Work in progress. Architectural glass and metalwork design commission by Aberdeen City Council, 2024.
This work is a collaboration with Julian Stocks
Our starting point for the design was the idea of Aberdeen the Silver City; silver for the flecks of mica catching the sun in the many granite buildings transformed into shimmering light, silver for the River Dee which ran through it, silver for the many Silver Darlings fished in the sea. Inspired by the idea of shimmering, silver buildings and referencing the impressive granite facade of the original Aberdeen Market, we developed a scheme based on silver and granite crystal structures.
The final pattern was developed from microscopic images of a piece of granite salvaged from the current building site in January this year. We wanted to lead the design directly back to the site and previous buildings, rediscovering the very fabric of Aberdeen. The salvaged piece of pale Kemnay granite was analysed and photographed at Natural History Museum, London, using a microscopic stacker.
The microscopic images revealed the hidden structures of the granite, showing detailed specks of mica, feldspar and quartz, which have been incorporated directly into the design as graphic shapes and lines. The fine, sprawling lines also reference the striking, meandering patterns of Silver crystals. This design invites visitors to rediscover the familiar and see granite in a new way, resulting in a contemporary building with roots in tradition.
