The team at Studio Hardie, based in Lewes,
East Sussex, has a wide range of specialist expertise from cutting-edge design
to age-old craft skills. In this post, Hamish Boden describes the challenges
they faced when creating the ultimate modern exhibition space using traditional
skills.
This project was a 1:1 scale architectural
installation to host the Plain Space exhibition for British architect John
Pawson , described by the New York Times as “the father of modern architectural
minimalism”. The installation space was
both a location for the exhibition and part of the event and was based at the
Design Museum, London, in September 2010.
Hamish writes “This was one of Studio
Hardie’s first full-scale architectural installations, essentially a building
inside a building. The difficulty with achieving a crisp minimal look is that exposed
fixings are not allowed so all the mechanics go on behind the scenes.
Another major hurdle of the project was the
timescale, achieving the level of tolerance and perfection on a really tight
installation turnaround. The beauty of having such a big workshop is that you
can create entire structures, test them check everything fits and make fine
adjustments before leaving the workshop, this can save days of site work.
Spending time meticulously planning the
install is critical; the choreography of how everything comes together quickly,
accurately and beautifully. We couldn’t rely on ‘off the shelf’ being totally
straight so we designed a new system for making dead flat-straight walls out of
MDF torsion boxes. You often hear carpenters complaining about using MDF but for
us it was a rare treat. We are used to
using solid timber that shrinks cracks and moves. MDF in contrast is a very predictable and
versatile material.
It was a real challenge to create the curved
ceiling. We knew that constructing the
sections on the floor would mean we could make a much better quality finish
than working over-head.
This is where modern technology meets classic old-fashioned
carpentry knowledge. To get the perfect curve we had some roof fins cut with
CNC and covered them with a thin sheet of MDF.
Next we had the challenge of hoisting the entire
roof up in to the air. For this we
simply made some large roof trusses that we knew would take the weight and
bolted them to our structure. We used a
genie lift to hoist them in to the air and lowered it back down on to the walls. Job done!”
Photos: Gilbert McCarragher
To find out more about the team at Studio Hardie and their work, see our earlier
blog post
Studio Hardie is based in Lewes, East
Sussex. Website http://www.studiohardie.com