Tonkin Liu’s studio is shaped by nature. From watching light change through the seasons to collecting seeds on their travels, Mike Tonkin and Anna Liu share how reconnecting with the rhythms of the natural world is key to designing for the long term.
Mike Tonkin and Anna Liu photographed at their home studio in London. “We work collaboratively surrounded by nature. The first-floor studio looks north into Wilmington Square and south over the Sun Rain Rooms. We watch the changing light of the day and the delights of seasonal change. The Georgian proportions and details are simple and elegant. It is peaceful but ever-changing.”
On our travels, we collect seeds, shells, bones and other pocket-sized inspiration from nature, each telling a story of growth and form and a journey of transformation. Each is a particular formal, structural, and environmental system that enacts its particular story. Even when we travel, the day always ends with David Attenborough; we watch his past series in an endless rotation. He takes us into the natural world and inspires our dreams.
Nature is regenerative when it is an interconnected system capable of sustaining multiple time scales. The regenerative architectural ecosystem of sculpted space and built mass works symbiotically with the flow of the living matters of people, sunlight, wind, water, plants and wildlife. Regenerative architecture aims to not create a debt to our future generations, rather, it hopes to create a saving, actively harnessing and increasing the abundance of materiality, resources and connectedness.
Nature’s systems are intensely demanding technical systems catering for wildly different organisms, akin to an urban environment. Technical constraints, namely limited space and resources, can sometimes spur a multitude of ingenious solutions. The invention of new tools and skills and resilient community strategies such as sharing resources, are only a few examples. Keep in mind that the more a system is equitable in its share of resources, the more it will retain its balance and vitality.
In our new book, Asking, Looking, Playing, Making, we address the design process within practice. We would now like to apply this approach to rethink the industry’s procedure and procurement process. The current, reactive practice in our industry is neither sustainable nor regenerative. A systemic change is needed, to de-silo the mindsets of academics, policymakers, professionals, and manufacturers, towards creating a holistic, united mindset. Innovative and long-term thinking can put in place a system capable of delivering on the promises of building excellence.
Evolution compresses thousands of responsive decisions to make environmental design solutions adaptive over time. AI can test and assess the evolution of design ideas. Its knowledge and input in material and technique are key. With the assistance of AI, new materials and new technique could lead to a new vernacular that is capable of improving the process of building.
We wish more architectural practices would accept and own up to the challenges of our present and our future. We must address them by wielding the tremendous skills we as architects all have for problem-solving and for looking forward. Shedding the practice of cynicism, historicism, and defeatism, we all need to be on board for creating a forward-facing and collective courage; a courage not to be mistaken for naivety or megalomania. We must move forward together, using our collective imagination to rekindle our profession as a responsive, regenerative practice.
Mike Tonkin and Anna Liu
Tonkin Liu
Clerkenwell, London
