BIOGRAPHY
Alexis Dornier was born in Germany in 1981, where he grew up under the constant influence of the aviation industry.
Dornier studied architecture at the Berlin University of the Arts after which he relocated to New York City to work as an architectural designer for Asymptote Architecture, OMA-NY and Rex between 2004-2007.
2013 marked a radical shift in Dornier’s life and career, when he decided to leave his western life behind and relocate to Ubud Bali where he began consulting on locally designed and built architectural projects. What began as architectural consultancy quickly evolved into wholistic, independent project designs of his own, with a rapidly growing body of work across the Balinese landscape. Dornier is now based in Ubud, working both locally and internationally on a mixture of residential and commercial projects.
PHILOSOPHY
The philosophy behind Alexis Dornier’s architecture is to combine and reformulate design methods for each architectural design task. An architectural task is its own case, its own matter, problem and affair. A set of rules form a logical and comprehensive design narrative that leads to efficiency and a strong expression of our built environment.
Dornier’s architectural projects endeavour to formulate a design aesthetic that mediates between elements of tropical modernism and industrial architecture with an underlying ambition for formal and tectonic innovation. This design aesthetic is realised through an iterative design process and careful selection of locally available natural materials, spatially composed to respond to the site and natural setting in which they are placed.
TECTONICS
Tectonics, in its essence, is the activity that raises construction to a form of art. In this regard, Alexis Dornier’s projects are driven by structural and formal exploration; by the studio’s desire to push the limits of its own tropical-tectonic language. This comes hand in hand with the ambition to amplify the experience of the landscape through architectonic design.
MADE IN BALI
The Studio’s projects are designed within the tropical, forested hills of Ubud, Bali’s cultural epicenter. Practicing architecture in the tropics and especially in a place like Bali, Inspires us on a daily basis and also reminds us to slow down and appreciate the importance of balance and well being.
With a team of talented, devoted architects and designers, the studio strives to explore new typologies, forms and structures while learning from the rich heritage and ‘know how’ embedded within the local vernacular architecture.