ArchitectureLondon · Interview
London's THISS Studio on designing with reclaimed materials and planned dismantling
Tamsin Hanke explains how salvaged barn beams, an upturned boat and old exhibition stock reshape the way her practice designs.
THISS Studio, the London practice founded by architects Tamsin Hanke and Sash Scott, starts with whatever materials it can find. In an interview with designboom, Hanke says reuse changes the order of design: the studio sets its intentions, gathers stock, then keeps adjusting the plan as pieces arrive, right through construction. Scott's interest in structural invention owes something to designing and flying high-performance kites.
The projects make the idea easy to picture. Barn Again, built with Tom Svilans for the 2025 Copenhagen Architecture Biennial, stacked beams from disused Norwegian barns into a tapering pavilion that can be taken apart again. At Kiko Kostadinov's London flagship, the railings of an upturned pontoon boat by artist Ryan Trecartin now hold up the shelving from the ceiling. In Cairo, Pergola, a red outdoor theatre, uses river-plastic textiles and recycled-plastic bricks.
Exhibition work sharpens the point. For the V&A the studio proposed an all-timber assembly with no metal fixings; for the Design Museum it catalogued existing kit before drawing anything, working, Hanke says, more like archivists. Her line: dismantling should be designed, not improvised.
A thoughtful read for anyone curious about how exhibitions get built. The Kostadinov shop is the easiest place to see the work in person.
Our summary of a story from designboom, published 30 October 2026. Read the original
8 photos
From designboom