1999 UK Award Part 2
Natural Dye Factory and Aromatherapy Bathhouse

The unit brief for this project was to identify and construct the phenomenon of interface within the city through discovering and exploiting a hidden or unseen dynamic intrinsic to a certain area of London.

I observed the contrasting cultures of two neighboring areas: Brick Lane and Hoxton Square. The cultural activity in each area creates a strong and vibrant atmosphere, which I interpreted through the public display of color. Fabric and weaving were also introduced into the project, in part as a reaction to the Huguenot history of the areas, and in part as a technique of linking disparate elements together.

My early work concentrated on developing creative and technological rule systems that would relate my color analysis back to the sites through two interactive devices. The first, a wearable reflective scarf, interacts with physical movement in the Circus Space training school in Hoxton. The second, a sociable heating balloon, interacts with the congregation of people gathered outside the Lux Cinema. The choreography and technology developed in these devices act as metaphors for the role of landscape in the building proposal for the disused Bishopsgate Goodsyard, located at the boundary between the original sites. A weave of planted areas supports a natural fabric dyeing facility and four aromatherapy bathhouses. Links across the site and an integrated seasonal cycle of activity and production are established. The landscape, through the various functions embedded within it, acts as an urban-scale interface between the surrounding areas of the city, socially and culturally distinct from each other.