Pipe-Up!
Pipe Up! is a new public bench, sited where Potteries of London once manufactured crockery and sanitaryware.
Drawing on Lambeth’s historic industry and London’s revolutionary approach to sanitation during the 19th century, the bench takes the form of a fragmented ceramic pipe, offering an unconventional vantage point to meet, sit, and ponder.
The terracotta tiles, manufactured by leading architectural ceramicists Darwen Terracotta and Faience, are glazed and patterned in tribute to Victorian Lambeth pottery decoration.
Mixing digital fabrication, traditional craft and structural innovation with terracotta, the bench utilizes ceramic’s structural properties by creating a self-supporting ceramic vault with very lightweight steel footings.
With Amir Afshar and Niels Werner Hersmann
• Client: St-James - Berkeley Group
Budget: £70,000.00
Location: London, UK
Stage: Completed in 2021