Sir John Soane’s Museum

Sir John Soane’s London house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields (1792–1837) is surely one of the most extraordinary didactic interiors imaginable for architects and designers alike. The house manages to conjure a monumental scale within confined spaces and exploits innovative architectural inventions to create a visually multi-layered experience and sequencing of space. For us, Soane’s use […]

Eileen Gray

Peter Adam’s 1987 biography details one of the most important designers and architects of the 20th century. Resolutely independent and frequently underappreciated, Eileen Gray (1878–1976) was a pioneer of the modernist principle of form following function. In a world largely dominated by men her residential project E.1027, the home that she designed and furnished herself, […]

Louise Bourgeois

Bourgeois remarkable invasion of Spiders and Towers to herald the opening of Tate Modern in 2000 completely smashed our sensibilities about space and emotion. Bourgeois envisaged the towers, with their multiple platforms and winding stairs, as stages for intimate and revelatory encounters between strangers and friends alike. The “Cells” series, featured in this book and […]

Alvar Aalto

This 1998 Monograph and contemporary photographs was published to celebrate 100 years since Aalto’s birth. Aalto expression of a human centric modernism is a constant guiding principle to our practice: “Radicalism is required so that superficial cosiness can be avoided. In its place we have to pin down the problems whose solutions will create the basis for […]

Modern Dutch Buildings

This 1931 book captures the architectural summer tour of our Director’s (Peter Mance) 3rd year degree field trip to Holland led by Kingston Poly’ tutors Fred Scott, Brian Beardsmore, and Stuart Durant in 1986. 10 days of immersive introduction to Dudok, Duiker, Berlage, Kuipers, Boterenbrood, Brinkman, van der Vlugt, Buijs, de Klerk. Kramer, Mertens, Oud […]

Richard Wilson

Installation art has been a constant source of wonder and inspiration for us. Richard Wilson has the knack of serving up the reassembled fragments of our physical world as something quite magical. From his seminal work ‘20:50’, a sea of reflective sump oil, to the enigmatic ‘Slice of Reality’, ‘High Rise’, and ‘She came in […]

Glenn Murcutt

We’ve long admired Glenn Murcutt’s detailed, intricate, intense, and practical drawing style. In our own drawings we strive to emulate the same commitment to the thinking of every junction, the meeting of each material and mechanism, the surfaces, the structure, the vistas, the capture and play of light, and every single gust of wind. His drawn work is a masterclass of intense communication and the making of place. You […]

Carlo Scarpa

Celebrating the Joint  The Rizzoli 1985 “Complete Works” landed in our hands as a marvel. Showing us how Scarpa’s studious, sensitive, and inventive designer’s eye could delicately marshal stone, brass, timber, and water. I still recall falling in love with the meticulous details, play of texture and the gorgeous coloured venetian plaster. His skill at weaving bold architectural interventions within old buildings was just brilliant. A true master. Here in Robert McCarter’s 2013 monograph, the essentials projects are handsomely and evocatively captured reminding us […]

Ben Nicholson

Whether as a window framed view or as stacked assemblages of muted geometrical plains, Nicholson’s deft, layered, and finely grained paintings, reliefs, and sculpture have a natural affinity with 20th century modernist architecture. The scale and textured intensity of the works, while seemingly quiet in form are deceptively lingering and enthralling surfaces in which to dwell. Norbert Lynton’s weighty 1993 monograph subtly captures Nicholson’s artistic evolution as a painter across a career of 60 years. Nicholson’s resonance and influence for us are […]

Franklin D. Israel

Of the clutch of LA Architectural highlights of the late 80’s and early 90’s by Gehry, Morphosis, and Eric Owen Moss, Frank’s residential and commercial office projects connected with us in a more humane and empathetic way. Many of the large warehouse offices providing a literal open stage for his imaginative and carefully articulated geometry. With layered vistas of warm textured render, […]