PROJECT
GETTING STARTED
Morag Myerscough
The property developer British Land was the
client for this project. They had appointed the
architects Allford Hall Monaghan Morris for the
refurbishment of 1FA, a new retail, leisure and co-
working space at 1 Finsbury Avenue in Broadgate,
London. Their ambition was to establish a public
route through the building, connecting Wilson
Street with the Broadgate neighbourhood. I’ve
worked with AHMM on many projects and they
suggested me for this project to British Land.
A new atrium with floor dimensions for a café
had been proposed, and I was asked to respond to
the new space and café into my proposals. They
requested that I look at the entire space and the
journey from outside the building through the
space, bringing the walls into it as well.
So that’s what I did – I responded to the space
and thought carefully about how it could be
occupied. I was born in London and Broadgate
is in the heart of the city, so my knowledge of
the city came into play. I wanted to make a
brave piece, something that came from me and
that I totally believed in. I did initial conceptual
sketches and the response was an immediate ‘yes’
from British Land. I was overjoyed.THE DESIGN EXECUTION
Morag Myerscough
As a Londoner I’ve been surrounded by Victorian
terraced houses all my life and was brought up in
one. Sadly, we didn’t have a mosaic tiled hallway,but I’ve always loved them. Finsbury Avenue
was once a residential area and a fitting way of
reflecting its domestic history was through tiling.
Tiling also says permanence to me and this piece
is permanent. I’ve never seen a piece of old tiling
that I haven’t liked – it’s a material that stands
the test of time.
I wanted to base some of the patterns on
traditional geometric tile patterns, but dial them
up by using my colour palette and combining
them with my own evolved language of pattern
which deliberately has 3D elements. The result
was a mixture of memories and present day.
From the beginning I wanted to have planting
to bring nature to the city workers in the same
way that the Victorian parks did it in the past.
But the natural light was limited and there were
concerns that it might not be possible to have
real plants without adding lots of grow lights.
I totally love growing plants outside, but didn’t
have any experience about which plants could
survive in these conditions. But I was determined
to make this happen.
Because I’m very particular about every
element of everything I do, rather than someone
telling me what plants I should have, I was keen
to find out what plants I wanted and if they would
survive in the conditions we had. I read up about
the types of plants that live in low-light conditions
and tested them in an area of my studio with
very little light over a six-month period. It was
fascinating: a few of the plants actually thrived
in low-light conditions.MORAG
MYERSCOUGH
Founder, Studio
Myerscough
Morag creates
structural installations
and immersive spatial
works that champion
public interaction.
After training at
Central Saint Martins
and the RCA, she set
up Studio Myerscough
in 1993. She’s designed
for the Southbank
Festival, Design
Museum, Design
Indaba and more.LUKE MORGAN
Artist and designer
A non-conformist
inventor, Luke
is fascinated by
machines, rock ‘n’ roll
and 1950s aesthetics –
themes reflected in his
sculptures. He sells his
Elvis Fan sculptures to
collectors and writes
and performs in the
psychobilly band The
Highliners, as well as
designing and building
installation artworks.
He’s collaborated
on projects with
Morag Myerscough
since 2002.