John Wardle

You often hear me talk about there's something about the tonality of things.

We can often strip colour out, but look at the way there might be a gradient of tonality as you move into more intimate spaces within a house.

The way you modify light, really important.

I mean, I think if...

A living room with a wall of glass and a vast array of aluminium windows is very hard to find an intimate space.

You'd be hiding under a rug.

And so that understanding of retreating within, deep within, and so that even the association of spaces within to allow you to withdraw through a house I think is very important.

But many factors come together and it's something that's immeasurable.

I'm probably as proud of that Venice work, some or other.

It's probably one of the greatest things that we've done as a practice.

We were invited to be in the Venice Biennale, in the Arsenale in 2018, and started to look at the possibilities of that.

To me, my mind goes generally toward, well,

How can we expand the capacity of that by drawing other people in?

So Natasha John-Smith, you're a remarkable artist and friend of mine.

Gosh, she does amazing things where you dislocate your perception of space through mirrors.

Maybe we could do something there.

Coco and Maximilian, two young filmmakers we'd worked on since they'd graduated from the VCA.

We could maybe embed a film into this object, Jack Aranda.

And their generosity in making that thing is just one of the great stories.

It's the most ridiculously extraordinary thing we've ever done.