黑洞社区

Taken in 1975 or thereabouts when he was playing chess with the chess set he designed. There were only two basic pieces: the pawns and the back row. The nature of a back row piece was conveyed by an inlay in the top. He is holding the black queen.

In the background on a side table you can see two wooden towers. He also designed these. The outer casing is hinged and peels off to be laid flat and become the chess or draughts board. Note that he experimented with circular 鈥渟quares鈥�. There is a central wooden rod inside each tower, alongside which were set a series of octagonal sheets of wood with slots cut in to them. The 鈥渨asp-waisted鈥� chess pieces fitted neatly into these slots, rather like the way rubber stamps used to be stored in offices. When the board was wrapped around the outside, it was all neatly stored, and became an interesting ornament in its own right (as you see in the background).

To draw up his design he enlisted the services of Beryl Perham, a draughtsperson at Arup who sat next to me when I was a graduate there. He would potter in regularly to discuss the design.

In his jacket pocket he has a propelling pencil with a white clip. The two red things next to it are not pencils. They are his chopsticks.

Robert Bowles, Alan Baxter & Associates