Journal Posts - Jamie Fobert Architects

Our working models and samples of the ceramics created for Tate St Ives will be exhibited as part of ‘Hand Held to Super Scale: Building with Ceramics’ at the Building Centre. The exhibition celebrates the resurgence of ceramics in contemporary architecture, showcasing newly completed projects, buildings still under construction, handmade items and classic examples of ceramics in architecture.

The faience-clad pavilion at Tate St Ives makes reference to the history of ceramic artists in St Ives. The extruded tiles were made by Agrob Buchtal with an ochre engobe and the beautiful blue-green glaze was produced and applied by Froyle Tiles. The tiles went through many iterations – several of which are on display here – to achieve a finish which captures the colour of the sea and sky.

‘Hand Held to Super Scale: Building with Ceramics’ is at The Building Centre from 20 September 2019 until 31 January 2020

Mon to Fri: 9.00am – 6.00pm
Sat: 10.00am – 5.00pm

The Building Centre, Store Street, London, WC1E 7BT

JENNIFER LEE : THE POTTER’S SPACE. At Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge. Post 3 of 3
The completed exhibition. The role of any exhibition design is to create a context for the work which assists the viewer to understand its meaning without overpowering it; you could say it’s role is to bring the work into focus. Jennifer Lee’s extraordinary pots which are both delicate and hold great strength required a setting of clarity and calm. The monolithic plaster plinth is exactly the height of her studio bench where all of these pots were made and the putty colour on the wall marks the height of her studio itself. Two benches line the walls, one along the length of the plinth and the other on the end wall. These allow quiet contemplation from a sitting position where all the pots are seen in together. A huge thank you to Jennifer and Sarah for their warms humour and intelligence, to Josh from my team for his brilliant work, and to Andrew and Grace from @kettlesyard, so great to be back! Beautiful photos by @jounderhill. #jenniferlee #ceramics #pottery #exhibition #studio #craft #beauty

JENNIFER LEE : THE POTTER’S SPACE. At Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge. Post 1 of 3
Soon after meeting Jeff in her studio we began to think that a single surface, exactly (to the millimetre) the height of her workbench in her studio would be a powerful yet minimal response to the task. As always we worked in physical model, even modelling (2d) every pot in the exhibition which we gave to Jeff and Sarah to develop the placement of the potts. The second move was to demarcate the height of the studio on the gallery wall creating a containing volume shared by the visitor and the work. Here is a shot of the installation, and finally a model shot followed by the same view in the completed exhibition. @kettlesyard #jenniferlee #ceramics #pottery #exhibition #studio #craft #beauty

Kettle’s Yard is one of 54 new buildings – and one of 6 University of Cambridge buildings – to win an RIBA National Award 2019.

The RIBA National Awards recognise buildings which make a significant contribution to UK architecture. We are so pleased that Kettle’s Yard now joins Jamie Fobert Architects’s little rosta of projects which have received this accolade – Tate St Ives, Levring House, Luker House, Kander House and Anderson House.

The Globe and Mail, Canada’s foremost newspaper, has published a feature about Jamie.

Writer Katherine Ashenburg met with Jamie in our Shoreditch studio to learn about our projects, focusing on significant gallery projects for Kettle’s Yard, Tate St Ives and the National Portrait Gallery. She tells the story of Jamie’s journey from being a young student in Canada to an established architect in London:

“The lessons we learned in first year,” Fobert says, “are still some of the most important lessons I’ve ever learned: that
architecture should be unpretentious and it should be humane and it should be about the users and about improving their existence and their lives in ways that were beautiful.”

Photograph ©Justin Griffiths-Williams/The Globe and Mail

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On Wednesday 12th June at 6.30pm, Jamie will be talking about his approach to concrete specification and detailing as a part of Concrete Elegance.

Produced by The Concrete Centre and The Building Centre, this series of architectural lectures showcases the use of concrete to achieve elegant and innovative designs.

The Building Centre, 26 Store Street, London WC1E 7BT

Wednesday 12th June, 6.30-8.45pm

For further information and to book, click here.

It was like meeting an old friend after years apart, seeing this lovely small group of paintings by VILHELM HAMMERSHØI at the Muse Jacquemart-André in Paris this weekend. Here is a detail and the full (cropped) image of “Interior with a vase of flowers” 1910-11. I first saw these works in 1996, as I was setting up my practice and working on small domestic projects. His work seemed to hold for me the essence of what a space for human habitation should be; calm, beautifully lit by daylight, with room for the individual…a place for a beautiful ceramic bowl,for instance. It’s clearly not the avant guard of painting but Hammershøi attains something in his work that is hard to describe, when seen in person, you can feel the light, smell the wax on the furniture, touch the glaze on the ceramic. #painting #hammershøi #interior #architecture #atmosphere #light #daylight