Mining the continuum: architecture without beginning or end

This dissertation researches twenty years of professional practice and demonstrates how architectural thinking is permeated by a cultural continuum. The work explores the proposition of open-ended architecture, whereby architecture resonates with preceding cultural values and awaits a new set of future values. Architecture is without beginning or end, but emerges in a context in flux. The projects take their part in the continuum of cultural activity and references, contemporary culture being the brightest light of the moment. Contexts, whether urban or rural, are amalgamated from the cultural thinking of passing societies and communities. <br><br>The following research through practice and reflection has revealed to me a series of architectural notions: Continuum, Greater System, Subversion and Context. These are different lenses through which the connectedness of all architectural preconditions – time, place, culture – can be visualised. Such views have become the architectural preoccupation in my practice. This research has thrown a light upon my fascination for locating my conceptual ideas for a project in the ever-changing historical, physical and functional context, right from the embryonic stage of the design. Whilst my practice has continuously evolved over the last twenty years a ‘mode of practice’ has developed to facilitate this architectural aspiration. As new technologies have come along, such as animation, they have been embraced and become part of my working method.