The Deck

In the Hudson Valley, New York, the “deck”, wryly nick-named during construction, adjoins a charming house in the country amidst a wonderful collection of structures in a beautiful garden.

A sloping site, limited roof height and the position of dormer windows meant a detached, separate building was necessary. This afforded the possibility to make something that, whilst part of the house, could have its own image—it could stand as a building in itself.

The roof line is mirrored from the house, the proportions reflected, and the overall form, whilst distinct from the house, borrows from the agricultural language of the area. The roof pitching north, and with large overhangs, provides ample shade from the summer sun. The structure, white oak, locally sourced and chosen for its robustness, maintains an appropriate image in its context, but one that is offset with a contemporary post and beam construction, avoiding pastiche, and allowing the building a permeability against the backdrop of the house itself and the landscape in which it sits. The stainless steel screens too, sitting flush within their openings, help articulate a translucency, whilst also being extremely durable. The galvanized roof helps to keep the space cool during warmer months. The white oak, stained below and left natural above, together with the shimmering screens and roof, create contrast and juxtapose the house. And yet time shall pass, the stain will run, the oak weather, and the steel dull, and whilst form remains distinct, the deck will merge to a silver grey and meld with the house and outbuildings, becoming part of the place, to a harmonious whole—thus is the way of appropriate things.

More photographs to come in spring 2021.

Moments For Repose

Making Along the Pennine Way

The Pennines do not compromise: they are a wilderness of rough grasses and mosses and wastes of naked peat and outcropping rocks, with few landmarks to guide the traveller on foot, whose progress along the broad and featureless moors is further hindered by expanses of marshy ground. . .This is a no-man’s land. Or was until walkers were given a right of continuous access from one end of the range to the other: a challenging expedition undertaken by thousands of adventurers every year, the full traverse being a memorable experience. This route is the Pennine Way—Alfred Wainwright

A national trail, the first to be designated and most cherished in the UK, the Pennine Way stretches 270 miles through the North of England from Derbyshire to Hadrian’s Wall.

Three interventions are proposed, three moments. The Cairn, a refuge to escape the bleak, desolate and hopeless moors of the Peak District at Black Hill. The Clapper Bridge, to take pause in the lush and tranquil garden that adorns the majestic Malham Cove. And the Sheep Shed, a chance to steal an intimate perspective in the face of the sublime High Cup—a geological phenomenon, a natural wonder.

This project was an explorative exercise that ensued the thesis Making is Thinking: Poetic Pursuits in Architectural Design. Working with a conviction that there are no ideas except in things themselves the project explored a method of making as poesis—which, philosophically speaking, means to bring some-thing into being that did not exist before—whereby one directs their sensory perception to the world of things in order to make them their own. With this notion of a poetic act, each proposal is a derivation of their namesake specific to each place. The project sought to answer questions about the essence of architecture embedded in its cultural meaning. That meaning which imparts a deep physiological experience of space, and a sense of place—of being in the world, of dwelling. The three interventions were about revealing things, by suggesting how one might make them.

Repose is a state of rest, sleep or tranquillity, but is also to be lying, situated or kept in a particular place. Architecture might aptly be described as a thing in repose. But things are, simply put though often a mistrusted truth, formed matter. It is this materiality, formed, that gives the thing its concavity, emptiness, light, air, odour, receptivity, and resonance—its corporeal wholeness that grants us its perception. The three things proposed, made, with time and use become situated whilst also situating those who use them—they are moments for repose.

OMA Models

OMA is an international architecture practice founded by Rem Koolhaas. Models have featured prominently in their work.

For five years I worked as a model maker/fabricator in the workshop of OMA, Rotterdam. The work displayed here is an overview of the models I made or had large hand in making.

Processes included: wood carving and joining, casting of polyester, polyurethane, plaster, plaster composites and concrete, minor metal work and polishing, and the use of laser cutters and 3D printers. Typically the work concerned architectural models, but furniture, lighting prototyping and large scale mocks-ups were often made.

The time at OMA presented a unique and privileged opportunity to work with a wide variety of materials, scales and functions, develop my skills as a maker with a full workshop at my disposal, and hone my understanding of representational strategies.

A Fabricated Conversation

Are we in danger of becoming complacent with the possibilities of technology and its everyday integration into our lives? Many of us long for experiences that rely on human interaction and the satisfaction of the physical.

In an age where we see hyper-connectivity and digital technologies remove the physicality from our lives, can we use these techniques to create physical engagement and conversation?A Fabricated Conversation is a collaboration between designers Iain Worgan & designer Cameron Walker.

The work explores the idea that digital technology – and in this case digital fabrication – can aid face to face communication, and physical interaction -something we long for in the post-digital age.

The work takes its inspiration from the Double chair found in the Valladolid, a town inMexico. “Its local name is ‘Los Confidentes’ – the confidants.In other words, it invites passersby to take a seat and engage in conversation with someone intimate.” In a similar vein, the work invites strangers (or lovers)to sit together and interact. The digital plans for the chair are open source, which allows for modification and for the dissemination of the idea, as well the physical object.

Townhouse, London

Behind its modestly restored front elevation and re-instated historic portico, lies a complex and contemporary sequence of spaces, created by making cuts in floors and ceilings, adding a 6m deep extension, gutting the house back-to-brick, and moving every single internal wall.

Working with a hugely restrained budget for the scale of project, we used a combination of proprietary materials and clever detailing to create a language for the house – balustrades made of mariners rope and re-bar, structural ply carefully treated to become a finished floor, skirting and door frame.

The main spaces are inspired by Max’s intrinsic sociability and gregarious nature. A gigantic void not only flood light into a deep lower ground extension but also connects the moment that some-one walks through the front door with the main living spaces. A top-lit towering library becomes the route to the dinner and indoor/outdoor lounge. Bi-folding doors around the internal courtyard can be drawn back to bring a cherry tree inside. Everything that is doing the work is exposed – a buff white glu-lam roof that articulates the subtle kink in the site, and the brick two storey pop up that connects domestic life to the urban character of its location.

The master bedroom is chapel-like – an effect created by removing the ceiling to the attic, removing all the walls and detailing in a light, bright and airy way. Rather than concealing en-suite in this room, the shower and bath are celebrated on show.

The project has been realised with the help of our extensive network of talented crafts people and builders – from bespoke joinery, to the library ladder, to lighting sculptures. It plays happy host to parties and hide-ways