Sarah Pace
Co-Director, Addo Creative
The Civic Stage
#Placemaking
“Aberrant’s innovative and people-centred approach has ensured that the final artwork meets and exceeds the original brief.”
“Addo commissioned Aberrant Architecture to create a public art commission in Swansea City Centre. The aim was to encourage exploration of the City, emphasise key locations, and help create memorable experiences that people want to return too.
Aberrant undertook a six-month residency based at Mission Gallery, where they undertook research and worked with different local groups to develop a permanent external commission which reflects the industrial and cultural heritage of the City, whilst also contributing to the City’s high quality public realm.
Throughout the design, fabrication and implementation phases, Aberrant showed an understanding of the wider aims and objectives of the Client and worked with the Project Team to ensure that the artwork helped to achieve these, whilst also taking into account the various constraints and considerations that the Council and its partners and funders must operate under.
Aberrant’s innovative and people-centred approach has ensured that the final artwork meets and exceeds the original brief, has engendered public and stakeholder buy-in, will be delivered on time and within budget and complements Swansea’s cityscape.”
Philippa Simpson
Director of Design & Estate, V&A Museum
Laughing Matters & The Living Room
#Exhibition Design, #Workplace
“They were able to create a visitor experience quite unlike the rest of our permanent galleries.”
“We worked with David and Kevin on our Laughing Matters gallery and Christmas installation at both South Kensington and Bethnal Green in 2019. They quickly integrated with the internal team and engaged closely with the content and narratives, bringing joy and sensitivity to a display that dealt with some challenging and varied subject matter.
Having developed a deep understanding of the demands of object display, they were able to create a visitor experience quite unlike the rest of our permanent galleries. This has proven extremely popular, and has helped generate new thinking around how we show our collections.”
Marie Bak Mortensen
Director, Create
Creation from Catastrophe
#Exhibition Design
“The collaboration with Aberrant Architecture was a highly enjoyable experience, and their efforts and creativity were ably rewarded when the exhibition design won the prestigious D&AD Award.”
“RIBA appointed Aberrant Architecture as exhibition designers for the exhibition Creation from Catastrophe – How architecture rebuilds communities. Aberrant was briefed to create a spatial environment that would contextualise the exhibition theme while also ensuring that an exhibition, which relied much on facsimiles and contemporary video, would appear engaging and rich in content alongside original historical objects.
Aberrant worked enthusiastically and respectfully across a freelance curator, exhibition staff, freelance graphic designers, contractors and collection experts to draw up an experiential spatial experience. They created a series of spaces that felt varied, with surprises and changes of tempo. Visitors were drawn from the gridded Perspex interior up through an inclined passageway into a deliciously textural cork-finished enclosure. Finally, at the top of the ramp, one could peer back over a mirrored clerestory level, playing with the notion of top down master planning principles vs community-driven rebuild strategies.
The collaboration with Aberrant Architecture was a highly enjoyable experience, and their efforts and creativity were ably rewarded when the exhibition design won the prestigious D&AD Award.”
Kathryn Dempsey
Head of Engagement, FACT
The Social Playground
#Exhibition Design, #Installations
“The outcome of the consultation and the resulting exhibition was very successful and captured many of the issues that had come forward from the participants and staff.”
“FACT commissioned Aberrant Architecture to devise and create the exhibition Knowledge Lives Everywhere. Their brief was to build an exhibition around FACT’s Collaborations and Engagement Programme’s extensive portfolio of work and build a strong visual reference around this, creating an interactive exhibition across FACT’s two main galleries and public spaces.
Aberrant delivered a number of workshops with both staff and participants to extract the ideas and concepts that form our Collaborations and Engagement Programme. They worked across a range of ages and interests and successfully delivered excellent workshops that engaged all parties in both lively discussion and creative activity inviting them to make their own designs.
The outcome of the consultation and the resulting exhibition was very successful and captured many of the issues that had come forward from the participants and staff. We found them very flexible to work with and were very open to our ideas and input.”
David Anderson
Director General, National Museum Wales
V&A Architecture Residency
#Research
“Aberrant Architecture’s work at the V&A was transformatory.”
“Aberrant Architecture were the winners of the ‘Architecture Residency’ award at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London. In conjunction with the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), the practice researched the museums’ historical precedents on the subject of ‘work’.
Subsequently the practice has fed this research into the production of a series of new creative project that address flexible work & lifestyles in the 21st century.
At the time of their residency, I was Director of Learning and Interpretation, and had overall management responsibility for the Residency Programme. During this time, around 500 HE students directly benefited from crit sessions, research seminars, studio visits and practical sessions taking place in the Sackler Centre for Arts Education.
Aberrant Architecture’s work at the V&A was transformatory. Theirs was the first residency to seize the opportunity offered by their studio in the V&A to develop substantial higher education and community networks. The studio was alive with visitors and activity, far beyond the expectations of the museum for a residency of this kind. The practice provided a model that guided the V&A in its thinking about future residencies.”
Vicky Richardson
Head of Architecture and Heinz Curator, Royal Academy of Arts
British Pavilion at The Venice Biennale,
#Research, #Installations
“Their project for the British Pavilion highlights how important research and exploration are to their practice, and their preoccupation with playfully addressing contemporary problems with research-based design.”
“As the commissioner and co-curator of the British Council’s ‘Venice Takeaway’ exhibition in the British Pavilion at the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale, I was part of the advisory panel that selected Aberrant Architecture’s proposal to feature in the show. Given the current debate in the UK about a proposed new generation of stripped-down, ‘flat pack’ schools, Aberrant Architecture’s exploration of architect Oscar Niemeyer’s hundreds of prefabricated schools in Rio de Janeiro was both fascinating and timely.
Their project for the British Pavilion highlights how important research and exploration are to their practice, and their preoccupation with playfully addressing contemporary problems with research-based design.
Having completed projects in a number of different regions around the world I particularly admire the international nature of the practice and their ability to cross multiple design disciplines and scales, by simultaneously operating in the fields of architecture, design contemporary art & cultural analysis.”