Ahead of the Times: sl Collective's Gillian Shaffer Lutsko on an Amorphous Practice and Being Brave
By Julia Gamolina
Gillian Shaffer Lutsko is principal of sl Collective, an emerging architecture and design firm based in Los Angeles. sl Collective is a new model for expanded and scalable practice, formed by a group of individuals who work globally and across scales, media and platforms. Before founding her practice, Gillian worked at architecture offices in Berlin, Tokyo, Boston, and New York City.
Her design work has been supported by international organizations and has been exhibited in La Biennale di Venezia (2014), the Seoul International Biennale (2017), as well as several galleries in New York. Recent design work and critical writings have appeared in Project Journal for Architecture, CARTHA, POOL Magazine, the Doe, and the Antarctic Pavilion Catalog. She has previously taught at the Pratt Institute and UCLA Architecture & Urban Design. In her interview with Julia Gamolina, Gillian talks about her experiences abroad and how they’ve shaped her global, collaborative practice. She advises those just starting their careers to be brave and put themselves in situations where they can learn.
JG: How did you grow up, and how did your interest in architecture first develop?
GSL: My parents lived in different states, so I grew up flying between Los Angeles and Tucson. Travel was a big part of my childhood, and I think there’s an aspect to me as an adult where I strive to live in flux and to see cities from a distance and from new perspectives.
In school I was always interested in being creative, whether it was playwriting in theater, dark room photography, or drawing and painting. My mother is an aerospace engineer, and wanted me to go into STEM. I applied to architecture programs on a bit of a whim, thinking of architecture as a hybrid of the arts and sciences. Once I got to New York I fell in love with the field pretty much immediately.
What did you learn about yourself in studying it?
Architecture pedagogy was a puzzle we all had to crack, and there was so much to learn. In my first semester, I became fascinated by the theory of architecture, and I ended up minoring in Visual & Critical Studies in Philosophy so I could take more classes. As much as the studio culture of all-nighters is problematic, it was an adrenaline rush to be surrounded by so many people who are so passionate about the work. Also, I interned for three years at Suckerpunch, which exposed me to the breadth of work going on in the field.
Elevation of Porte de Namur Pavilion in Brussels, Belgium. The building in the background is an abandoned chocolate factory. Photo: sl Collective, courtesy of private client.
Site Plan Concept of River Woods. Photo: sl Collective
How did you get your start in the field?
I did the Berlin study-abroad program at Pratt through the ANCB Metropolitan Laboratory, and knew that I wanted to see the world through architecture. Initially I interned at LAVA in Berlin, then went to work for Jürgen Mayer H. after graduating. Working for Jürgen was a formative experience, he really set an example for how to grow a practice and how to evolve the practice alongside a team of talented architects, which is a testament to how well the office is run. It was a fun time to be surrounded by so many visionary people from different countries, working together to realize projects that push the envelope. Afterwards, I spent some time working at Junya Ishigami’s office in Tokyo, which pushed me to learn craft and wabi-sabi, in both construction and representation.
“I believe that you cannot have one — practice or research — without the other.”
I love that. We could all learn to embrace and accept transience and imperfection more in our lives and work. With this in mind, walk me through your career steps and key milestones.
After Japan I went to graduate school at Princeton. Since I was an undergraduate, I’d been attracted to the program for how small it is and for its emphasis on history and theory. Also the faculty — Sylvia Lavin, who I read my first semester of college, co-advised my thesis, and I got to work with Beatriz Colomina on Liquid La Habana, an exhibition on modernist architecture in Cuba.
I always knew that I wanted to start my own practice eventually, but was missing more technical knowledge, so after Princeton I worked for Eric Howeler and Meejin Yoon in Boston. They’re building a lot right now, and at the same time they’re very conscious of the impacts their projects have on society. Meejin being the head of MIT at the time, and now the Dean at Cornell, and Eric being a Professor at Harvard GSD, the practice is also grounded in academia, where a lot of the research behind their projects comes to fruition. I admire Eric and Meejin for the work they do both in academia and in the profession, and also I believe that you cannot have one — practice or research — without the other.
In 2019, I moved to the west coast to teach in the IDEAS program at UCLA Architecture & Urban Design. Knowing that I wanted to teach and start a practice, teaching at UCLA was a great springboard to get started from.
Rendering of the Salton Sea Facility for Climate Research. Photo: sl Collective
Talking about models at a final review at UCLA Architecture & Urban Design. Photo: David Jimenez Iniesta
Tell me about your practice. Where are you in your career today?
I started my professional practice about a year ago, a few months before the pandemic hit. Like for everyone, it was a scary time — I was just starting to think about questions of identity and what kind of work to do when everything went into lockdown. It felt very sink or swim. Fortunately after a few months re-orienting myself I was able to get commissions, starting with a 45-square-meter addition in Brussels. Right now we’re working on two ground-up projects for a school in Mexico, a research initiative doing master-planning in the Coachella Valley and an extension to a house here in LA that addresses densification.
Wow! That’s quite global for a young practice.
One of the lessons of 2020 was the acceleration of remote work and how easy it is to collaborate and work globally. As a young practice, I’ve tried to look at this as an opportunity to cast a wide net in search of projects. It’s also made it easier for me to scale the practice up and down as needed. Many of these projects have been collaborations with my close friends Paul Ruppert and Kai Liao, who are based in New York City, and I also previously collaborated with remote interns last summer.
More and more of these flexible collaborations are coming up. In addition to Paul and Kai, who else are you admiring right now and why?
There are a lot of European architects doing great work at the moment — Sandy Attia and Matteo Scagnol of MoDus, Barrozzi Veiga, Anne Holtrop, LCLA, Buchner Bründler, Inches Geleta. I don’t feel the same freedom to explore ideas through building or design with as much purity as they do in Europe or South America. But that’s something I’d like to see happen more in the United States.
Architecture firms are also businesses, so I admire the work of female entrepreneurs in related professions, like the graphic designer Jessica Walsh of &Walsh and the industrial designer Sabine Marcelis.
“...architecture is behind the times, and I think the field is still grappling with how to deal with the contemporary moment— socially, technologically and environmentally. This is exciting though; it leaves a lot of room for
rethinking and creativity, especially by young firms.”
Looking back at it all, what have been the biggest challenges? How did you manage through a disappointment or a perceived setback?
Since my mom was such a strong role model and always made me feel like women can achieve anything, it was a surprise to me to arrive at offices where there were very few women, and where it can be difficult to make yourself heard. As a woman, you can feel like you have to be twice as competent and twice as professional just to get the same space and respect as your male colleagues. I’m still learning how to navigate these situations and find my voice in meetings and at the construction site. I don’t think there’s an easy answer to these situations, other than to stay confident in yourself and in the value of the contributions that you bring.
Who else helped make sl Collective what it is today? How?
One thing I always knew was important to me was to have collaborative working models. I’ve had really productive working relationships with clients so far — public policy advocates, other designers, and a philanthropist — which has made the projects feel much more like collaborations than me simply providing a service. That’s been really important for me starting out, participating in shared learning experiences.
I should also mention all of the great mentors and role-models I’ve had along the way: Sylvia Lavin, Monica Ponce de Leon, Dagmar Richter, Meejin Yoon. There are many others too, of course. And finally, I have to mention my father, who passed away before I moved to New York to study. He didn’t go to college, but ran a very successful business, and has always been an inspiration for me in terms of taking chances and dreaming big, figuring out what you need to know, while also having fun and enjoying life.
Inside KAIT, Kanagawa Institute of Technology, Junya Ishigami + Associates. Photo: Mathilde Redouté
2020 was the year of Zoom lectures. Photo: Ways of Seeing Green, The Cooper Union
What is the impact you’d like to have on the world? What is your core mission?
I want to build public, cultural buildings. For me this means improving the quality of public and civic spaces, especially to make them more inclusive, equitable and sustainable. In some ways, architecture is behind the times, and I think the field is still grappling with how to deal with the contemporary moment — socially, technologically and environmentally. This is exciting though; it leaves a lot of room for rethinking and creativity, especially by young firms.
I often also think about how the historical model of the architect that combines the solo white, male master-builder with the dream carte blanche commission is so far from today. It’s much messier now in terms of looking at different angles — cost, planning, land acquisition — to get at architecture. There’s much more strategy involved. My vision of practice is more amorphous, working as independently or closely as needed, across projects, scales, countries, technologies, and construction platforms.
Finally, what advice do you have for those starting their career? Would your advice be any different for women?
Be brave. If there’s something you want to do, go for it. This could mean living and working in foreign countries, applying for educational programs, starting a practice in the midst of a global pandemic, or gaining experience working on a particular type of project. There’s a lot of reward in feeling uncomfortable and being in situations where there is a lot to learn. Another thing I constantly remind myself is that all good things take time. Don’t burn out. It’s important to put systems in place that allow you to work more efficiently, with more uninterrupted focus for imagination and live-work balance. Architecture moves slowly. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.