1st ProofTitle: BA: Architectural Design
Job No: PD0710-67/4028Chapter 3 final (3.5)_.qxd:layouts to chapter one 7/24/10 12:24 PM Page 156
The design projectConstruction and occupationInterview with Haworth TompkinsWhat methods do you use to predict the experience
of using a building that you are designing?
Graham Haworth
We work with models a lot: three-dimensional massing
models, and we always make a site context model very early
on. We tend to zoom in and zoom out of scales so we’ll be
at 1:1250 looking at the infrastructure and the context, and
zoom right into 1:5 or 1:20 to look at key spaces.
Steve Tompkins
Often we’ll describe the building. We’ll begin to describe
its personalities and its qualities before we’ve drawn it.
What if you were to walk in and there would be a sense of
connection to this part of the brief? We begin to walk through
the building before it is a building. In a way you’re reversing
the normal process of description and presentation.
Graham Haworth
We don’t retreat to the studio to try and work within a
boundary of things that are abstract and certain. We like the
accidental; we like the slightly edgy, the slightly dangerous
things that come out.
Steve Tompkins
By keeping the process aerodynamically unstable for longer
than normal you get more interesting results. If you’re brave
enough and exploratory enough then you acquire a certain
authority for that sort of working method. We work best
when we have really strong relationships with clients; not
just professional relationships, but building up trust and
vulnerability so you can actually explore those things. You
can think the unthinkable and say the unsayable and it’s
much more akin to fine art practice in that respect.Project: Snape Maltings
Location: Aldeburgh, UK
Architect: Haworth Tompkins
Date: 2009
Lath ceiling inspired by the materials
of the existing buildings at Snape.Text
1st ProofTitle: BA: Architectural Design
Job No: PD0710-67/4028Chapter 3 final (3.5)_.qxd:layouts to chapter one 7/24/10 12:25 PM Page 156