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As designers and makers we are drawn to projects with potential for innovation in all phases of production. With a firm foothold in academia much of our built work has either been a consequence of ongoing research or has instigated new enquiries including many an enthusiastic exploration into craft and building. With a small number of projects stretching over a decade, our work is motivated with a prevailing attitude to invent, learn and collaborate. In this regard, we seek projects with an experimental edge; projects that may be regarded as prototypical or bespoke. Our clients include public bodies, private individuals, commercial enterprise and fellow disciplinarians.

Scroll down for a potted history
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For full project description, download pdf
 
Built works | Prototypes | Furniture | Exhibitions | Experiments
  55/02
    Located on the new Lakeside Way, Kielder Water, Northumbria, our latest project is a small structure which responds to the clients request for 'a form of shelter, a form of engagement with the landscape'. It is due for completion in June 2009 and is designed in collaboration with steel manufacturers Stahlbogen GmbH. Named in reference to its coordinates 55° 11.30 N, 02° 29.23 W, '55/02' is designed to address the visitor towards the particular qualities of its unique placement.
[This book is the subject of a sixteen*(makers) monograph]
       
  Assembling Adaptations (2003-07)
    Our brief was to explore 'a role for architecture' within the landscape of Kielder. Taking change as a predominant condition, a series of animated 'probes' were developed as virtual and physical models. Responding to temperature and humidity fluctuation they compared the 'ideal' behaviour of the model to the 'real' behaviour of the installation. From this we deduced means to design an evolutionary architecture which responds to it's location with increasing specificity over time.
[Download UCL eprint - 9mb]
       
  Blusher (2001-02)
    Blusher was made for 'Making Buildings', a touring exhibition hosted by The Crafts Council UK. The work encompassed two systems; one of folded and individually unique structural plates, the second a plyable surface called the 'feathers'. Networked by multiple sensors, a built-in microprocessor determined the mood of adjacent observers and subsequently triggered the feathers to twitter and the structure to blush. The work opened at the New Art Gallery Walsall.
[Download UCL eprint - 6mb]
       
  Treehouse (2002)
    Co-designed with the client's father Professor Stephen Gage this arboreal dwelling for a garden in London's N16 was fabricated from three components. 1; The translucent skin, two sheets of polycarbonate fashioned to snap fit and form a 'teacup' like envelope. 2; The floor plate and primary structure, a thick layer of marine ply (with built-in hatch) to which the skin was pinned and 3, The parent resistant ladder, a dexterous array of circular footholds, cut from a marine ply plank.
       
  Shorting the Automation Circuit (2000-01)
    STAC explores the bilateral relationship between 'the making of information and the making of things'. The work involved designing and installing a speculative instrument upon a redundant observatory to measure local environmental activity. Passing the resultant live data through a CAD command script spawned a sequence of 3D design iterations for a series of "snap shot'' prototypes specific to time and place, each ready for immediate and automated manufacture.
[pdf Download available soon]
       
  Cut and Fold (2000-01)
    Coinciding with the launch of 'The Pursuit of Novelty - Computer Aided Manufacture in Architecture' this work explores a series of speculative junctions, structures, and assemblies utilising digital cutting and folding. The precision that digital manufacture provides the designer offers immense scope to escape the shackles of mass production with freedom to mass customise. Although the experiments had no immediate purpose, their influence on subsequent work is clear.
[pdf Download available soon]
       
  Elbowroom (1997)
    A commission to design and make furniture and signage for a drop in office bureau off Oxford St, London. Launched in the early days of the internet, Elbowroom sought to offer mobile users a base to run their business on an hourly basis. Durable and robust desks were designed to accommodate the ongoing revolution of new communication technologies. The entire block in which Elbowroom was housed has since been demolished and redeveloped.
       
  Exhibitions (1995-00)
   

(2007) 'Assembling Adaptations', Solo show at The Building Centre, London. (2005) 'AVATAR' Group show at The Bartlett UCL. (2002) 'A Year in the Making', and 'Material intelligence' Solo shows at The Bartlett UCL and Entwistle Gallery Cork St, respectively. (1998) 'Landscape Matters' for The Landscape Institute at the Building Centre. (1996) 'Architects on the Horizon' and 'Products of Desire' at the Florence Hall RIBA, London. The latter three co designed with Neil Spiller.
       
  Furniture (1995-00)
   

Our first paid commission was to make a chair for a worldly bachelor who was practicing the Alexander Technique of posture. In the manner of a tailored suit, the chair was 'fitted' over a period of 4 weeks without prior drawings. The subsequent artefact is therefore a jig, prototype, and final design. The same client went onto commission a dining table and bench. Later, we ventured into batch design and produced 'one on one', a pair of nesting tables of which 60+ sets were sold.
       
  Dartmoor (1995)
   

The harsh surfaces of this national park are draped by a delicate ecosystem and scattered with the remains of industrial and agricultural machinery. The vast and ancient landscape is now only navigable by visitors on approved and designated tracks. This speculative project proposed the insertion of mechanised 'soil cradles' within abandoned machinery footings, offering nourishment to otherwise neglected seeds and a new reference to the location's vibrant and robust history.
       
  Plot 22 (1995)
    The allotment in South London was rented to explore ad hoc social constructs. The 80' x 20' patch was cleared of all vegetation. Various insertions were made, one exposing the level of ground water, another pinning down a 'black out' cover. The works were carefully made in our Shoreditch workshop and arrived 'pre-fabricated'. Not a single plant was cultivated, yet most of our septuagenarian neighbours found what we did 'very useful indeed'.