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Home » Studio Weave
ExclusivesFirms to Watch

Studio Weave

A London-based firm stitches together people and resources to create projects that strengthen community.

Studio Weave

Studio Weave recently completed Midden Studio, a zinc-clad artist’s getaway in Scotland on the footings of a structure that once housed animal manure.

Photo © Johnny Barrington 

Studio Weave

In Kent, Studio Weave built a zany outdoor classroom called Ecology of Color. RIBA South East named it Building of the Year in 2013.

Photo © Jim Stephenson 

Studio Weave

Smith, a pavilion for Clerkenwell Design week, makes ingenious use of fiber-cement.

Photo © Jim Stephenson 

Studio Weave

Studio Weave created the Longest Bench—a curlicueing 1,000-foot-long bench—for a beachside promenade.

Photo © Studio Weave

Studio Weave

The studio won a competition to improve an unsightly facade of a children’s hospital and added pipework as well as gramophone-like horns to create a surreal 10-story landscape they dubbed the Lullaby Factory.

Photo © Studio Weave

Studio Weave

A calming soundtrack by composer Jessica Curry can be heard by recovering patients through a selection of “listening pipes” and a special radio frequency.

Photo © Studio Weave

Studio Weave

The firm is currently wrapping up the Belvue School, a woodland classroom in Middlesex, UK for special needs children.

Image courtesy Studio Weave

Studio Weave

A 2009 lakeside pavilion called Freya’s Cabin in Northumberland, UK is made up of layers of CNC-cut plywood sheets. The structure is clad in a copper and aluminum alloy.

Photo © Peter Sharpe

Studio Weave

The studio created Paleys Upon Pilers, a lacy timber pavilion, for the 2012 London Festival of Architecture.

Photo © Studio Weave

Studio Weave

The studio repurposed an old river boat to create a mobile cinema during summer 2011. It was visited by more than 75,000 people.

Photo © Studio Weave

Studio Weave

Je Ahn co-founded Studio Weave in 2006.

Photo © Studio Weave

Studio Weave

Je Ahn and the studio’s “weavers.” On choosing his studio members, the architect says “How do you choose friends? You have a pint and you go.”

Photo © Studio Weave

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July 1, 2016
Anna Fixsen
KEYWORDS architecture firms / London
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When presented with a design challenge, the London architecture practice Studio Weave doesn’t hesitate to scribble outside the lines—way outside of them. For a beachside promenade, the firm devised a curlicuing 1,000-foot-long bench. When presented with a pile of 15,000 LEGOS for a London Festival of Architecture competition, it constructed a mini metropolis complete with a tiny monorail. Within the firm’s online portfolio, work is presented through both standard project factoids and original fairy tales.

Whimsy may be a hallmark of Studio Weave’s built work, but the firm addresses serious questions concerning how people engage with their surroundings and neighbors, particularly in London, where construction cranes are rising as rapidly as rents.

“The professional role of an architect is to design according to a brief,” says Studio Weave founder Je Ahn, “but, as citizens, we also have duties.”

Studio Weave’s offices are located in the city’s Hackney area in a formerly industrial building, complete with an impressive trussed roof and a foosball table. One afternoon last spring, the firm’s 10 members—referred to internally as “Weavers”—were busy at work on their biggest project to date, a multimillion-dollar, 250-unit social-housing complex in central London, a huge scaling up from the firm’s previous work. “I was always interested in how people lived,” says Ahn, describing his initial interest in architecture. “Coming from a culturally different place—South Korea—architecture’s impact on how we behave was fascinating to me.”

The studio was founded in 2006 by Ahn and Maria Smith while both were studying architecture at London Metropolitan University. (Smith has since left the firm.) Called 140 Boomerangs, their first collaboration consisted of modular timber components which could be configured to create site-specific helical structures. First displayed at the London Architecture Biennale (now called the London Festival of Architecture) 140 Boomerangs was used to hold workshops for local children. The project was so successful, commissions—including the seaside bench in Littlehampton, England—followed. It made sense to officially establish a practice.

In 2012, the studio won a competition to improve an unsightly facade of the Great Ormond Street Hospital for children. With their sense of playfulness, Studio Weave added pipework as well as gramophone-like horns to create a surreal 10-story landscape they dubbed the Lullaby Factory. A calming soundtrack by composer Jessica Curry can be heard by patients through a selection of “listening pipes” and a special radio frequency. The project won numerous awards, including an AR+D Award for emerging architecture.

“We try to get under the skin of the commission,” explains Ahn of the firm’s outlook. “Often, an architectural proposal is only part of the answer.”

A prime example of this approach is an ongoing regeneration project in the small town of Callan, Ireland, where the main thoroughfare had become a civic dead zone because of heavy traffic. Starting in 2014, Studio Weave worked with the municipality on a series of temporary street closures, staging pop-up events and children’s activities. Last year, they worked with locals to spruce up facades and make the street an interactive theater. According to a local reporter, the festival gave the town “a morale boost that any town or village in Ireland would welcome.”

Last June, Studio Weave and London firm Architecture 00 joined forces to create “Project 00,” a consortium of architects, social scientists, programmers, and urban planners. The studio is also part of a Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) exhibition about the future of housing, working on a woodland classroom for special-needs chil­dren, and wrapping up a project for the Crown Estate in central London.

“We are not experts at anything,” says Ahn, “but we try to get the best out of a situation by linking the right people together.”   

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Anna Fixsen was a staff writer and editor for Architectural Record from 2013 to 2017, during which time she covered topics ranging from new projects to human rights, and edited Firms to Watch—a special section devoted to emerging architecture firms.

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