What Would it Take?
muf Practice Profile
Introduction
muf is a collaborative practice of art and architecture committed to working in the public realm. The practice was formed in 1994 by artist Katherine Clarke and architects Juliet Bidgood and Liza Fior. Cathy Hawley, architect, joined in 1994, artist Ashley McCormick in 1996 and Melanie Dodd, architect, in 1998.
Our ambition is to embed enlightened and enduring interventions that address both the physical and social fabric of the urban environment and extend the potential pleasures of public space by making room for speculative dreaming and imaginary thinking.
Our process of design development makes space to value the desires, imagination and skills of those people that live, work or play in a given area. We seek to establish effective means of consultation, negotiation and collaboration, to enable us to research existing situations and to give a precision to the realisation of proposals.
The practice is experienced in extending the collaborative process of working to include the client and client constituency or user/audience, as well as experts in the subject area of the project.
muf have worked with the London Boroughs of Southwark, Hackney and Barking, with the City Councils of Stoke on Trent, Walsall and Liverpool, and with the Scarman Trust.
Design Team
Juliet Bidgood has worked on both the wider urban scale of projects and their detailed material resolution. She is continuing to develop the ‘restless youth club’ with ‘Get Connected’ in Birmingham and together with Katherine worked in collaboration with the Cathedral School as consultation and research for Southwark Street. Currently external examiner at the University of Central England, she was a design teacher at the University of North London and the University of Cambridge from 1990 to 1996
Katherine Clarke works primarily in the medium of video, recently extending to the hand making of large scale pieces of construction. She has made video work as part of the research, development and description of each project in the studio, and contributes to the conceptual direction of projects. Her own independent work has been widely exhibited. Katherine has taught at the AA and Chelsea School of Art.
Liza Fior has designed and co-ordinated a number of exhibitions in the context of the studio using video and photography together with special pieces of furniture.
Liza has developed the ongoing translation of innovative research into practice and is interested in enabling work which can initiate and extend new social policy. Liza was unit master at the Architectural Association from 1989 to 1995 and is currently teaching a programme at the Royal Collage of Art devised with the Scarman Trust.
Cathy Hawley joined muf in 1995 to work on the Walsall Art Gallery. She has since project managed art, architecture and public art projects, most recently the public art project for Stoke on Trent. She has worked directly with manufacturers to develop a new use for large-scale ceramics for this project. She is currently leading a competition winning landscape project in Timosoara, Romania. Cathy teaches design at the University of North London.
Ashley McCormick co-ordinated the public exhibition of the work of six artists in Hoxton, South Shoreditch, as a series of events in partnership with the local community and the council. In her own work as an artist she uses sound, making a piece titled the kiss blower using sound and air. She has studied hand signing. Ashley is currently co-ordinating a project in Walsall called Associate collecting people’s accounts of when they fell in love or how they would wish to fall in love.
Melanie Dodd has project managed the implementation of the first stage of Southwark Street and the design development to tender of the second stage of this £1.2m project. In 1998 she staged an exhibition at the RIBA titled ‘The Oil Room’, working with Zombory-Moldovan Moore from 1993 – 1998 Melanie has also built several small scale private buildings. She also teaches design at the University of North London.
Anastasia Seward brought with her to muf her experience gained at Ian Ritchie’s office of detailed, ambitious technical research and design development. Also a trained mathematician and musician, Anastasia is expert in the creative application of new technology.
Selected Projects
Urban Design
1999
Pilot project for Town Centre Environmental Improvements. Client: Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council
1999
Winner, Street Life Furniture Competition, Liverpool. Client: Liverpool Rope Walks Partnership
1999
Winner, Car Free London Competition, Liverpool. Client: The Architectural Foundation
1998
Hackney Linkages, linking Old Street to the City. Client: Hackney Council
1998
Southwark Street, 1km of Urban Transformation. Client: Southwark Council
1998
What Would It Take?, Three Research Project, Birmingham. Client: The Scarman Trust
1997
Hackney Digital Map, overlapping consultation with policy. Client: Hackney Council
1997
Hackney Walkways, linking Old Street and the Geffry Museum. Client: Hackney Council
1996
Southwark Design Initiative and Exhibition, London. Client: Southwark Council
Public Art
1999
Associate. Client: Walsall City Council
1999
Faces, Video shown at Hanley, Stoke on Trent. Client: Stoke on Trent City Council
1999
Hong Kong Airport, Video shown Vertigo Exhibition. Client: Glasgow 1999
1998
Pleasure Garden of the Utilities, Landscape, Stoke on Trent. Client: Stoke on Trent City Council
1998
Scratton Farm, Urban Renewal for Housing alongside the A13. Client: Barking and Dagenham Council
1998
Urban Grazing, Video shown Burtt House, Hackney. Client: Hackney Council
1997
Hackney Wide, six artists commissioned as research. Client: Hackney Council
1996
100 Desires for Southwark Street, Video shown Southwark Street. Client: Southwark Council
1996
Triplicate. Client: Tate Gallery St Ives, Southampton and Eastbourne
Projects for the Arts and Exhibition Spaces
1999
Winner, Hypocaust Building, Verulaminium, St Albans. Client: St Albans District Council
1999
Lost and Found, Touring Exhibition. Client: The British Council
1999
Emotional Storage, Review of muf’s work. Client: The Architecture Foundation
1998
Performance Space, Rome. Client: The Gaby Agis Dance Company
1997
Art Gallery and Conference Facilities. Client: Imperial College London
1997
Commissioned to design the Local Zone for the Millennium Dome. Client: NMEC
1997
21st Century Living, The Earth Centre, Doncaster. Client: The Earth Centre
