Pat Hanson of GH3
INTERVIEWER Sarah Fletcher
Architect Pat Hanson?s firm, gh3, is known for its stubbornly minimalist aesthetic and innovative public spaces; the firm?s projects include Edmonton?s Borden Park Pavilion, a number of residential constructions, and the as-yet unconstructed building enclosure for Waterfront  Toronto’s stormwater facility. We speak with Pat Hanson, winner of a Governor General?s Medal in Architecture, about her design philosophy and approach to business in a competitive landscape.
 
Borden Park Pavilion
Who are your inspirations"
We get our inspiration from all over the place. There are other architects we all greatly admire, like Sejima. Artists as well, certainly James Turell and Donald Judd?the central message of his work is something that we aspire to in the detailing of our buildings. There are the old Masters of course? everyone has a lot of reverence for Le Corbusier. Currently, one firm that gives us confidence to pursue the work the way that we do is Herzog and de Meuron, because they are a very conceptually-based firm. Their buildings have a really strong idea. Whether it comes from the site or whether it comes from an idea of program, it really is a kind of distillation of an idea expressed through an architectural form.
Borden Park Pavilion
Would you say your work has a strong conceptual element"
Most of the projects do. We completed one a couple of years ago called Borden Park Pavilion, in Edmonton. It?s locate...