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INSIGHTS PRACTICE PROFILE THISS Architects
Looking to carve out a niche as a new practice, THISS Architects focus on craftsmanship, collaboration, and landscape with a goal of ensuring that no two projects are ever the same. The firm’s founders explain their working methods to Tom Boddy
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tartup practice THISS Architects was founded in 2018 by long time friends Tamsin Hanke and Sash Scott. However since its inception, the east London-based practice has already been involved in some unorthodox and interesting projects – and has many exciting designs in the pipeline. Now a full-time staff of four, the practice’s specialisms sit within the sectors of landscape, residential, and arts.
Having studied for their masters together at the Bartlett School
of Architecture, both Hanke and Scott then peeled off in different directions, each gaining experience in a diverse range of settings. While working for respected firms such as Michaelis Boyd and Niall McLaughlin Architects, Hanke has been involved with a clutch of major projects including the Sultan Nazrin Shah Centre at Oxford University which was shortlisted for the Stirling Prize in 2018. She has also ventured to far-flung places such as Siberia and Iceland, to work on schemes in “extreme landscapes, including buildings in “geothermal areas, as well as mountains.” Scott has also had his fair share of travel, including cycling to India between his part 1 and 2, as well as working in Amsterdam
for Wiel Arets Architects. Upon returning to London, practices he has worked for include Hawkins\Brown, Tonkin Liu, and TDO. While his portfolio boasts large scale projects such as a nuclear power station in Somerset, Scott has also worked on numerous smaller, “more hands-on” projects. “Over the years I’ve worked with artists such as Ivan Morison, delivering sculptures as well as small installations in places like Tate Modern, so it’s been quite a range,” Scott says. The pair’s experience with hands-on, craft-focused projects, in some cases seeing them directly involved with fabrication as part of their aim of “understanding exactly how things are made,” has fed into the practice’s philosophy. “I got a lot more out of the smaller projects,” says Scott, “compared with the larger ones where you lose intimacy with the objects and the people making them.” With each of their projects, a lot of effort goes into understanding the craft of how things are made, pursuing all of the work with a “much more hands-on approach.” When establishing the practice, Hanke and Scott’s vision for the work they wanted to undertake was underpinned by their
LESWIN ROAD, NORTH LONDON
A residential scheme which explored blending inside and outside spaces to a achieve a new level of integration between the two
POLINATIONS PROJECT
A concept for a city centre “forest garden” for Birmingham Festival 2022, representing a “dazzling wonderland filled with colour, beauty and diversity”
WWW.ARCHITECTSDATAFILE.CO.UK
ADF MAY 2022
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