With his Light Tech approach Richard Horden aimes at creating a style of architecture without weight, open and light. He draws his inspiration from yachts, aircrafts and cars whose forms are not burdened by tradition and history as the forms of architecture are, rather they are determined by the fast-moving development of technology. This also influences Richard Horden’s designs which range from the design of furniture to residential buildings, office buildings and bridges.

This monograph is the first comprehensive study to be devoted to the wide spectrum of Richard Horden’s oeuvre, it shows how the opening of space as introduced by Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe were continued by Richard Horden to create a new architecture characterised by mobility, openness and transparency.

For Richard Horden technology is the means by which to realise a highly profound concept centering on man and his relationship with nature. Horden no longer takes as his point of reference the ’Foster-like’ technocratic helicopters or gliders that slip silently through the air Instead, he Js influenced by the wind generator, whose light blades, free of friction, capture energy from the tightest breath of air Better stiff he turns to the Tornado, the sophisticated Olympic catamaran that races, faster than the wind, carrying its crew between the spray of water and the whistle of an unmistakably friendly breeze.

Nowadays, it is no longer acceptable for technology to estrange man from Nature in the name of what is presumed to be progress. It makes more sense to use it to improve the quality of life by reconciling man with his environment and bringing him closer to the elements. To this end Horden transfers the potential of what the world of technology can offer to architecture into a deliberate search for an emblematic lightness.

The question that he often asks, "How much does" it weigh?", reveals his yearning for a freedom which only a light architecture, easy to put together and dismantle, but above aft transportable, can give. This emphasis is seen clearly in the SkiHaus, a habitable module, so light that it can be moved by helicopter and temporarily installed on the untouched ridges of a mountain as a place to stay or experience, even for a weekend, Nature at its remotest.

Whether applied to the vast field of design or architecture, Richard Horden’s ’think light’ approach opens to a society ruled by mobility and transitoriness, new avenues and new perspectives.

introduction

towards a light architecture

micro architecture

experimental technology transfer

aerodynamics and architecture

waterside structures

london projects

poole projects

house studies

appendix