STUDIO IN THE WOODS
JULY 2018
On the weekend of the 7th July Niall will be taking part in Studio In The Woods, a 3 day workshop that explores the testing of ideas through making with timber at 1:1. Over the course of the event workshops will be led by architects including Kate Darby, Meredith Bowles (Mole Architects), Je Ahn (Studio Weave), Lee Ivett (Baxendale), Gianni Botsford, Lynton Pepper (Architecture 00), Laura Mark, Charley Brentnall, Zoe Berman, Piers Taylor (Invisible Studio), Susanne Tutsch, Barbara Kaucky, and Erect.
BALLIOL FACADE TRIP
APRIL 2017
We are working on new student residential buildings for Balliol College, Oxford. As part of the detailed design development we have been working with a façade sub-contractor based in Belgium, and recently made a visit to their manufacturing factories. The itinerary for the day – a design workshop, a factory tour and a review of samples. Lots of coffee after an early Eurostar, and a good lunch.
There had been several similar design workshops before; where gathered around the meeting table, sketches were scattered as we questioned the architectural intent and the construction details equally. Brick samples sat in front of us, books piled up with precedents opened, past project drawings and models pulled out for reference. How to compose the language to create a calm and unified façade across the site. The engineers, the architects, the craftsmen who will build the façade.
These sorts of discussion are an aspect of everyday practice, and incredibly valuable part of the process – marrying the conversations of design aspiration with the actual making of. The bricks and mortar that see the architecture delivered from the paper to the physical form.