Written by Finbar Charleston, a masters student at the Bartlett school of Architecture
Inductions and introductions at Hooke Park commenced the first day of the Kingcombe Visiting School, with students flying in from as far as Russia and Singapore to design and fabricate the first project for an external client from the Architectural Association’s woodland campus.
After meeting fellow students and visiting school tutors Clementine Blakemore and Alex Thomas over lunch in the refectory, the newly assembled team took a tour of the woodland campus with the workshop manager Charlie Corry-Wright. Charlie’s intimate knowledge of the many buildings and experiments at Hooke Park allowed for discussion around the technical innovation facilitated by the impressive workshop as well as the creative and inspiring community established in the Dorset woodland.
Set within a rich and diverse ancient woodland, the campus is in healthy dialogue with the local environment. From the biomass system providing hot water to the campus to the permaculture garden used by Charlie’s family and the academic programmes, the campus sets a great example for a sustainable rural community.
The latter part of the afternoon saw Visiting School Tutor Clementine Blakemore introduce the site and the brief before student presentations on previous work and motivations to engage with the AA visiting school, Hooke Park and The Kingcombe Centre. Visiting school guests Ivar Tutturen and Heather McVicar from Verk Arkitektur rounded of the presentations with their recent research into the intersections of farming and architecture.
Making the most of the great weather in the Dorset countryside, the team enjoyed homemade pizza before an evening of illuminating talks by Edmund Fowles (director of London based Fielden Fowles) and Alice Blogg (local designer and the third Visiting School tutor) on ‘Meditations on Materiality’. The talks welcomed members of the local community to learn about past and ongoing projects, giving rise to healthy discussions around design process and the evolving dialogue between craft and technology. Inspiring reflections on design across different scales from bespoke furniture to the delivery of complex cultural buildings provided an excellent backdrop for what is sure to be an exciting week of design and production at Hooke Park and The Kingcombe Nature Reserve!
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