Establish: The Institute for Innovation through Craft.
Harry Horwoods, Studio 06 project to give it its full title ‘Establish: The Institute For Innovation Through Craft, Pool Valley’s Innovative Timber won the Hub Morgan Carn Prize For Design Excellence and was a James Latham Prize for Timber Innovation Runner Up at last weeks Graduate Show. Here he describes his project.
“Following on from my first term project (considering the potential of the reintroduction of forgotten industries and crafts to regenerate public spaces), I proposed a merge between the local/historical crafts of each city with key technology-based sectors. Therefore establishing ‘making’ as once again the forefront of England’s economy, bringing upon the ‘4th industrial revolution’ [Crafts Council]. Situated In Pool Valley Brighton, the project primarily houses the historic craft of boat building (carpentry). The Timber hub facilitates, educates and exhibits the opportunities of innovation through craft. Beyond this, the building’s secondary spaces are constantly evolving with the construction methods of its spaces directly linked to the local crafts and technologies. The primary workshop is the first building on site; using a method that echoes the ideas of the project as it is built out of a series of prefabricated load-bearing Brettstapel [DLT] arches placed along a highly contextualised grid system”.