"At last the'ghostly intuition' had emerged!"

"It has been a long and circuitous journey."

It has been a long and circuitous journey, not some pre-calculated path plotted out in a Filofax on my eighteenth birthday.

"...but more of a ghostly intuition."

I was aware from an early age that I was not destined to accept life as it was. Not as the rebellious yearnings of a post graduate, 'eager to right the world', but more of a ghostly intuition lingering in the inner reaches of my mind. Out of focus and not yet fully formed, floundering around blindly amid the neuroreceptors.
It took until the advent of Intel's Pro series computer chip, some twenty five years later before that hazy image started to emerge from the mist.

"...like some medieval sorcerer catching a spell."

Whilst I concede that computers are the scourge of our lifetime, turning ten minutes work into ten days toil, they nevertheless allow one to create the forms that mere pen and paper cannot achieve. Complex 'finite stress analysis' to compute the effects of loads on curved membranes, 'Non Uniform Rational Bezier Surfaces' to size and shape laser measurements plucked from the 'ether' like some medieval sorcerer catching a spell.

"A microprocessor replacing quill."

Imagine what might be achieved by 'Leonardo' had he been born of this century and not some five hundred plus years ago. A microprocessor replacing quill. 'Intergalactic Space Roamer' replacing his early designs for a submarine.

"Like the tender strokes of a lover's fingers."

It was a simple curved wall, finished in 'polished plaster' that triggered the start of the germination process. Without exception all that came across it stopped to touch, some even to caress. Like the tender strokes of a lover's fingers, down the lower reaches of one's spine.
I knew then that curved surfaces had a place in our lives although everyone I spoke to in the 'trade' considered me 'barking mad'. 'You can't readily make curved skirting boards' exclaimed the senior technical advisor at TRADA, without considering that I might not wish to do so. It is as if one can only design, one dimension removed. A round structure furnished with square rooms and square furniture.

"...roundness for empathy, tactility, sensuousness and pure joy."

I do not advocate roundness simply to be quirky, different or contrived. It is roundness for empathy, tactility, sensuousness and pure joy.
How can a square box be perceived as an appropriate shape for our softly formed bodies? Like the latest expensive craze for rectangular baths, sharply hewn from solid rock. Imagine the discomfort, as one endeavoured to convince one's self that it was sensuous bathing.

"...struggling to bond to each other, against all the odds."

My first curved wall to a three-storey staircase was a tortuous affair. Everywhere I turned for help, fire testing, sound performance, adhesives, all had only been executed only on flat straight walls. We built it like the hull of a boat with Finnish Birch plywood ribs covered in layers of laminates each endeavouring to perform a different task, struggling to bond to each other, against all the odds.
Then, not unlike others I suspect, I realised that the outer membranes could themselves be the structure. Linked together in a common purpose with no need for internal support.

"Sensuous curves replacing soleless square boxes."

So suddenly, with one stoke of the sorcerer's wand, the artisan's skill was replaced by the mechanical vacuum press. Modern adhesive technology replacing years of sweat and devotion to one's trade. A thin structurally-rigid curved laminated membrane replacing three hundred years of 9" brick wall, with lath and plaster finish. Sensuous curves replacing soleless square boxes.

'...the "ghostly intuition" had emerged.'

It had taken almost thirty years but at last, the 'ghostly intuition' had emerged; fully formed ...and no longer blind.

Please email Christopher to discuss your requirements

Further Reading - 'It is at one with them, as if born of the very earth itself.'