Phil Hall-Patch

Phillip Hall-Patch  BA(Hons), DipArch, MArch, MRes

Phillip is an internationally exhibited artist and an award-winning architect, lead tutor for Studio 15 with Ian MacKay at the Brighton School of Architecture & Design and Head of Technical Design at Heatherwick Studio.

Phillip’s personal cross disciplinary and research-based practice spans a number of scales and disciplines, from developing building systems made from salt for public art installations in coastal locations, to sculpture and photography. The themes of Material, Memory and Time run through all his work revealing an interest in conceptual and process led art/ design. He has recently been awared a Masters in Arts & Cultural Research (MRes) at the School of Art, University of Brighton.

Within the School of Architecture and Design, Studio 15 (established in 2015) pursues the interlinked themes of Materials, Sustainability and the amalgam of these themes in notions pertaining to Place and Place-making. This is very much a research-led studio exploring the many and varied connections between place and landscape.

An interest in the relationship between digital culture (what Zygmut Bauman refers to as ‘liquid modernity’), and an increasing tendency to disassociate from our environment, stems from an interest an psychotherapy. Phillip received a Postgraduate Certificate in Psychotherapy from Spectrumtherapy, London, in 2015.

Studio 15: Statement of teaching approach, aims & objectives

Within the School of Architecture and Design, Studio 15 (established in 2015) pursues the interlinked themes of Materials, Sustainability and the amalgam of these themes in notions pertaining to Place and Place-making. This is very much a “research-led” studio following the respective interests of both its tutors; Phillip Hall-Patch and Ian McKay, practicing artists and architects.

Students are invited to engage directly with materials to build an embodied knowledge of material and spatial possibilities within an iterative design process. This process of learning and understanding forms a dialogue between student and material in a constant state of feedback, in what Tim Ingold describes in his book Making (Routledge, 2013), as a “correspondence” with materials. 

The invitation to students is to develop sensitivity to the material world, and by extension the physical environment around them. As tutors we challenge preconceived notions of material use and especially that of a linear cradle-to-grave mentality. Our approach is to develop a critical attitude in students with an existential understanding of their place in the world and the impact of their decision making as future architects and designers.

A defining feature of the studio has become, year-on-year, the development of briefs with live clients and live environmental/ social issues. This creates a palpable sense of the relevance of the work, and encourages innovative thinking towards tangible solutions/ proposals.

The teaching style and methods of the studio can be summarised as follows:

-       Research-led teaching beginning with an interest in materials and materiality but widening into larger themes of place and place-making in relation to landscape.

-       The identification of project briefs with live clients allowing students to explore brief investigation first hand and to formally present final proposals and receive feedback at the end of the year.

-       The use of carefully selected sites for each brief, encouraging students to engage with the physical realities of complex site conditions and environmental constraints.

-       There is no studio ‘style’ – within the constraints of the studio’s interests and site, heterogeneity and the development of students individual interests are paramount

-       Periods of active play and exploration are promoted allowing for students to experience the creative process and experiment with different working methods.

-       Accident and chance in the creative process are encouraged as ways of developing self-reflexivity and for enriching proposals with unexpected moments of discovery.

-       Small group seminars discuss set-texts in the early part of the term, to create an understanding of their relevance and impact on the themes of the studio as well as on individual projects.

-       Combinations of small-group and individual tutorials allow students to learn from each other, assess their own progress/ development and encourage dialogue and debate amongst their peers.

Pin-up presentations through the year begin with informal discussions, and end with more formal presentations to a panel of external critics, to create opportunities to develop presentation skills.