Some Kind of Joy: The Inside Story of Grimshaw in Twelve Buildings

In 2001, Sir Nicholas Grimshaw and his practice won the architectural competition for the design of EMPAC. Throughout the building’s construction, the collaboration between Grimshaw Architects, now just Grimshaw, and Rensselaer was very close in all details of this extraordinary project.

Some Kind of Joy: The Inside Story of Grimshaw in Twelve Buildings, directed by Sam Hobkinson, revisits key projects from the history of this renowned architectural practice. From Sir Nicholas Grimshaw’s first scheme in 1967, through to the likes of Bath Spa, Southern Cross Station, the Eden Project, and Fulton Center, we hear first-hand from the people who bring these buildings to life, and show the inspiration, design, and occasional trials and tribulations of delivering out-of-the-ordinary buildings. EMPAC is featured in this documentary film as one of the 12 buildings. Please also reference the publicationThe Architecture of EMPAC: The Tangible and the Tantalizing by Mark Mistur with Johannes Goebel, distributed by ORO Editions, available online and at the box office of EMPAC.

William Horgan, partner at Grimshaw, introduced this screening and answered questions afterwards. He was the lead project architect of EMPAC, together with Andrew Whalley, Vincent Chang and Mark Husser, all partners in the New York office of Grimshaw.