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Sydney’s architectural community recently lost one of its brightest young participants. Ben Hewett and Maryam Gusheh remember their cheeky, energetic and committed friend and colleague.
Belinda Andre Brito was tragically killed in
a car accident in the early morning of
Tuesday 20 December 2005.
Belinda studied architecture at the
University of New South Wales from 1991
to 1996. In 1994 she participated in an
exchange programme at McGill University
in Montreal, Canada, taking part in Alberto
Perez-Gomez’s studio. During her education
in Sydney she worked in the offices of
Bruce Rickard and Graeme Hewett.
Upon graduating, Belinda worked with
Sam Marshall in Sydney, and also
developed a relationship with Julie
Cracknell and Peter Lonergan, before
relocating to Portugal. She spent some time
in her parents’ home town of Santa Barbara
de Nexe, designing a number of (unrealized)
houses in the area, before moving to Lisbon
to work. Upon her return to Sydney,
Belinda worked with Allen Jack + Cottier
and then established her own practice in
2000. Belinda starting teaching at UNSW in
2001 and was appointed lecturer in
architecture in 2003. In this capacity she
made a significant contribution to the
coordination and teaching of the core
design studios, working both at first year
and final year levels. In 2005 she played an
important role in the administration of the
design stream, assisting Michael Tawa in
his coordination of undergraduate design
education at UNSW. Charles Rice and
Maryam Gusheh worked closely with
Belinda at UNSW and accompanied her on
many off-campus lunches!
Belinda is deeply loved by family and
friends. The loss to her parents and
extended family is immeasurable. Over
thirteen years Belinda and I formed a very
close relationship – she was my greatest
friend, design partner and soul mate.
Belinda slipped into the folds of my family
with an ease and totality, becoming an
inseparable wife, daughter and sister.
Wherever Be was, she brought love, laughter
and joy and gave generously of her intellect,
spirit and physical being.
Belinda was highly creative, pursuing not
only architecture, but also painting,
photography, dance, film-making and, with
an ever-increasing talent, cooking (every
meal was an event to cherish!). Her first solo
exhibition, Flesh, in Sydney, 2002,
demonstrated a beautiful control of colour
and form, treading a line between the
figurative and the abstract. To witness her in
the creative act was inspirational – so very
present and engaged, she achieved a
freedom in simply being. It is with good
reason she was known as “Be”.
In her architecture Belinda designed for
the moments of being. How these moments
might organize space, or, how space could
be structured around a series of events,
intimacies, relationships and possibilities.
We worked on a number of architectural
projects together, learning from each other’s
process, and relishing our complementary
strengths. It was a fulfilling creative
relationship that would have continued to
grow and develop.
Belinda was an intelligent and critical
teacher, yet approachable and generous to
all she worked with, students and
colleagues alike. She invested a huge
amount of time in her teaching and
students, part of her strong commitment to
making a difference in all that she did.
There was very little sitting back and talking
about it; Belinda got in there and did it!
I will miss conversations with Belinda.
The enthusiasm for a beautiful piece of art
or music; the critique of and joy in
architecture; the planning of a meal; the
appreciation of a simple moment … She had
an easy laugh, effortless style, a cheeky
manner and a smile that lit up my world.
Her boundless energy, her rigorous and
demanding approach to all she did, and
above all her tremendous passion, will
continue to live and to inspire.
BEN HEWETT IS BELINDA BRITO’S HUSBAND AND
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR AT CRONE PARTNERS ARCHITECTURE STUDIOS.
When I think of Belinda, I think of the first
time we taught together. We sat in the front
row, during a screening of Wim Wenders’
1994 film, Lisbon Story. Together we
watched the sound engineer, Philip Winters,
meander through the streets of Lisbon,
filling in the missing sounds for a silent
film. He searched for the ambience of the
place, capturing the character of the city
through sound. Belinda had set Winters as
the client for her first year studio
programme, asking the students to design a
home for this sound maker. Beautifully shot,
the film offered an alluring urban portrait of
Lisbon – a city Belinda loved and knew well
– presenting the urban fabric as the spatial
support for everyday events and human
relations. Belinda talked and taught about
architecture tangentially, often through film,
music, painting and cuisine – architecture
as a frame for the pleasures that life brings.
Belinda and I studied architecture during
the early 1990s at UNSW and met again as
academics within the same institution. She
was a vital and much adored friend. I last
saw her the day before the accident. We
talked about the new year, her plans to
undertake a masters degree in Barcelona, to
organize a tour of Alvaro Siza’s work in July
and restructure the second year design
programme. We organized to have lunch
later that week. On her way out she stopped
by my office door, “See you Mazz”, big
smile, and she left with her laptop on her
back. And then she was gone.
She is so present in my thoughts. I think
of her at work, so vibrant and energetic and
so vital to the place; of how respected she
was. I think of her generosity with all her
students who thought the world of her.
I think of her fast pace, as she walked up
and down those corridors, looking very cool
and beautifully asymmetrical. I think of her
problematic propensity towards
procrastination and perfectionism! I think
of her artfulness and interest in the details
and particularities of things; I think of her
strong resonating voice, her humour, wit
and humility, her reserve and gentle shyness
and I think of what was to come and the
wonder that the architectural community
in Sydney has lost.
And then I think of all that she meant
to me and how desperately I will miss
her, always.
MARYAM GUSHEH IS A LECTURER AT THE
UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES AND A CLOSE
FRIEND AND COLLEAGUE OF BELINDA BRITO.
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