Tent Poles in the Ground - by Stephen Bates (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"Tent poles in the ground" is a collection of 21 texts by the famous architect Stephen Bates. They testifies to the importance of writing as part of a form of practice that includes building and teaching.

Tent Poles in the ground is a collection of twenty-one texts by Stephen Bates. Like Papers (2001), Papers 2 (2007) and Papers 3 (2016), which were written in collaboration with Jonathan Sergison, co-founder of Sergison Bates architects, 'Tent Poles' testifies to the importance of writing as part of a form of practice that includes building and teaching.

The reflections included are part of the process of developing and testing ideas in Sergison Bates's London studio and in Stephen Bates's teaching studio at the Chair of Urbanism and Housing, TU München. Covering a range of themes, from domesticity to the city, landscape and the design process, they record both the fundamental principles that inform his approach to architecture and the shifts in thinking that have come about in 30 years of practice.

While these are personal reflections on buildings and spaces, they were inspired by discussions across the table in the London studio, with teaching colleagues and students in Munich, and meetings with interesting people from different creative disciplines. Like the making of buildings, thinking and writing about them, too, is always the result of a process of collaboration.

About the Author

Stephen Bates leads the main London office of Sergison Bates. He is closely involved in the development of all projects from inception to completion. He graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1989 and gained professional experience in London and Barcelona. He has taught at a number of schools of architecture, including the Architectural Association in London. Since 2009 he has been Professor of Urbanism and Housing at the Technische Universität in Munich together with Bruno Krucker. Through the development of numerous projects and his teaching role at TU Munich, he has explored the practical and theoretical aspects of city-making and domesticity and has written and lectured extensively on the various issues connected with the relationship between the two scales. He has been a member of various Design Review Panels in London and has served on many international architectural competition juries. Stephen is a member of RIBA, the Belgian Orde van Architecten and the Bayerische Architektenkammer.