Over our years of research, Intermediate Two has unearthed the poetics of tactile and sensual architecture, often through a careful study of the history of places.
This year's focus was the historic town of Aldermaston, Berkshire, and the Aldermaston Park, a vacant estate that sits in close proximity to the Atomic Weapons Establishment plant. We studied the buildings that occupy the town and estate as well as the landscape and garden walls. From here, strategies were devised to re-imagine Aldermaston as a new town with a prominent role in today's British and international scene.
The average Aldermaston resident is approximately 50 years old. Based on this demographic we transformed the town into a pioneering resort for the ageing population. Learning from similarly visionary projects, such as the Royal Saltworks at Arc-et-Senans in France (1770s), we created an architectural setting to shape a new community and lifestyle.
Relying on memories and tradition, but also maintaining a forward-looking and innovative point of view, Intermediate Two works with the notion of the 'historical present', as defined by Italian architect Gio Ponti and refined by Italo-Brazilian architect Lina Bo Bardi. We are committed to understanding context in a complex manner by looking at its physical, temporal, social, political layers. Most importantly, we aim to contribute to the configuration of new contexts, dealing with our subjective and individual senses and emotions (psychological dimension) as members of a community (social dimension), as agents of transformation (political dimension).
Ana Araujo practises as a designer, an educator and a researcher. She is cofounder of Atelier Domino and of Travesia. Her work has been exhibited and published internationally (Holland, Germany, Australia, UK, Brazil). Her current research focuses on Latin American design, from the early twentieth-century to the present.
Takero Shimazaki is an architect and leads Toh Shimazaki Architecture in London. He also runs t-sa forum workshops, which are self-initiated by the practice. Based on the context and the lives of the inhabitants, the practice focuses on poetically driven bespoke projects, realised and built since 1996. He has taught and lectured internationally.
