Rob Leechmere, Associate, Jonathan Tuckey Design, shares how experimenting with timber materials can result in unexpected and unique design.
One objective or theme we routinely try to embrace as a studio is giving specialness to the ‘everyday’. We frequently attempt to understand materials that are common or cheap in new and unorthodox ways, and timber is ideal for experimentation in this area.
Timber can be seen as the height of luxury or the most ordinary and accessible; from tropical hardwoods to chipboard, it has a broad spectrum of personalities that can be teased out and experimented with to create layered, responsive architecture and spaces.
Our conversion of a mews house in London into a shop and apartment exemplifies this exploration into promoting a common material and elevating it to a special one through considered treatment. The primary material – chipboard – was treated with a natural and durable lime wax, transforming the quotidian fabric into one with a new value of health benefits, structure and form. The transformation of a simple material aligns with the socio-historic transformation of buildings over time, in this case, mews houses. Previously servant dwellings and stables to the larger town houses they backed onto, mews houses have shifted from second class overlooked building types, into a special ‘sought-after type’ in their own right.
The idea of taking a fabric and crafting and elevating it into a new material of affection is described in the book ‘The Beauty of Everyday Things’ (2019). In this text, Yanagi Soetsu writes that objects should be made with care and built to last, treated with respect and even affection. They should be natural and simple, sturdy and safe, the resulting aesthetic born from wholeheartedly fulfilling utilitarian needs. They should, in short, be things of beauty. This idea can be freely transferred to materials, a process that should elevate simple, humble fabrics into sometimes novel and unusual ones but overall imbuing them with process and importantly, narrative.
Through our explorations into material uses, age is an important factor that provides parameters to create and test within. Age helps define timber’s place in a project, particularly in reuse typologies. It helps making decisions around treating certain woods easier; letting them homogenise in tone and blend in naturally over time is something we are keen to embrace, balancing new with old to create layered architecture that offers an insight into the social and anthropological context of a building over time.
Existing buildings, vernaculars and historic methodologies too give scope for experimentation, substitution and abstraction. Particular parts of Switzerland have developed nuanced vernacular timber architectures that could be read as divergent tree species, classified in terms of their drift of construction methods and decorative gestures. Looking at the small refinements and differences from valley to valley can focus exploration and subversion of traditional building techniques, material treatments and decorative expressions.
At our first Alpine commission, Nossenhaus, the dialogue between old and new links ideas of construction, style and decoration. The traditional ‘stickbau’ timber (interlocking mass timber) construction on a stone plinth can be augmented by both new ‘stickbau’ but also CLT members. The new members are visual replicas of existing vernacular pieces. For example the large curved ‘stickbau’ brackets supporting the roof were echoed in single piece CLT brackets supporting a new covered balcony. The mending or the sewing of old and new delivers a richness and extended narrative fundamental to successful adaptation. Timber in this way, is a perfect medium.
