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\u2018Primarily, reuse changes the order in which we design,\u2019 Hanke tells designboom. A project can no longer be fully resolved on paper before its materials have been found. Instead, the studio establishes its intentions, gathers available stock, and revisits the design as that stock arrives, continuing to make adjustments during construction. Suppliers, craftspeople, and the dimensions and condition of individual components all influence the outcome. \u2018With reuse, necessity means we can no longer be the sole authors of the outcome,\u2019 he explains. This requires a strong concept and details capable of accommodating differences between materials. As Hanke puts it, \u2018The work becomes a conversation rather than a monologue.\u2019<\/p>\n
![\"\u2018dismantling](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/THISS-Studio_SALT-Press5710_web.jpg\")
Tamsin Hanke and Sash Scott, founders of THISS Studio | image by Jasper Fry<\/p>\n
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SALVAGED TIMBER AND AN UPTURNED BOAT SHAPE NEW SPACES<\/p>\n
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That willingness to let existing objects redirect a project is visible in Barn Again, developed with architect Tom Svilans for the 2025 Copenhagen Architecture Biennial. Beams recovered from disused Norwegian barns are stacked into a tapering pavilion, retaining weathered surfaces and traces of previous connections. Designed for disassembly and further use, the structure gives those irregularities a place in its architectural expression. At Kiko Kostadinov\u2019s London flagship, a pontoon boat installation by artist Ryan Trecartin provides a very different starting point: inverted railings become a ceiling-mounted support system for the shop\u2019s shelving. \u2018Often the material will suggest a move we would never have drawn from scratch,\u2019 Hanke<\/a> says. Both projects make that possibility tangible, finding a new spatial role for something with an established identity.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The same attention to available resources extends to Pergola, a public outdoor theater in Cairo developed with CLUSTER and Orient Productions. Its red structure incorporates materials from local reuse initiatives, including textiles made from recovered river plastic by VeryNile and recycled-plastic bricks from Rebloxx. Elsewhere, the studio\u2019s work on PoliNations demonstrates how a temporary installation can continue beyond its original setting. First presented in Birmingham in 2022, its monumental tree structures returned at Glastonbury\u2019s Shangri-La in 2025. These projects approach material life at different scales, from individual components to substantial structures that can be used again. \u2018Reuse should never dilute the conceptual ambition of a project,\u2019 Hanke argues. \u2018We are happily now in a position in the industry where reuse is not even enough to drive the design, it is just part of the process.\u2019<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n EXHIBITION DESIGN STARTS WITH WHAT HAPPENS AFTERWARDS<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n For THISS Studio, exhibition design brings these questions into particularly sharp focus. A display may occupy a gallery briefly, yet its construction can determine whether its materials remain useful long after visitors leave. \u2018Exhibition design is never neutral,\u2019 Hanke says. \u2018It participates in the conversation the exhibition is having with the work, and that conversation is ideological, even political.\u2019 Discussing work with the V&A, he describes an all-timber assembly without metal fixings, conceived to preserve the components for subsequent use. The design considers how pieces will come apart and what condition they will be in when they do. \u2018As we see it, an exhibition should be an interruption in a material\u2019s life not the end of it.\u2019<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Working with the Design Museum has prompted another shift in method: taking stock before drawing. The studio catalogued and assessed existing exhibition infrastructure, then tracked design decisions against that inventory, scrutinizing each proposed addition. \u2018We worked more like archaeologists or archivists than conventional architects,\u2019 Hanke explains. Here, the challenge becomes how to alter the experience of a space through careful adjustments to what is already available. \u2018The creative challenge is restraint: making something feel new while touching as little as possible.\u2019 The approach gives the less visible work of sorting, documenting, and evaluating materials a direct influence on the architecture visitors eventually encounter.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n MAKING REUSE WORK MEANS CHANGING THE COMMISSION<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Turning this approach into routine practice requires institutions to reconsider how they commission and fund design. Hanke identifies a tension between the certainty clients expect at the outset and the adjustments that reclaimed materials can demand later. Design programs need to accommodate those revisions, while funding must arrive early enough to secure stock before rapid exhibition construction schedules take over. He points to organizations such as Yes Make, which can source and hold materials while a design develops. \u2018Money and materials need to move earlier,\u2019 he says. A willingness to reuse therefore has practical consequences for budgets, procurement, and decision-making, well before the first component reaches the gallery.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Long-term galleries introduce further pressures, particularly around maintenance and durability. Hanke argues that these requirements need not exclude previously used materials, citing the studio\u2019s research into the recovery of hardwoods and cross-laminated timber after extended service. What matters is designing both the assembly and its eventual separation with sufficient care. \u2018Dismantling should be designed, not improvised. The materials should leave as a resource not as waste.\u2019 For THISS Studio, the architect\u2019s responsibility consequently extends beyond the appearance and performance of an installation during its public life. It includes organizing the collaboration that produces it and anticipating what its parts might become once the exhibition is over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THISS STUDIO PUTS RADICAL REUSE BEFORE THE FINISHED DRAWING \u00a0 An old barn, a pontoon boat, and a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,36689,61,6640,60,283258,3751],"class_list":["post-669909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-exhibition-design","tag-ie","tag-interactive-installation","tag-ireland","tag-posthuman-utopias","tag-recycling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\u2018dismantling](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/thiss-studio-tamsin-hanke-radical-reuse-exhibition-design-interview-14.jpg\")
monumental tree structures frame a temporary garden in Birmingham<\/p>\n![\"\u2018dismantling](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/THISS-Studio_London_Kiko-Kostadinov-London_Photography-by-Studio-Hahn_10.jpg\")
repurposed boat railings support shelving inside Kiko Kostadinov\u2019s store<\/p>\n