Stephen Bates: Upper Lawn Pavilion. Strategy and Detail, Drawing / Feeling everything at once

On Friday 28 and Saturday 29 April Drawing Matter hosted a study symposium in the archive at Shatwell Farm, part of the conference Drawings as Objects of Knowledge Part II: The Archive Nurtures a Culture of Circularity, convened by KU Leuven and TU Delft.

In addition to presentations by invited applicants, the symposium included a special session on Alison and Peter Smithson’s drawings for Upper Lawn, loaned for the occasion by the Smithson family, and concluded with a visit to the building itself.

This film is part of series of posts of selected papers from the study symposium. More about the event, and other films and written papers, can be found here: www.drawingmatter.org/drawings-as-objects-of-knowledge-study-symposium.

About the speaker

Stephen Bates is a founding partner of Sergison Bates architects. Established in 1996, the practice was awarded the Heinrich Tessenow and the Eric Shelling Awards in 2006 and many of their projects have received prestigious awards. Stephen taught at the Architectural Association and was Visiting Professor at ETH Zurich, EPF Lausanne, ETSAB Barcelona, the Oslo School of Architecture, University of Antwerp, and GSD Harvard. Since 2009 he has been Professor of Urbanism and Housing at TU München. Through his work in practice, in his teaching, and his writing he has explored the role of architecture at all scales, from city-making to domesticity, designing buildings that are rooted in place, engaged with the historical dimension of existing urban fabric, responsive to the challenges of environmental, economic, and social sustainability.