Botanical Research Terrace, 2008
Spaces buildings Make/ Cat Hill Campus of Middlesex University, London 2005/8

Art & Humanities Research Council Funded, 3-Year Fellowship 

Botanical Research Terrace/ was an inflatable prosthetic stand-in for the conservatory and water tank elements of the tower, which were demolished due to structural deterioration. The six-meter high inflatable dimensions were taken from the architects’ plans and elevations. A single transparent membrane separates the interior of the structure from the outside environment creating its own climate independent of the external atmosphere. 
Taking reference from the dimensions of the tower, tables were fabricated as stand-ins for the imagined furnishings housed in the original conservatory. These objects revive the physicality of this mutable and ill-defined space. The furniture becomes evocative of human activity within this pressurised chamber. College staff and performers read a script based on archival data and logistical information generated by the Phase Two building’s quantity surveyors between 1973 and 1978.

The installation was later relocated to the National Theatre, South Bank, London as part of the London Festival of Architecture.