Feasibility Study & Report, 2012-2013

Albion Millennium Green is an oasis of public space in Forest Hill, south east London. The AMG Charitable Trust employed Beep to consider design improvements that would encourage social activity on the green. The outputs included several public consultation events and a large report recommending enhancements for performance without detracting from the spaces recreational uses or negatively impacting the wildlife and wider ecology of the space.

The studio led the public consultation, with events paired with performances on the Green, thereby drawing in visitors who would be otherwise unlikely to attend.

The Green’s first 'Little Ecological Arts Festival’ (LEAF) took place in 2013, attracting a wide public and over 20 international performers. 

Collaborators included the London Wildlife Trust, Friends of Albion Millennium Green, Outburst Theatre and Sydenham Arts Festival.  Funded through Lewisham Councils' Local Assembly.

Beep Studio have designed and produced a new greetings card based on the UK stamp.  

The design weaves a pattern from the postage stamps. The card requires no envelope and postage is cleverly integrated into the design of the artwork.

Contained within each pack are loose stamps of the denominations illustrated on the face of the card. All you have to do is write the card, place the stamps, fill out the address label and stick to seal.  

Note: designs vary dependent on postage requirements.

Product Details:
Clear cellophane envelope containing:
- 300 gsm white card, blank inside (162x162mm folded)
- 5no UK stamps
- 1 no adhesive address label

Forest Hill 2012

Beep worked with the SEE3 team to help local residents Ruth Siwinski and Nathan Mills open a pop-up shop for Christmas 2012.

The studio’s work involved fit-out design and specification, roller shutter art, and a sculptural sign derived from the shop’s logo.

The business is a continuing success story, with the happy clients taking a permanent lease on the premises in early 2013.

Heritage trail artworks, 2014

Creekmouth is an area of east London in the borough of Barking & Dagenham, on the north bank of the Thames Estuary. The studio was shortlisted in a competition to celebrate the area’s heritage.

BEEP’s analysis identified 3 key themes:
·      Ecology       Rich ecosystem
·      Industry       Rich Industrial heritage
·      People        3 waves of population

Creekmouth is geographically low lying, so BEEP proposed artworks rasised to the status of landmarks simply by being lifted into the air.

Since the area is a rich habitat for bird life, the proposals take wing forms as a reference point. These are cut from a spiralling sheet surface, whose steel material and propeller form also refer to Creekmouth's industrial and maritime heritage.

Beep Studio sees drawing as the primary tool for developing designs, expressing ideas, and solving problems. 

Drawing at Work

The studio develops and facilitates a series of drawing courses and workshops for professionals in partnership with ‘Drawing at Work’,. 

Beginning with quick, prescriptive tasks to get in the flow, groups are guided step-by-step towards longer, more open ended exercises. 
The courses unlock mental barriers by focusing on effective communication through drawing, rather than worrying about beauty - which is allowed to emerge as a product of the process. 

Courses developed and led by the Studio include: 

- Graphic Communication
- Narrative Drawing
- Exploded drawings
- Designing with Paper 

Feedback on the courses has been hugely enthusiastic, with participants enjoying the opportunity for creative exploration through drawing.

Beep Clients through DAW include: 
- Arup Associates
- Allford Hall Monaghan Morris
- Allies and Morrison
- Architectural Association  
- Fletcher Priest
- Gensler
- MAKE
- Stanton Williams
- Studio Egret West
- Weston Williamson + Partners

The Big Draw

The studio reaches a wider audience with The Big Draw festival, through drawing workshops for all ages at locations including Sir John Soane's Museum, Spitalfields, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. The studio features in the Campaign for Drawing's video 'Why is Drawing Important?'

Urban Design Workshop, Forest Hill, London

This placemaking workshop was held in order to start shaping a vision for improving Forest Hill town centre. The Forest Hill Society and SEE3 organised and supported the workshop, with support from the Greater London Authority's Outer London Fund. Ed initiated the workshop as a founding member of SEE3, with Hillary Satchwell representing the Forest Hill Society.

The workshop harnessed the analytical and creative skills of the local community, and was supported by local architects, urban designers, landscape architects and similar professionals along with civic leaders and traders.

BEEP studio has been commissioned to write and draw up the results of the day and produce a summary of the vision for a wide public. This work is intended to stimulate placemaking and regeneration projects, and to inform future funding applications and Local Plan policy guidance.

The workshop entailed:
• Short introductions to the project
• Site visits to identify key issues
• Four creative groups over four zones
• Feedback of ideas to the local community
• Review of overall vision and next steps

The sites and areas under examination included:
• Station forecourt & surrounding area
• Perry Vale and related sites
• Connections between Forest Hill & Sydenham
• Dartmouth Road & pocket park opportunities

Forest Hill, London

This speculative project responds to the local issue of place making in Forest Hill, whose street-scape lacks identity. At the same time, it is home to the Horniman Museum, one of South East London's top visitor attractions.

Beep Studio recognised an opportunity to connect the museum with the public realm for their mutual benefit, and the Bollards proposal followed.

The Horniman is best recognised by its iconic clock tower, which the project reinterprets as a string of bollards. Together these form a trail which leads between the Horniman and high street, and thus connects museum visitors with local businesses and the resident population.

Kent School of Architecture

In parallel with their work in practice, Ed and Peter lead Masters Unit 2 at the Kent School of Architecture, University of Kent. 

Rather than tell students what to do, the Unit aims to equip them with the thinking tools and working processes that will help them make well considered design decisions themselves. The result is a diverse array of projects reflective of students’ individual interests. 

Unit 2’s brief for 2015-16 continues a recurring theme of revealing unseen aspects of a city: This year’s chosen city is Liverpool, and past locations include Stoke on Trent and the Isle of Portland.

Following a series of introductory group exercises, students develop their own briefs in response to a series of themes. Current themes include: 

Hyperstition: making fictional entities real. 
Displacement: water, people, goods, materials. 
Maps: historic, geographic, personal, political. 

Students undertake intuitive explorations and find connections between their discoveries they as a means of developing a project brief. Ideas are then pursued through drawings, models, and experiments with materials and processes. 

Project work is supplemented with parallel talks and workshops on diagramming, drawing, design, philosophy, and professional practice.

Academic Success

KSA is now ranked 3rd in the country for Architecture, having climbed 3 places in the The Guardian University Guide. 

In 2014, graduating Unit 2 student Rosie Seaman won an RIBA prize for her portfolio, as well as a special award from the Head of School. 

The British Council chose two students from the unit to spend a month on fellowships at the Venice Biennale 2014. Unit 2 students Jessica Ringrose and Jasmine Davey were selected to represent KSA and the south-east region.

Beep were asked by artist Alex Fleetwood to collaborate on a proposal for AutoDesk's Market Street Prototyping Festival in San Francisco.

The resulting design is a giant circular pinball table, enabling up to 20 people to play simultaneously.

By changing one aspect of the game, pinball is transformed from a solitary pursuit to one of collaboration and interaction.

Artist: Alex Fleetwood
Producer: Artists & Engineers
Architect: Beep Studio

Stour Valley Arts engaged Beep to develop an arts centre at the edge of King’s Wood, a 1500-acre forest in a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Stour Valley Arts provides a platform for work including artists commissions, exhibitions, walks, lectures, workshops, training and education.

The proposed Arts Centre contains facilities including a gallery, an education workshop and a live-work artists studio, as well as office and library. 

As an exemplar of sustainable design and construction, it fits into King’s Wood like one of SVA’s own sculptures.

Beep’s work with SVA began with concept ideation and continued with a series of workshops. Development discussions resulted in a briefing document and feasibility study. 

The scope of the complex project is summarized simply in a single diagram.

Workshops, feasibility study & funding applications, 2013 

The Friends of Home Park and the Sydenham Society commissioned Beep Studio to write a feasibility study to improve an underused stretch of parkland by a busy highway in Lower Sydenham.

The studio's bid won won Mayors Pocket Park funding for the scheme in 2013. The job resulted from a community design workshop organised by Beep, and run by GlassHouse & the Open University.

The resulting design improves accessibility, safety and legibility whilst invigorating the public space around the community run library with a market square and ‘Literary piazza’ themed around reading.

The Institution of Civil Engineers has a long history stretching back nearly 200 years. From its beginnings with informal meetings in coffee houses, it has grown into a global organisation with over 80,000 members.

Beep were invited to present proposals for its headquarters at 20 Great George Street, Whitehall. The client had become aware that the old world mood projected by the building was in line with the westminster establishment, but at odds with current needs.

Beep's proposals aimed to:
- Reflect the ICE's online image of youthfulness, equality and openness.
- Express the joy in material, structure and scale that draws people to engineering.

This was done by inserting large scale objects into the existing structure, creating amazement (and a good story) from the engineering challenge of the installation process.

Large chunks of material dropped into the atrium create a 'wow' moment and serve to draw people into a repurposed museum space at the heart of the building.

For the gallery, Beep proposed a sequence of large scale objects - life size sections of Bazalgette sewers, tunneling equipment, core samples, and large scale models; inspiring people with real and amazing objects.

Lotus
The 'Lotus' shade is made from a single sheet of material, cut and folded in a simple repeating pattern to create a complex flower form.

The design was produced exclusively for Heal’s department store, following a competition run by Hidden Art. 
As the centre of a nationwide press campaign, the shade became Heals' second best seller of 2004. It was also exhibited at 'Design Tide', Tokyo.

Zone
Following a successful partnership with 'Lotus', Stamp Creative commissioned Peter to design a take on the classic ‘Paper Moon’ shade.

The design challenge was to make a globe from flat material. Peter's solution takes two sheets of material and weaves them together like a basket.
The name of the shade comes from the geometric form generated - a zonohedron.

The shade was launched at 100% Design at Earl’s Court, with large scale versions installed at the in-show restaurant.

Limited editions of both Lotus and Zone are available through our online shop.

Community Regeneration Group, launched 2012

In 2011, Beep won over £200K in Portas Pilot funding for the local neighbourhoods of Forest Hill, Sydenham and Kirkdale in South East London. 

Beep wrote the business plan for the resulting group ‘SEE3’, an organisation which brings together business owners, residents, and local authority members.

The scheme makes imaginative re-use of empty premises to create new businesses, foster existing business and add to the vibrancy of the street. Phase 1 of the project completed in May 2014, and successfully demonstrated how small interventions can enhance a community, stimulate spin-off projects and improve the look and feel of local streets.

Consultation, Shopfront Design and Branding 2014, £120k

The studio won a public tender in collaboration with Designed by Good People to develop Lambeth Councils' successful Outer London Fund round 2 bid. The scheme sought to improve the public welcome by working with existing shop owners to refresh their shopfront branding. 

Beep delivered designs for 8 new shopfronts and coordinated planning submissions for a total of 15 new shopfront installations including new awnings, signage and roller shutters. 

This project was delivered working closely with Lee Newham of Designed by Good People, Janet Clarke of London Borough of Lambeth and the Greater London Authorities' Regeneration team.

Lambeth Council commissioned Beep to produce a vision document of design concepts for lighting improvements along Streatham's 2.2 km High Road.

The study recommended enhancing existing features in order to bring them to public attention, and as a consequence developing the unique identities of focal areas.

Design proposals included:
- Projecting images onto wall and floor surfaces
- Enhancements to the existing street lighting
- Illuminating architectural landmarks such as domes and spires

A large part of the strategy has now been implemented by the local authority with final designs by Michael Grubb Studio.

photo credit:
Susanne Hakuba Photography

Streatham Skyline
Outer London Fund
Strategic Design Report, 2013

Streatham, 2014

Beep have designed a series of artworks to enliven a string of vacant shops along Streatham High Road. 

The artworks are connected by a theme of Streatham People: Each piece represents a separate well known Streathamite through tangential references, creating a series of visual puzzles for curious passers-by to unravel.

The Streatham People include:
Eddie Izzard - Comedian
Roger Moore - James Bond actor
Peter Davison - Dr. Who actor
Ken Livingstone - Former Mayor 
Cynthia Payne - Party hostess
Naomi Campbell - Supermodel

The project was initiated by inStreatham with the support of local businesses.
Special thanks to Ronzo, Attai, Emma Harrison, and to Castleton Signs.
 

Boomtown Fair, Winchester
August 2014

Beep created the 'Tangled Roots' installation at Boomtown for Dub Reggae promoter Trinity Music London.

Dub was the first musical genre created specifically to be played through large sound systems, and Trinity brings a crisp modern outlook to the rich history of sound system culture. In curating the 'Tangled Roots' stage, they assembled a selection of Dub artists and two high quality sound systems: Unit 137 and Lionpulse.

BEEP's design reflects the Trinity ethos, with clean lines and a simple, punchy colour palette. The stage achieves maximum impact with minimum budget, and succeeds in drawing focus to the star attractions: the sound systems themselves.

The stage received funding from Arts Council England.

A film capturing the spirit of the festival environment can be viewed here

The Insider Festival, Aviemore 2011
Canvas & Cream, London 2012

This sculptural piece was commissioned for the Insider boutique festival near Aviemore. The resulting installation was a series of 30m long inflatable tubes woven through the landscape. 

 Designed to be adaptable to their surroundings, the tubes can be fastened together to create compound structures, wrapped around other objects, or woven together. 

The sculpture was later installed at the Canvas and Cream gallery space in London, this time as a hands-on, walk-in event.

Sculpture, Forest Hill, London 2014

‘Spindrift’ is a wall mounted sculpture installed at the entrance to Havelock Walk, Forest Hill. A total of 70 pieces of acrylic are cut into one of four basic shapes, with colours applied to complement the form, providing contrast and harmony. The finished piece contains a single deliberate mistake where the colour is misaligned.

For maths geeks, the underlying geometry of the sculpture is a Quasicrystal; a triangulated three dimensional tessellation with 5-fold symmetry.

The design developed through a series of hand drawings, computer models, and physical prototypes, and is the first in an intended series.

The sculpture was installed by a team of 8 people, all of whom live or work on the mews. Our thanks go out to all of them, especially Steve, Jody, Lauren, Colin, Tom and Andy!

The Sampling Hut proposal reveals abundant life in the seemingly dead winter landscape of the Assiniboine Credit Union River Trail.

Samples of river ice and snow from the Winnipeg area are collected and displayed in the structure, revealing that a myriad of life in every drop of water.

Understanding what microorganisms make this place their home could help secure the biodiversity of the region for the future. 

The construction of the sampling hut creates a place to celebrate, experience and learn about the hidden life that surrounds the Sampling Hut structure.

Sampling is a participatory activity with the local public and tourists, and the Hut connects art, science and the wider public.

At the end of the season, scientists from the University of Manitoba are invited to look at the samples and identify what is contained, hoping that they can discover unforeseen species.