In June most architects were shocked to read in the trade press that the highly respected and seemingly successful firm Ushida Findlay had gone into voluntary liquidation. Best known for a series of imaginative private houses completed in Japan in the early ‘90’s the practice appeared to be winning work all over the place—notably in the small country of Qatar, where it had several interesting projects underway. But financial issues with one of the projects, the Doha Villa, forced Kathryn Findlay to lay off her 23 staff. It was the vast scale and contractual complexity of the villa that landed her in difficulty, after two years of fantastically labour intensive work during which the office produced 25-30 handmade models of the project. Meanwhile, a 2sqm plaster model of the villa, which looks like it has been carved out of stone like a sensuous Brancusi sculpture, is on show at the Venice Biennale. Ironically, this could be the building that really makes Findlay’s name after a series of false starts. Read more in Blueprint Magazine no.224, October 2004.
They have it in the library, i'll scan and PDF it tomorrow
xx
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