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Architects Directory 2009

 

Platform 5 Architects

United Kingdom

BIOGRAPHY AND PRACTICE

Set up in 2006 by Patrick Michell and Nicholas Bone, Platform 5 practically stumbled into their first job, the redevelopment of a site in North London. Both trained in the UK (Michell in Edinburgh and London, Bone in Liverpool), the pair cut their teeth working for the likes of Walter Menteth, Glen Howells and A-EM.

Preferring to stress a human, conversational approach to architecture, Platform 5 want their work to mediate between buildings and landscape. 'Our design process is influenced by both traditional craft techniques and the possibilities offered by modern materials and fabrication methods,' they say, and the harmonious, minimal interventions in their Hackney extension illustrate this sensitivity. 'Our work is a continuation of history, not a modernist rejection of the past.' Both Adolf Loos and Sir John Soane are name-checked, architects who could 'sequence space and create perverse relationships.'

THE HOUSE

The Courtyard House prototype suggests flexibility and fluidity. A two-bed house designed along a modular framework, the prototype envisages an uncertain future, with the ability to move internal partitions and even space for 'food production, wildlife and relaxation in the interlocking gardens' that run through the plan.

THE FUTURE

Upcoming projects include houses, hotels and a Vietnamese business and cultural centre. The proposed 'Boot House' is designed to slot into the leftover space in a traditional Victorian terrace. The practice also wants projects that allow them a greater engagement with public space.

www.platform5architects.com