黑洞社区

We鈥檙e in a real East End Victorian pub, all wooden floor boards, a jar of pickled eggs on the counter and brash young cosmopolitans.

鈥淚 used to live above the office,鈥� says Richard about the practice鈥檚 converted Victorian shop around the corner. 鈥淏ut now we鈥檝e sold the flat and bought a house in Kent. So after nights out like this, I sleep in the office basement.鈥� Curled up, that is, with all the bikes belonging to office staff.

鈥淎nd I kip on the company sofa, as far away from Richard as possible,鈥� chips in Andy, who lives in the Weald.

鈥淵ou don鈥檛 actually need a physical office any more,鈥� muses Sam. 鈥淛ust a web address.鈥� Then he turns even more philosophical: 鈥淭ransience is pertinent to me.鈥�

鈥淭hat鈥檚 because he鈥檚 homeless,鈥� says Richard.

鈥淵eah, I have a landlord who hasn鈥檛 been paying the mortgage. I was up in court to try to get the eviction date put back.鈥�

Sam鈥檚 architectural career is equally transient. 鈥淚 took my part one degree at Cambridge University, and then on my year out, they closed the part two course. Actually that was a good thing, because otherwise I wouldn鈥檛 have landed up with Surface Architects.鈥�

鈥淲hen Sam came here, he wasn鈥檛 sure what architecture was all about,鈥� says Andy.

鈥淲e like ambiguity,鈥� says Richard, mysteriously.

鈥淗e鈥檚 been converted now,鈥� adds Andy.

As for Carlo from Milan, Richard says: 鈥淗e鈥檚 very assimilated. He even cycles to work.鈥�

鈥淚 used to be a rugby player in Milan,鈥� chips in the Italian anglophile.

Even so, Carlo doesn鈥檛 always catch on to the rollicking architectural in-talk of his English colleagues. 鈥淪ometimes he hasn鈥檛 quite understood our explanations of projects,鈥� says Richard. 鈥淏ut this has given us several moments of serendipity. He鈥檚 asked some basic questions that have given us completely new ideas. That鈥檚 happened two or three times.鈥�

Richard then turns cultural. 鈥淚鈥檝e just seen the new Anthony Minghella film, Breaking and Entering, and it鈥檚 wonderful. But its depiction of architects is bollocks. And there was an earlier American film called Indecent Proposal that gave a classical romantic image of an architect.鈥�

Andy and Richard then slip in a few thinly veiled plugs for the architectural awards that their angular Lock-keepers cottage in London Docklands nearly won. 鈥淲e were at the RIBA conference in Venice and we鈥檙e going to MIPIM next year,鈥� adds Richard.

Just like Broadway Malyan, I wonder aloud.

Quick as a flash, Richard retorts: 鈥淪urface Architects are not the new Broadway Malyan.鈥�