6, 2021. Watch the entire lecture with Beate Hølmebakk here