Mind Map: Nicolas Zilliox
Architectural designer and certified passive house designer Nicolas Ziliox. Click through the gallery to see his Mind Map.
I found Barcelona to be a very inspiring place to visit for both the historical and the contemporary architecture.” says Zilliox. The Barcelona Pavilion by Spanish architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is his favourite building.
A favourite of Zilliox’s is the Bruder Klaus Field Chapel in Mechernich, designed by Peter Zumthor. It was built with a wigwam frame layered in concrete, then set on fire, leaving behind a hollowed, charred cavity and walls.
Zilliox shot this image at the opening of Japanese architect Shigeru Ban’s Centre Pompidou-Metz in France in 2010.
“The most-inspiring place I visited was Rome,” says Zilliox. “This is where I had a ‘revelation’ and decided that I wanted to be an architect.”
One of Zilliox’s favourite houses is Villa Boréale, a woodland cottage in Québec, Canada, designed by Cargo Architecture. It has a swing seat and a wood store built into its entrance.
This photograph of a streetscape in Porto was taken by Zilliox during a backpacking trip through Portugal.
“I lived in China for six months and took this image at the Forbidden City in Beijing.”
“I drew this sketch in one of the gardens of the Forbidden City in Beijing,” Zilliox explains.
We explore the creative mind of French native Nicolas Zilliox, a certified passive house designer who works at Parsonson Architects in Wellington.
French architectural designer Nicolas Ziliox studied architecture at the National School of Architecture of Nancy (ENSAN) in France. Inevitably, his homeland has had a huge impact on his approach to designing houses and his appreciation of design.
“I have a strong modernist vision of design, probably thanks to my training at the ENSAN. I am also always very interested by the history of the site or the past life of a building I am working on,” he says. He now lives in Wellington, which he calls “a very dynamic and inspiring place to live and that’s why I decided to move here”.
Currently, there are only 23 certified passive house designers in New Zealand and Zilliox is one of them. This involves passing a rigorous exam certified by the German Passive House Institute and requires sufficient knowledge to design and build highly energy-efficient homes. “Building sustainable houses is so important to me for multiple reasons,” says Zilliox.
“Climate change is one of the most difficult challenges humanity will face and everyone has a role to play. The building industry is a major source of pollution so, working within architecture, I have to be conscious that my choices can have an impact on our environment. Also, we all know that New Zealand has serious health and energy-related issues with housing. I have a daughter and I want her to grow up in healthy places – at home and at school. We have the knowledge and the tools to design and build better buildings for everyone. I want to associate beautiful design with high performance and low impact.”
In terms of inspiration, Zilliox especially loves the work of the modernist great Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, whose Barcelona Pavilion is a personal favourite, and is drawn to the Curtain Wall House by Shigeru Ban, Villa Boréale by Cargo Architecture, the Tropical House by Jean Prouvé and the Kaufmann House by Richard Neutra.
“Design and, more importantly, architecture never ends,” states Zilliox. “We must always challenge our ideas and beliefs.”
This article first appeared in Houses magazine.
