Common Ground is a research collective focused on the reintegration of Hyperlocal clay into our built environment.
We partnered with Park Royal to provide us with large quantities of HS2’s excavated clay from various London construction sites.
The wasted material was collected and then processed into workable clay. This delicate process demanded thorough research of the possible additives that can be present in the clay and safe firing protocols.
However, it also asked us to move away from conventional ceramic techniques to give way to new methods that accommodate for the ambiguous soils of London. The project presents itself as a collaboration between design, science and disturbed soil. Approached with care and naivety, each piece of work lives as a physical hypothesis.
From the material dialogue, Common Ground Bridges is a material workshop wherein the public will make models of future-forward bridges that could reconnect the land and people separated by the construction of high-speed trains. Our goal was to collaboratively create a metaphorical and physical bridge between science, engineering and everyone who calls London home. This collaboration helped us provide the next generation of engineers with a blueprint to construct speculative, future-driven urban infrastructures, focusing on the integration of high-speed trains into both urban and rural landscapes of the United Kingdom.
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