MY HOME IS NOT MY CASTLE 

has been selected for The Open 100 by Artangel amongst more than 1,500 submissions, the proposal lays open for public scrutiny the dire compromises of new housing in the UK, the ‘Ruins of the Newly Built’

Experiencing and understanding the dimension and layout of mostly poor housing standards, visitors can walk around the ‘ruins of the newly built’.

The proposal is setting out a typical ground floor plan of newly built 2 bed room houses at scale 1:1 via one layer of breeze blocks and white grass painting showing the internal furniture.

New planning laws provide a historic moment as unprotected countryside can now be utilised - only national parks enjoy safeguarding - bringing the issues into the heart of the city.


50,000 such properties are built yearly and new planning laws will accelerate this development. The countryside is up for sale and we will all pay the price.
This sculpture shows the cramped spaces in actual dimension, beside the scaled plans shown below deliberately dramatic, polemical signs, such as 
‘Warning – Harmful Housing’ and
‘DO enter. New planning laws allow countryside to be built over.’
This ‘ruin of the newly built’ thus offers an interactive experience up close, of the absurdity and shortcomings of contemporary housing.

Research at the Future Homes Commission and RIBA’s Case for Space report shows that there is not enough space in the rooms, not enough storage and not enough natural light. Insufficient flexible spaces are provided for communal and private living or changes in the household over time. New homes are not built for the needs of modern families and they are shrinking: Average new homes in the UK are 15% smaller than in Ireland, 53% smaller than in Denmark and 80% smaller than in Germany. 

This is a national scandal. Just as we have enjoyed the legacy of generous Georgian, Edwardian and Victorian architecture for the last two hundred years - spaces which mostly still function flexibly and brilliantly for families across the UK - so we will similarly be lumbered with the bad architecture of 2013 for many decades to come too.

The UK needs a change of mentality, designing long-term homes of our dreams, playing to our fantasies, feeding our imagination, and aiming to deliver pleasure, joy and community spirit. We need housing, but it has to be delivered with vision and a generosity of spirit, as whatever is built is here to stay.

The site reflects the fact that green site developments are now preferred over brown site developments, even though there are now more available than ever due to deindustrialisation. New planning laws will accelerate this development for potential building as 60% of England's land area is unprotected countryside - only designated national parks will be fully safeguarded - a historic moment with an impact which is permanent and irreversible. Developments need to add value to our future and not destroy our country for short term profit.



Evolution Diagram 
Public Art Commission 'The Swirl' in the Orchard Centre, Didcot, Winning Competition
The sculpture's design derived by literally peeling the skin of an apple, which is a 
pointed reference to the name of the centre and the surrounding orchards; ongoing






View into the Sky                                                                                                     
The Swirl is a 7m high stainless steel installation                                                  
in the city centre of Didcot, currently under construction                                                                                             




3D modeling the public art commission




Photomontage showing The Swirl in context above the amphitheater in the Orchard Centre, Didcot.   


















                                                   

Exhibition 'Room 102' at Gallery Maison Bertaux in Soho
Referring to George Orwells's novel 1984 which features 'Room 101' an undesirable 
place in which a prisoner is subjected to his or her own worst nightmare, fear or phobia,  
Room 102 is the complete opposite; a profoundly joyful space, which examines ideas 
of connectiveness and is a realm of heightened sensation, sensibility and emotion.

             

Exhibition 'Fizzy Target' at Gallery Bon Martin, London                                                                                                                                  
exploring the duality between the formal and the informal, the precise and the blurry























From the 'Inside my Head' Series, 2011
structural, three-dimensional reliefs, which explore the structural 
within the chaotic or the chaotic within the structural;
  'Seeing with your Eyes closed' Gallerie and der Stadthalle, Bayreuth, Germany    The series examines various 'emotional spaces' by attempting to translate inner, complex worlds                                                                             into the outer, public sphere. The concurrence of specific influences, exchanges and movements                                                                                   of the 'liquid inner world' creates  spatial, soft and abstract landscapes, inspiring memories and desires.

                                                                                                             



Teaching at Cardiff University, WSA


                             



















KingsXcarpet
An innovative hob scotch carpet communicates the King's Cross development area whilst raising public awareness. 
The carpet at scale 1:30, reveals historic and new facts about the King's Cross development via the hob scotch numbers.
with leit-werk funded by Peabody Trust and Camden Coucil 


















Alte Remise Installation, Vienna
Built as part of the transformation of the old tram depot; with archipel, 3rd place in Neon Art Competition