CLAY HOUSE

After visiting Essex multiple times and researching about the area I was drawn to what was underneath the land. The proposed programme for my settlement is a brick production. Much of Essex land sits on the London Basin and clay is found in abundance. The ambition of my programme is to bring back traditional methods of making hand moulded bricks and at the same time taking advantage of new clay inventions which are produced in a sustainable way. The programme will support a circular economy, provide new jobs and through that help revitalising the area.

I have embarked on this journey with following questions in mind:

How can a new settlement add to the rich and unique character of Essex, with its vast open skies and horizontal landscape, rustic barns and remnants of the past dispersed over the county?

How can an agglomeration of working industrial buildings achieve a poetic quality andlanguage which is contextual and imaginative?