ByOthers’ hand-made studio in Peckham, South London will help the new practice grow as it straddles architecture, contracting and development
Photos
Lorenzo Zandri
Words
Jason Sayer
“When establishing the practice I wanted to embark on a project that would mark the intersection of our interests in design, material exploration and construction,” Richard Keys, director at ByOthers told Architecture Today, speaking about the practice’s hand-made studio in South London.
ByOthers was born in 2020 when Keys left Bjarke Ingels Group to set up a different type of practice, one that had a better grip of the adjacent stages either side of architecture. In this vein, the practice operates alongside ‘Places ByOthers’, a development arm used to bring forward self-initiated projects, as well as a building and construction arm, ‘Built ByOthers’ which helps realise them.
“Building our own office was an exciting opportunity to test ideas in a low-risk environment without the wait to be commissioned,” Keys continued. “Being in my own garden also meant we had constant access and could iterate throughout the process, which brought us together as a team to work creatively and collaboratively along the build process.”
The office in question is a 20-metre-square timber studio that finds itself nestled at the back of a generously landscaped garden in Peckham. Mud-coloured cor-ten steel panelling complements the flora on show, while also celebrating the tectonic qualities of the office through U-shape beams that have been inverted to highlight how they were fastened together.
Floor plan
Inside, the structure’s tapering rooflines create an undulating ceiling that delineates three spaces within: for work, meetings and utilities. The atmosphere is light and warm as the sun falls through a glass pivot door than can be fully opened when the weather is right. When it’s not, sheep’s wool insulation ensures the space remains comfortable.
Iridescent dipped steel meanwhile, has been used for custom kitchen and bathroom pods
Costing just £50,000 to make, studio is light on its feet, too. The timber-framed office rests upon a timber raft which in turn sits on manually installed screwpile foundations, which eschew the need for any concrete.
“The ByOther’s architecture team built the studio by hand, working together to fix everything from hand-screwing deep foundations and bolting together the inverted corten cladding,” added Keys. “The idea of forming a contracting business evolved from this process and the learning we had as a team.”
Though only a team of four, ByOthers use the studio is used to test ideas such as clayworks plaster and a natural, vegetable-based timber oil.
“We will most likely outgrow the studio in the future, but we will continue to us it as a space for the team to meet, brain storm or give variation to their workplace,” said Keys.
Additional Images
Source: Architecture Today