Superposition
The need for certainty within contemporary building practice is part of an important effort to make buildings safer. However, it is also fundamentally linked to the economic models that shape the factory system. In almost all parts of the world, conteporary building practice is defined by a kit of parts and follows a rigidly linear process where design must precede the act of building. This approach has led to the simplification of building techniques and an unprecedented level of standardization. It has also placed an unacceptably high burden on our ecologies and landscapes. As a practice, we believe that working with uncertainty does not mean accepting chaos, and that the attempt to eliminate variability is inconsistent with material reality. Rebirth, change, and adaptation are fundamental to resilience.
Our practice seeks new approaches to making architecture in the real world, which is shaped not by work stages but by place, material, and community. We believe that capital alone should not define our built environment. Our projects have been generated not by a client brief but through proposition, debate, engagement, and each problem encountered—whether it is a lack of resources, skilled labor, or site constraints—defines a new opportunity for architectural expression.
Through the logics, tools, and methods that we discover and invent during the process of building, we aim to articulate fundamental challenges to the way we build today. We are interested in new models of collaboration—demonstrated in the Sun Room, where an ancient craft of bamboo weaving was augmented by a precisely machined device built into the fabric of the shelter, and resource management—where the working of a small section of locally grown timber informed a jointing strategy for the Wind and Rain Bridge. This strategy was both derived from a rich craft tradition and made accessible to volunteer labor.
Our works aim to project an alternative to the remarkable homogeneity of construction today and present architecture not as an object but as a process: humane rather than technocratic, seen not as a solution but as moments of reconciliation. We aim to take what we have learned in the classroom, field, and laboratory and find new ways to expand the impact of our work—in order to address urgent problems surrounding the provision of housing and civic space, as well as the nature of architectural production and the labor crisis