Position Statement

The hearth is revealed.

The dynamic, active environment that can be sculpted to the needs of the user is opened up. The rest of the superfluous operational aspects can be momentarily discarded to focus on the design of the arena that is specifically formulated for a client that cannot be pinpointed to one idea. The client is transient, more transient than perhaps understandable, yet this is not strictly the case. One who is so fleeting, one whose entire life possessions can be contained within a shopping trolley is does not necessarily desire that lifestyle. One does not choose the street in every instance. Maybe the one who is so flexible would rather the fixed sculpted life but cannot yet adapt to it. These questions are revealed in the section. These questions are revealed in the warmth of the flame, casting the ephemeral shadows on the wall to form the dim outline of the life less solid while they have the moment to be answered.

Operations and flow are opened up.

The living breathing nature of the built form can be found once again through the sinuous relationship between the hearth, the homeless and the office, the organisation. Ones rigidity meets the others ephemerality in the muscular space that lies between. Through this space the communication of the waste of each other is gleaned into a valuable commodity. The smoke and pollution that is gathered into the ceiling space of the hearth then becomes the screen, the privacy which is so valued in the corporate environment. The paper which is the pollution of the office is gathered together into a mass and compacted to form the literal fuel of the hearth. Each through its excess then can serve the other. In this exchange the continuance of this flow can be continued as the people from one side come to facilitate the other. Gradually the borders of each sphere become permeable forming the symbiotic relationship, two bones, integral structures, connected by living muscle.

As one removes from the built form and lets the skin once again hide the internal fluidity, it once again sits within its site and expresses itself, allowing those from the street to approach and discover what it contains. Addressing itself naturally to the street and to the alley it defines itself by both limbs in the one form. To the two clients in the one form. It becomes the meeting place, the heart, the hearth.

The hUB