Historically the architect has not ‘made’ buildings but rather the mediating artefacts that make significant buildings possible. However, the technologies of contemporary practice suggest an emerging dichotomy. The representations they make possible distance the architect from the tectonic, material realities of things placed in the world. Concurrently, these same technologies increasingly allow the architect to take on the role of manufacturer. This recalls historical production of large scale fragments and 1:1 pieces, rather than drawings, as a means to represent ideas and extends a research focus into the means by which tectonics become situated in response to specificities of place.

Our working and teaching practice encompasses modelling of many kinds. Through the university, we have extended this into constructing 1:1 prototypical investigations. Mediating artefacts, these test ideas and practices that can be developed and applied in more complex, future situations.

The most ambitious thus far was a temporary pavilion for the British Library Forecourt, constructed for London’s Architecture Biennale. The pavilion defined a threshold space, or aedicule, between Institution and City. A festival structure, it accommodated words beyond books, whether as a stage from which to read or a place for intimate conversations, shaded from the sun. Its seasonal, temporary nature defined its construction as a light-footed timber skeleton, at once furniture, house and pergola. In describing formal, geometrical relationships to the Library and surroundings, including the spires of St Pancras, the form of the pavilion distorted and twisted like an unfolding drawing by Albers. The resultant complexity of timber jointing led us to test the use of detailed computer modelling which allowed prefabrication, 1:1 templating and rapid assembly of components by unskilled student labour. The structure opened with a children's poetry performance, alongside a reading by poet Ellen Feinstein.