Vision
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Philosophy
Praxis is the putting of theory into practice, akin to bringing ideas to life or realising dreams. We are interested in reality not virtual reality; the actual experience of architecture more than its representation; the tectonic, tactile, environmental and acoustic qualities of a building not only the visual. We appreciate durability, practicality and robustness, not only slick design and sharp edges. We are interested in the utility and usefulness of designed works. Client requirements are our starting point. Our work is noted for its sense of humanism, the maintenance of appropriate scale. Our work is honest. Our buildings are robust yet structurally ingenious. We engage with the landscape as a critical point in a design. The building or intervention is a frame through which each user appreciates and interacts with the landscape. Each moment, each frame enables a particular design opportunity. Our architecture creates poetry in its connection to landscape. Poetry in the use of materials. Poetry in engagement with cultural preconditions. Poetry in the use of geometry. We use materials as a creative tool, questioning their traditional use, thinking of new or different ways to use known products. We understand a site’s history, values and local archetypes. Geometry is used as a tool to structure and organise ideas, allowing a building design to develop with integrity. Beauty and patterns are used to create a sense of refuge, safety and comfort. Visual and aesthetic sensibilities, spatial and tectonic qualities, proportions, the play of light and shade, juxtaposition of mass and textures, the relationship of exterior and interior, the characteristics of materials, construction methods, issues of sustainability, environmental performance, durability, flexibility and change, all form part of the design process, informing the outcome. We are immersed in a continuous cycle of research & development, of use and feedback, of contemplation, reflection and the injection of new ideas. We are committed to the highest standards of excellence in design and of project realisation and delivery. In her The Human Condition, Hanna Arendt argues that Western philosophy too often has focused on the contemplative life (vita contemplativa) and has neglected the active life (vita activa). This has led humanity to frequently miss much of the everyday relevance of philosophical ideas to real life. Consequently Arendt calls praxis the highest and most important level of the active life.
Sustainability
The sustainability of our modern civilisation in harmony with the natural environment is perhaps the most pressing issue of our time. Our work is directly aimed at addressing the dilemma of the insatiable demand of society for more, greater, bigger, better, faster, higher, newer, and more. We aim to keep our environmental impact to a minimum. Our work aims to preserve and re-use as much as possible, as generally the cost in terms of resources is much greater if one demolishes and builds new or starts afresh. New-built and alterations and additions are done limiting the resources needed using efficient solutions and materials. We minimize active cooling and heating to lower energy consumption and costs. We use passive building design techniques such as building orientation, spatial zoning, thermal mass, insulation, natural ventilation and shading. Our buildings use solar hot water and on-site photovoltaic electrical energy generation. Where possible we use local materials with low embedded energy. Our buildings collect natural rainwater, store the runoff, and re-use it as possible. We design in tune with the cultural values of a place and so that the project endures. In cities such as Sydney which have a high pace of cultural change, we consider and embrace future scenarios for the city. In rapidly developing countries such as Uruguay, we design with a broader scope than that for which the project is intended initially so that the work does not become rapidly redundant. We design for flexibly in use so that over time a building or site can be easily modified to accommodate change, updates and new technology. Changes in an economic or political environment can easily make a building redundant. Rapidly rising land values can quickly make new uses more appropriate, so we anticipate these development scenarios in the life-cycle of a building and its adaptability, or alternatively its removability. We also design for durability and endurance, so that carefully crafted work and valuable investment can last. When intergenerational statements are required, the passage of property, of the solidity of the State, we design with meticulous care and dedicated responsibility. We think globally and act locally. For every specific site or project we draw upon our wealth of experience and connection around the world.
Ecologies
The word Ecology is formed from the Greek words “οἶκος,” meaning "house", or "environment", and “λογία”, meaning "study of”. This underscores the intimate and historic connection between habitation, ecology and environment. Each house (habitation) or other work that we design sits within a local environment with its own specific ecology. Le Corbusier said that a house is a machine for living in. Our view rather is that the house is habitat, ecology or environment in which to live. Machines are not places for people to live. In undertaking any design we seek to understand the specific local ecology of a site. We have undertaken work in desert environments, beachside and harbourside locales, high density inner urban and downtown areas, rural locales, suburban sprawl, mountain tops, and others. Within these specific ecologies we study any natural forces which can be harnessed, or alternately which must be addressed. We study how to make the internal environment of any building we design within these ecologies most suitable to human habitation and the intended use of the building. We seek to understand what assets and challenges the environment offers. Sydney is a complex city with many micro-ecologies, cultural and natural. Our manner of design is finely tuned to each specific site and sub-cultural context. Australian ecologies are widely varied, from desert to mountain to coastal. Sydney sits at the 34th latitude south as does Montevideo in Uruguay. Hence climatic aspects are quite similar. The eucalyptus tree, which derives from Australia, is abundant in Uruguay and considered a national tree. Wattles & acacia are likewise abundant. Similar design solutions are offered in both former English and Spanish colonies at the 34th latitude south. Barrett Pinet in their work draw upon this vast repository of common environmental knowledge.
Placemaking
Barrett Pinet's approach has been developed over more than 30 years of the practice and research of architecture in Australia, Uruguay, Britain, Italy, France, Japan, the United States and other countries. Directors Roger Barrett and Danielle Pinet's education, training and their experience living and working in the metropolises of Sydney, Montevideo, London, Paris, Venice, Tokyo, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, New York and Los Angeles underpin their practice which is now embraces both Oceania and Latin America. Each one of the places in which they have lived, studied, and for which they have designed has a unique climate, geography and history. Roger Barrett and Danielle Pinet's experiences have trained them not to take anything for granted and not to have preconceived ideas when approaching a design project. Barrett Pinet asks questions and analyses conditions to be able to understand the specific problems and opportunities. Every corner, every street, neighbourhood, city or region and every individual client, group or community has its own specific characteristics and requirements. These differences are unique to each place. With this background and geographic spread Barrett Pinet is dedicated to placemaking. With the globalisation of culture arising from the explosive growth of the internet, modern media and mass long distance travel Barrett Pinet is dedicated to placemaking. With the widespread adoption of consistent architectural idioms and technologies leading to placelessness in the built environment, Barrett Pinet is dedicated to placemaking. Barrett Pinet now maintains offices and representatives in Sydney, Australia, and Montevideo and Punta del Este in Uruguay.
Sydney, Australia is the hometown of Barrett Pinet Principal Roger Barrett. Barrett Pinet's Australian projects have included alterations, houses, apartment buildings, art galleries, public buildings and urban design projects.
Aboriginal civilization on the continent Terra Australis preceded European settlement for a period of as many as 70,000 years. The arrival of Europeans changed forever a fragile landscape inhabited by an enduring sustainable society.
A theory of the Portuguese discovery of Terra Australis in the 1520s exists today. The Dutch ship, Duyfken, led by Willem Janszoon, made the first documented European landing on the continent in 1606. That same year, a Spanish expedition sailing in nearby waters and led by Pedro Fernandes de Queirós had landed in the New Hebrides and, believing them to be the fabled southern continent, named the land "Austrialia del Espiritu Santo" (Southern Land of the Holy Spirit). Later that year, Queirós' deputy Luís Vaz de Torres sailed to the north of Australia through the Torres Strait, along New Guinea's southern coast.
The eastern coast of Australia was charted by Britain’s James Cook in 1770, and subsequently in 1788 the first British colony in Sydney harbour was established in by its founding Governor Arthur Phillip (1738–1814), who had been appointed in 1786 by British Royal Navy as a captain to lead the expedition to the New World.
In 1774, prior to his Royal Navy posting, Arthur Phillip had joined the Portuguese Navy as a captain, serving in the War against Spain where he commanded a frigate, the Nossa Senhora do Pilar. On this ship he took a detachment of troops from Rio de Janiero to Colonia do Sacramento in present-day Uruguay, on the Rio de la Plata opposite Buenos Aires, to relieve the garrison there. This voyage also conveyed a consignment of convicts assigned to carry out work at Colonia. During a storm encountered in the course of the voyage, the convicts assisted in working the ship and, on arrival at Colonia, Phillip recommended that they be rewarded for saving the ship by remission of their sentences.
In his later posting to Sydney, in the same manner Arthur Phillip freed convicts transported from England to its southern prison settlement, who then became free settlers of the new land.
The Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed in 1901. The firm rule of English law had laid the foundation for the vibrant multicultural society we know as Australia today. Meanwhile, the continent’s indigenous population continues to struggle for full recognition by the modern Australian state. With very high rates of immigration from successively different places of origin Sydney has expanded rapidly to become a leading post-colonial global metropolis, the major western city in Asia, a city in which more than 100 languages are spoken.
Large Uruguayan, South American and Latin communities exist in Australia. The Uruguayan flag is one of the few foreign flags to have flown atop the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge, emblematic of shared colonial experiences and deep common respect. Opened in 1988 as a Bicentennial project, Sydney's Plaza Ibero Americana began as an idea to acknowledge the contribution of Spanish and Portuguese-speaking people to the history of Australia.
Montevideo, Uruguay is the hometown of Barrett Pinet Principal Danielle Pinet. Barrett Pinet's Latin American projects have included houses, apartment buildings, hotels, schools, laboratories, research stations, sports facilities and clubhouses. The first inhabitants of Uruguay before European colonization were the Charrua, a small Indian tribe driven south by the Guarani of Paraguay, one of numerous indigenous groups on the South American continent.
The first permanent settlement on the territory of present-day Uruguay was founded by the Spanish in 1624 at Soriano on the Río Negro. In 1669-71, the Portuguese built a fort at Colonia del Sacramento. Montevideo was founded 1724 by the Spanish in the early as a military stronghold; its natural harbour soon developed into a commercial center competing with Buenos Aires.
Uruguay's early 19th century history was shaped by ongoing fights between the British, Spanish, Portuguese, and colonial forces for dominance in the La Plata basin. In 1806 and 1807, the British (enemies of Spain in the Napoleonic Wars) launched the British invasions of the Rio de la Plata. Buenos Aires was invaded in 1806, and then liberated by forces from Montevideo. A new and stronger attack in 1807 aimed to Montevideo first, which was occupied by a 10,000-strong British force. The British forces were unable to invade Buenos Aires a second time, and so gave up their attacks over Spanish territories when the Peninsular War turned Britain and Spain into allies against Napoleon.
Jose Artigas (1764–1850) is the principal national hero of Uruguay, sometimes called the "father of Uruguayan nationhood". In 1811 Artigas launched a successful revolt against Spain, defeating the Spanish. In 1814 he formed the Liga Federal (Federal League) of which he was declared Protector.
The steady growth of influence and prestige of the Federal League frightened the Portuguese government, which did not want the League's republicanism to spread to the adjoining Portuguese colony of Brazil. The perceived threat was even greater because since 1808 the Portuguese court had been seated in Rio de Janiero, having fled Europe in the wake of the occupation of Portugal by Napoleon's forces. In 1816, forces from Brazil invaded the Eastern Province, with the intention of destroying the Protector and his revolution. In 1817 they occupied Montevideo, and finally after struggling for three years in the countryside, defeated Artigas. In 1821, the Eastern Province of the Rio de la Plata (present-day Uruguay) was annexed by Brazil. In response, in 1825 the Thirty-Three Orientals declared independence supported by the United Provinces of the River Plate (present-day Argentina). This led to the 500-day Cisplatine War in which neither side gained the upper hand.
In 1828 the Treaty of Montevideo, fostered by Britain, gave birth to Uruguay as an independent state. The nation's first constitution was adopted on July 18, 1830.
Today Uruguay is one of the world's most progressive democratic nations, often referred to as the "Switzerland of South America", and Montevideo the gem of the Americas.
