“Craftsmen did not impose a shape but rather teased out a form from the material. Instead of imposing a cerebral form on inert matter, materials were allowed to have their say in the final form produced.”

Manuel de Landa, Philosophies of Design, Verb Processing (2001)

Each year at the university of the Architectural Association, a project is chosen to be a project is determined to be developed into a sculpture that will serve as a table where the strawberries are placed at the university's graduation ceremony. Strawberries are a traditional part of graduation celebrations. In 2019 the honor went to my project.

The project was based on celebrating the materiality of architecture, and questioning the standardized artificial forms in the field of design. The project focused on recovering Portland stones sculpted in 1920 for the wall of the Victoria and Albert Museum, which due to the renovation of the building had to be removed.

The fact that they were made in the 1900s makes it very difficult to reintegrate them into new buildings or reuse them. However, their material quality is much better than what can be found today in any UK quarry.

This thesis proposes a catalog and a series of modern-rudimentary building systems so that, potentially, using more creative means, some architects can integrate these elements into their contemporary architecture.

A Project of —> Caterina Miralles

Design and Constructioin by —> Marion Delaporte, Selin Arisal, Caterina Miralles, Lydia Liu, Xuecheng Wang, Samuel Little, Aude-Line Duliere, Maarten Gielen.

Year —> 2018 - 2019

With the support of —> Haysom Purbeck Stone

In collaboration with —> Architectural Association School of Architecture