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Architect Profile

Richard Stretton: Buy Design

Richard Stretton is Koop. A lekker word for a shop and a range – one that morphed into a brand and a service.Why Koop? Richard shrugs.

‘Same reason we designed a bed called “Slaap”. Just liked the words.’ More philosophically, ‘The word Koop played on the co-op concept. Much of the strength of what we do comes from collaboration; our best work is collaborative. Ideas are ideas, but the realisation of them revolves around the quality and complexity of relationships forged.’

Like Mr Wilkinson, the woodwork teacher at prep. Richard lays a fair amount of his happy baggage at his feet. ‘He was a phenomenon. I wasn’t much good, but I loved it.’ A grin. ‘I remember we had to make a mortise and tenon joint and, based on the quality of that, he’d decide what product you could make. I wanted the stool, but my poor joint sentenced me to the turned lamp-stand. I was heartbroken.’ Richard appealed, redid it, and stool it was.

Even in high school, Richard spent afternoons in the woodwork shop. ‘I always loved using tools and making stuff. When I went to ’varsity and began designing, it felt strange because you become detached from the process.’

Richard studied architecture at Durban’s University of Natal, with a reputation ‘as a guy who mucked around’. A grimace. ‘It sticks, and they don’t forgive you.’ And while he acknowledges the influence of archi-legends such as Barry Bierman, Brian Kearney, Derek van Heerden, and Len Rosenberg, he believes the real value lies in the strength of the student community. ‘You make the most amazing friends, and you teach and learn from each other.’

Richard’s convinced that teachers enter your life when you’re ready to learn. That’s repeatedly been his experience. ‘I went to London for my prac. year when there were no jobs there, but thanks to my dad’s contacts, I was soon working in an architectural practice with a brand-new Apple Mac – size of a room – which nobody else knew how to use.’ The entire year was inspirational. ‘I met amazing people who made me think a little more about what I did and how I did it.’

He returned to Durban fired up to complete his degree, but nothing prepared him for his dad’s death, running his dad’s practice (with projects in Pietermaritzburg), and juggling his studies. He developed a strong dislike for architecture as a profession, fled the scene, and spent two years travelling. ‘I ended up washing dishes in a restaurant in Australia, chosen not only because the chef was amazing, but because I’d long felt the need to walk in somebody else’s shoes. I’d grown up a privileged white boy.’

And yes, Richard cooks. ‘That’s my other side, and there’s a small fantasy I’ll do that at some point. I’m about to buy an oven and learn how to bake,’ he confesses. In five years, maybe I’ll have a small boutique bakery... .’

On his return to SA, Richard messed about, searching for something of substance. He found it: a developer who’d formed a developer-community partnership for a lodge at Lake Sibaya, a government initiative directed at developing community-based tourism. Richard spent 18 months living in a remote community on the lake shore: ‘We employed local people, trained them, and built two camps by hand, one without electricity or generator, the other with hand tools.’ And he started crafting furniture, which laid the foundation for a future back in Durban.

Richard worked with wood. Operating out of his mother’s garage – together with a partner – he built up a workshop and began designing kitchens, even nightclubs. ‘We were cheaper, offered more value, so we got the work.’ Next step, a shop, Koop, selling his furniture, a venture he pursued until it had run its course. He’d been gradually working towards his goal: a design reputation and design work, before architecture. He liquidated that life, and began another.

Richard met Angela, his wife, in 2000. Now with two young children, a home, and the studio in the grounds, they work synergistically as Koop: architecture, bespoke furniture, and now, finally, a furniture range. ‘It was always the intention to do that. Over years of developing product for projects, I now have some furniture I feel is good enough to be reproduced and put out there in the marketplace.’

Richard has a reputation for responsible architecture. Dare one say green? He grimaces. ‘There’s nothing new about the green thing. It’s called “building science”, and we were taught it at varsity. I remember Jo Noero’s take on this at a recent UIA conference. Words to the effect of, “I don’t know what you people think is going on around here, but if you’re only standing up now and saying you’re green, you’ve been irresponsible. This is not green design, it’s sensible design. Relevant design. A building should be designed to respond to its environment, end of story. It took a major global movement for us to implement ideas we were taught as students and thought we were too clever to do. It’s unforgivable”.’

Richard, too, takes no prisoners: ‘It boils down to poor design and not paying attention to what’s going on. Being more interested in the self than the product. All of those things that undermine good design.’

He’s not finished. ‘What about “vernacular”? The “Durban Verandah House”? “Tuscan style”? Forget it. Vernacular’s not a style – it’s a language derived from place.’

One of Richard’s most satisfying projects to date has been the Dalton Private Reserve, near Mooi River: ‘Dalton has a vernacular - we’ve developed architecture there that comes out of that place, colours are drawn from the landscape, materials from the environment, and methodologies from the people who live and work there. The end result is a building technique and a look derived from the place.’ This project encompassed both architecture and furniture, and the Dalton range – designed by Richard and crafted by a newly skilled team of carpenters – will be marketed and project-managed through Koop.

Richard describes Koop’s current challenge as their most inspiring project: to be one of a group of design teams appointed to upgrade Durban’s Beachfront along the new pedestrian promenade from Ushaka to the Moses Mabhida Stadium. He’s immensely proud of this commission: ‘Public work is the biggest compliment you can be offered as a designer, and I take it very seriously.’ Simultaneously, and subject to final approvals – as architects of Moyo at Ushaka – they’ll be working on Moyo’s long-awaited pier building. A grin. ‘There’s a chance we’ll be building two buildings on Durban’s beach front within 500 metres of each other.’

When it comes to a design ethos – furniture, architecture, product – Richard is crystal clear: ‘The more you see yourself as a servant of the project over everything else, the stronger you’ll be. It’s not about the designer, the manufacturer, even the client. It’s about the product. It’s a vital thing to get your head around.’

In February 2009, Koop was recognised simultaneously for design excellence for furniture (Pretty Filly Bench) and architecture (Assegay House).  

Koop Design,+27 (0)31 303 3922 l www.koopdesign.co.za