Branching Out

Join Steve Webb, one of the founding directors of Webb Yates Engineers and Maria Smith, founding director of Interrobang and former director of multi-award-winning art and architecture practice Studio Weave, as they discuss working across boundaries created between the disciplines of architecture and engineering.

Too often architects are divested of any power to innovate in the face of impenetrable engineering imperatives, and somehow at the same time, engineers are relegated to ‘making it work’. Beyond multidisciplinary, transdisciplinary working is to overcome the pernicious boundaries of language and culture and to reject the restrictive zones in which we operate. 

But how does this work in practice? Focusing on this transdisciplinary approach, Maria and Steve will discuss the design of Ilford Community Market – a new build, fully demountable urban market in the heart of Ilford, east London. Rethinking the traditional notion of static building design, the market has been designed to circular economy principles. The talk will illustrate how the hybrid scheme incorporates the architecture, structure and building services, and how it operates as both a community market on ground floor level and a hydroponic farm housed in polytunnels on the roof.

We will welcome open conversations about ‘truth to materials’ and structural solutions for long-term durability, adaptability, disassembly and reusability.