Of all shapes & sizes
BOB, 2020
Development study of a modular seating system for a manufacturer of principally outdoor furniture.
BICYCLE SHELTER, PARIS, 2018
Almost exactly 10 years after a previous sketch (below) my interlocutor got back to me saying that his condominium finally wished to vote this item on the basis of a priced scheme, which I set about simplifying.
With some effort I traced contractors prepared to price my drawings, and their offer was even very reasonable, for an entirely stainless steel structure with unbreakable polycarbonate sheet roofing.
SKETCH FOR GF, 2016
This in no “architectural” solution, inasmuch as it would never meet planning local guidelines.
My purpose was to demonstrate to the building owner that in good design the “technical” and the “aesthetic” fuse, are actually essentially one and the same solution.
The question having been posed : how might one make an upper-level terrace given the need to keep basement-level free of columns ?
BICYCLE SHELTER, PARIS, 2008
A rapid sketch faxed from Parma in time for a condominium meeting at the request of a friend.
SCI ROMA, PARIS, 2007
Preparation of planning application drawings for contractor’s intervention on the public domain.
In the absence of a referenced plot of land, an unusual experience.
Subsequently erected, provoking in due course a definite improvement of spatial quality, the enclosed forecourt (public domain nevertheless) no longer abandoned to neglect and rubbish-tipping.
VALENCIENNES TRAMWAY, 2005
Site representative on behalf of industrial livery & transport designers AND PARTENAIRES, Vanves.
Having contract-administered the delivery of a job on site, Patricia BASTARD & Gianni VIANELLO VINCI engaged me again to represent their firm, who had designed with ALSTOM the rolling stock, for urban furniture specific to the tramway.
Photography : Evanghelia STEAD
MAISON B., ESBLY, 2002
A former MBA colleague solicited a scheme (one of my best !) to optimize the tiny house he had bought as a weekend retreat.
The adjunct of a belvedere terrace, with tonnelle, overlooking his small private garden and the canal banks beyond would have been a treat to detail, had the job proceeded.
SHEFFIELD, 2000
The irresistible temptation (in confronting ideas for the Sheffield One competition my employers were engaged in) to see certain morphological traces as suggestive of giant cutlery items.
Coll. : CMAS, Nice.
LOOKOUT TOWER, ST. JEAN, 1999
Designer-draughtsman consultancy on behalf of architects P+P+F GOUJON, Nice.
Salvage of a near ruin — the Brits love that sort of thing, my employer joked.
An internal stair made no sense, an external one did.
Built with timber handrails instead.
COLLINA DI S. ANTONIO, TEANO, 1997
Designer-draughtsman consultancy on behalf of architects Enzo ANTUONO & Mimmo LERRO, Teano.
Ideas competition proposal for a park with architectural infrastructure (pathways, kiosks, fencing…).
This called also for celebrating the ascent to the Santuario (with via crucis of station-of-the-Cross kiosks, such as one finds in baroque religious antecedents), separating pedestrian from vehicular lanes, regulating traffic circuits an discretely siting car parking.
PRADES TOWN CENTRE, 1992
In association with architects Sophie d’ ARTHUYS & Sabine de BOISSIEU, Marcevols.
Ideas competition entry for the town centre, apparently appreciated by the public, if not by the competition organizers.
EINBECK, 1991
Exploratory feasibility / ideas study on behalf of medical practitioner tenants of Ratsapotheke, opposite the Town Hall (photo).
The extraordinary volumes proud of Einbeck’s Rathaus suggested the opportunity to build an independent creeper-invested terrace to the rear, proud of the courtyard wing, potentially equipped with roof-space Wintergarten.
SCOTNISH BOOTSCRAPER, 1984
For an Arts & Crafts loch-side Manor, in wrought iron.
The erected version was indeed “forged”, substituting a tube and welded flange for what should have been solid sections hammered into shape.
Conclusion : don’t expect to source artisan refinement locally, it needs to be “shipped in” !
SCOTNISH HA-HA, 1983
A summer job helping the estate gardener resulted in my hardy initiative to make a surgical decision I knew no-one else would : demolish the perilously-leaning and mechanically defective garden wall. (While I rocked it from the top of a tea-chest the gardener wedged a crowbar into a lower joint and heaved.)
The intention being to open up the lawn’s view using the landscape device of a ha-ha. The friable rubble came in hand for much-needed hardstanding on a muddy patch elsewhere.
opus incertum 