Room, Rural Kent.

What is often unclear in our completed works is that they are a result of an immersive architectural process, seeing conception, assembly, reevaluation, production and management as our widened natural remit; an artist-architect method of working providing greater control. Signalling the emergence of an alternative architectural practise, forcefully countering and marginalising the perceived marginalisation of the architect.

Our response to this unusual commission stemmed from investigations into the origins of the rural kitchen and its ability to convey both the tough and utilitarian, and the beautiful – how a material might shape itself through continued use or how evening light soaks across a well-worn, well trodden surface.

Here, each and every joint, element and mark-made was first modelled, tested and then further drawn for fabrication via CNC cutting – enabling absolute control, expression and accuracy. For total clarity, we conceived both the positive forms and the negative formwork; we drew, for automated cutting, close to twenty individual casts (thresholds, surfaces, wall panels, sinks), continuing to pour and strike the concrete also.

Eschewing the normative, this highly involved project further richens our view on the provision of architecture as a service, the benefit of long term professional relationships, and our thoughts on the often opposing notions of architecture as a discipline and architecture as a profession – and how our hand can be present in much of the work we create.