Poly-Collage is a collaboration with the University of Westminster’s DS16 Master’s programme, led by Anthony Boulanger, Stuart Piercy, and Yannis Halkiopoulos. Poly-Collage explores new architectural typologies through the lens of collage.

Collage is both a technique and a term describing a piece of art, music or building that is made up of several sometimes disparate elements to create a new whole. It has been a technique since the invention of paper in 200 BC. Collage emerged as widely used method in art movements from the early Twentieth Century including Cubism, Constructivism, Surrealism and Pop Art. We are interested in the tensions inherent in the devices of collage to help us to imagine new worlds and new typologies. We are less interested in traditional forms of the technique, and we’ll challenge you to re-interpret practices of collage at different scales, from the small artefact to elements and buildings in the urban fabric.

During this workshop students transformed materials, narratives, and space into inventive installations at Grymsdyke Farm and Orchard View, merging history with contemporary design. Inspired by Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter’s seminal book ‘Collage City’, this project blurs boundaries between permanence, ephemerality, craft and context: a celebration of creativity at every scale.