RIPPLE RIPPLE RIPPLING:
DRYSTONE HOUSE FOUNDATION
Public installation
Southwest corner of Bedford Square, London, UK.
11 October – 6 November, 2024
Southwest corner of Bedford Square, London, UK.
11 October – 6 November, 2024
A drystone foundation of a Chinese village house was built on Bedford Square in London, using 24 tonnes of Purbeck stone. Drystone is a register of shared yet divergent knowledge: in Shigushan, China, foundations shift between home, ruin, and communal space, while in the British countryside, stone walls mark boundaries and property lines. By superimposing a domestic blueprint onto a privately owned public square in central London, the structure deliberately unsettled the entrenched divide between public and private space in the UK.
Its making was a collective effort involving drystone masters, architects, and students—it truly “took a village.” Over its 28 days, the foundation became a shared habitat: a lunch spot for students and workers, a playground for nearby schoolchildren, a feeding ground for crows, and, at night, a passage for foxes leaving paw prints in the sand.
When its permitted life came to an end, we organised a dismantling workshop in which every stone was removed, sorted, and bagged. The stone columns stacked in bags stood as seeds of knowledge transfer. From there, the materials continued into new lives: the stones returned to the Dorset quarry; plant-based blocks and recycled glass aggregates moved on to another building site; wood chips to a pavilion; soil and sand to a community garden; and the potted plants were carried home by workshop participants. This house foundation—temporary, collective, and cyclical—was never an ending, but a beginning.
She offers a cup of water to you, to everyone that comes [Durational performance by Mengfan Wang and Shuyi Alice Wang], 10 October 2024
Jesse Darling in conversation with Jingru (Cyan) Cheng & Chen Zhan, AA Lecture Hall, London, 24 October 2024
Reflexive food gathering with Barney Pau,
5 November 2024
Drydtone Deconstruction Workshop [Laura Stargala and Timothée Ryan with AA Material Arcade], 6 November 2024
Wallpaper exhibition review: Architectural Association's newest show uncovers the architectural legacies of rural China's lost generation, 2024
KoozArch interview: Ripple, Traces, Drifts: Jingru (Cyan) Cheng and Chen Zhan on process-oriented practice, 2025
Ripple Ripple Rippling
Curators: Jingru (Cyan) Cheng, Chen Zhan, Mengfan Wang and AA Public Programme
Installation Photo: Anne Tetzlaff, Chen Zhan
Installation Video: Chen Zhan, Arturo Bandinelli, AA AV Team
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Drystone team led by Tim Mason and Richard Gray, with Max Higgins & Jonah Rollason from Building Crafts College, and volunteers Laura Stargala, Timothée Ryan and Octave Cusinberche.
Foundation infill and planting by Architectural Association, Royal College of Art, London School of Architecture students and graduates: Sarah Teekay, Karmanya Gupta, Amitoz Boonga, Jassimar Singh Wahi, Selin Oktem, Ga Ho Jeffery Yu, Nazar Efendiev, Sedef Goke, Jiayi Wang, Lucy Stubbs and Clara; AA Facility staff; Passers-by, lorry drivers, Jess & Kier building team and Bedford Estates gardeners.
Stone advice: Juliet Haysom and Vanessa Norwood
Supported by the Architectural Association, Graham Foundation and Huazhong University of Science and Technology
In-kind material support: Haysom Purbeck Stone and Ty-Mawr Lime.