Binnanbrim

A long time ago, there lived a girl called Ulla. Ulla lived in a little house with her parents. Behind the little house, they had a vegetable patch, and at the end of the vegetable patch was a well. Ulla helped her mother with the vegetable patch most days and she loved to watch the buckets and buckets of clean cold water come up from the well. They used the water for everything, and she knew how lucky they were to have it.

As Ulla grew up, she became more and more curious about where all this water came from, until one dry day, as she was pulling up a bucket to water her vegetables, she thought she glimpsed something gleaming very slightly, way way down. She stared deep into the well, as she often did, imagining what might be down there, when suddenly, something pulled her, and before she knew it, she was racing down the well very very fast. She could see the circle of sky above her getting smaller and smaller, and when it was almost a dot she hit the water. It was very cold but she didn’t have much time to think about it because she was still being pulled down so fast, and then, as abruptly as it had appeared, she felt the water around her disappear, and she was still.

She had her eyes tightly shut. She felt around her. Something felt damply springy, like grass, so she opened her eyes. It looked like grass too, but slightly bigger, with millions of strange flowers that seemed to be drifting around and nodding slightly as if they were quietly chatting to each other.

“Hello”, said a voice above her. Ulla looked up. The sky was startling. It was grey green and rippling with hexagons. Shafts of light beamed through some places and glowing dots bobbed gently, lighting up others. As she looked more closely, she realised that the expanse above her was water, and it was filled with hundreds of different creatures, some bobbling, some flitting, some wafting gracefully around each other and some zooming past in a hurry. As she looked still closer, she realised that even the glowing dots were creatures; creatures more peculiar and wonderful than any she had imagined.

“My name is Wini.”

Ulla turned around. “Where am I?” She pulled herself up feeling very shaky.

“Binnanbrim! I’m sorry about the ride. There’s no other way, I’m afraid. You’ll be less wobbly in a minute.”

“Binnanbrim?” Ulla fell back down again.

Wini sat down next to her. “You need to help. You need to make a fountain.”

“What’s a fountain?”

As Ulla became less wobbly, Wini explained to her how Binnanbrim’s ocean sky was the source of her well. He described how she could make a fountain which would bring water to all the people in the town. He very proudly showed her drawings and little models of fantastically sculpted fountains overflowing with water, bubbling up for everyone; water as pure and clean as that at the bottom of her well.

“Will you remember all this?” Wini smiled.

“Yes, of course.” Ulla looked around her. The sight was incredible: reds fuzzed, blues lolloped and purples wiggled about as oranges melted into them.

“Splendid! Thank you.” Wini shook her hand. She felt a tugging breeze around her ankles, then her knees, and suddenly she was shooting up, up through the water, up through the well. She landed in her vegetable patch.

The sun was setting. Ulla ran inside quickly, for supper, but she was so stunned she could hardly eat. She tried to explain to her parents about how to build a fountain but they only laughed at her and told her: “That isn’t how you build a well.” The next day, Ulla ran to the house next door and tried to explain to the man who lived there but he didn’t understand either. Desperately, she went to every house nearby but nobody listened to her.

Eventually, she went to the spot Wini had told her of and determinedly, started to build a little fountain by herself. She knew it wouldn’t be as big or as beautiful as Wini’s ambitious models and this made her sad.

“What are you doing?” giggled two girls walking past. Ulla, covered in mud, explained to them, but of course, they didn’t believe her.

Day after day she got up very early and worked on the fountain before tending to her vegetables. Once she had finally finished, she sat down by the little fountain and waited for the desperately needed water to whoosh out. “They’ll see,” she thought, and she patiently waited and waited. But nothing happened. The man from next door rode past and laughed at her. After a long time of sitting and waiting on the prickly yellow grass, with everybody riding past laughing at her, she gave up, and exhausted, and very upset, she stumbled home to bed.

The next few weeks were very dry and everyone was getting irritable and worried. Ulla felt the gritty soil between her fingers in her vegetable patch. She was very worried that this was all her fault. She thought about Binnanbrim far below her thirsty vegetables. She thought Wini must be angry with her because she couldn’t build the fountain as she’d promised him. The days grew drier and drier, and everyone grew even more irritable and worried.

On another very dry day, Ulla was riding gloomily with her father when they passed her little fountain. She turned and faced the other way: she didn’t want to see it.

“Ulla look!” exclaimed her father. “Fresh water! Your fountain is working!”

Ulla looked round. She was completely astounded. “It works!”

Over the next few days everyone learnt about the little fountain and everyone came to use it everyday. So many people needed it that in the end they built a new, bigger fountain. They even made a statue of Ulla on top!

“My little girl has been obsessed with our well ever since she was tiny!” she heard her father proclaim proudly to their neighbour.

Ulla felt very shy about the statue and she wished she could convince them all about Binnanbrim.

The statue should not have been of her, but of Wini, in honour of all his hard work and clever designs. More than anything though, she wished she could go back and visit Binnanbrim one more time. She wanted so much to thank Wini and to see properly, the amazing world she had only glimpsed.

140 Boomerangs,
London Architecture Biennale 2006

with London Metropolitan University; Akera Engineers; Jackson Coles; City of London; Finnforest Merk; and The Fixers (completed 2006)

“140 Boomerangs” is a project made up of modular Boomerang-elements which may be assembled in various permutations. It is able to create site specific, fluid, playful forms but from a simple element which is simple to assemble and re-assemble.

With the help of 140 local primary school children, the first home of the boomerangs was a helical timber structure, inhabited by local children’s clay sculpture creatures, which wrapped the “Peace” fountain at the centre of West Smithfield during the London Festival of Architecture 2006.

Inspired by the garden’s character, we wrote a magical story which imagined a history to the statue and fountain, and a calling for an exhibition of creatures from the subterranean water-world: Binnanbrim. The story plays into the significance of clean water sources in London’s history and to fountains’ significance in place making.

We held 9 workshops with a total of 140 children where we told them the story and, giving each child a block of clay, asked them to make a sculpture of a magical creature from Binnanbrim. Our aim was to play on and intensify the site as an urban retreat and through the children’s sculptures offer up fantasies to visitors of the Biennale and passers-by.

The second homes of the Boomerangs were as play-furniture in Queen Street in the City of London and in the playgrounds of each of the three local schools that took part in the workshops.

To realise this project, we worked with a number of construction professionals as well as primary schools and sponsors. As this project was funded entirely through sponsorship, it was subject to very tight cost constraints. As such, as well as acting as designers, we also sought sponsorship both in cash and in kind, without which the project would not have been possible. We were also responsible for costing the project and seeking advice and consultants as required. As the project was part of the London Architecture Biennale ‘06, we had to work to a tight and fixed deadline.

We worked with London Metropolitan University Projects Office who provided us with project management advise; with Akera Engineers for the structure; with Jackson Coles to ensure the project was delivered on time and to budget; and with the City of London Corporation from whom, along with Finnforest Merk, The Fixers and many others, we raised the sponsorship required to deliver the project.

“140 Boomerangs” has since been exhibited as part of Architecture Week 2007, “Public City” at New London Architecture, and “Making Space” as part of the London Design Festival 2006. Studio Weave has also been awarded the KPF / Architecture Foundation Travel Award, the “Prize for Social Entrepreneurship” by LondonMet, and “Best Overall Delivery” by the National Architecture Student Festival 2006, for the project. It was following the success of this project that we were able to secure new commissions and formally set up our practice.