Architects' desks: Piers Taylor, director at Mitchell Taylor Workshop
BD takes a look at the workspaces of architects
Piers Taylor says: “This a design review meeting with my AA masters student, a part III student and the timber contractor for the AA student-designed 500sq m workshop that is currently under construction at Hooke Park. The working model is on the desk and we’re all trying to get our heads around the complex geometric coming together of all the slightly crazy facets. By the end of the meeting we’d cracked it. This project - on which we are executive architect - has necessitated a fantastic series of intense ad-hoc meetings (like this) around various working models and connection tests - our office and my desk are now covered with a series of large-scale prototype details from all aspects of the project which we are monitoring timber shrinkage on.”
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Readers' comments (10)
Jack G | 8 November 2011 9:43 am
This looks like a meeting desk not a work desk.. I call a bluff!
Incidentally, how much did you pay for "your" AA masters student? Did you buy It from the Triangle bookshop? (RIP)
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Sebastian Cuff | 8 November 2011 10:57 am
At first I thought this was child slave labour crammed into a sweatshop in Vietnam, the sort of thing one comes across on one's gap year, but as I read the text and it all became clear. Good show, what, Piers! And good luck with all that timber shrinkage. I say, can be a bit of a pain, timber shrinkage.
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Rod Hull | 8 November 2011 12:04 pm
Great stuff. It is very refreshing to see such a hands on and collaborative approach - this is what all practice should be like!
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Freddie Ridley-Hampton | 8 November 2011 1:11 pm
I say, good desk indeed chaps.
I had a bit of timber shrinkage happen on me at the worst possible time once. Ghastly mess, took an awful lot of networking to sort out the old reputation as a good timber chap afterwards. All in the past now, all in the past. Ho ho!
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LunaVC | 8 November 2011 7:50 pm
I'm with jack g
meeting room and work desk are two separate things
the fourth person is hardly in on the conversation because of this very reason
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Karl Duvall | 9 November 2011 9:40 am
This series should just be about the desk...we don't need to see the people at the desk, just the desk complete with typical desk clutter....
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Alisa Selezneva | 9 November 2011 1:15 pm
this guy's clutter includes stray desk-less students... he has to push them aside when he needs to Google something on his laptop.
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Munter Roe | 9 November 2011 1:28 pm
Interns.
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Michael Coxlonge | 9 November 2011 3:03 pm
Meeting desk or work desk, they clearly need more chairs - somebody's already sat on that model.
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Wiktor Kidziak | 10 November 2011 6:58 pm
Finally an architect’s desk that is not staged and shows behind the scenes of what happens in everyday situation where problems are solved through conversation! Desk is a meeting place of people and ideas and to everyone who said that they don’t need to see people but just the desk complete I suggest they look at the collections of the IKEA store instead of reading this thread.
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