David Taylor: Hello Anna, how are you?

Anna: I’m fine, thanks, how are you?

DT: Great. Could I first ask you about your winning of the competition to redesign Grosvenor Square ahead of its 300th anniversary. Have you had any broad-brush early thoughts about Grosvenor?

Anna: Yeah, it’s an amazing opportunity for us for a site in central London – a green space which brings into question how important green space is, really, given the time we’re in now. But also, how much more it could do for communities.  It’s a tremendous opportunity to integrate landscape architecture and infrastructure all together in this urban entity, really. 

DT: What do you think swung it for you to win the competition?

Anna: It’s difficult to say! From what we gather, we came up with a story – we like to develop stories for projects - and they seemed wowed over by the storytelling approach because in a way it wasn’t about making a design but more about making a team with an approach that they enjoyed seeing.

DT: You’re also working on a swing bridge in Crystal Palace Park to provide access to the much-loved dinosaur sculptures. Tell me about that?

Anna: Yes, it’s such an interesting project given the current context as well. In the last recession every architecture practice went into a frenzy of just doing lots of design competitions. We massively shrank and did lots of competitions, the majority of which didn’t succeed but out of that process we discovered this process and an interesting construction technique which is about using thin sheets to form strong three-dimensional forms in a very structurally efficient way so that it uses very little material. The thin sheet material can range from steel to aluminium and we’d consider timber too. Anything that can be laser cut, a bit like tailoring. So that came out in a way by accident in the last recession. And through that process we worked with Arup and we met a mollusc morphologist at the Natural History museum because the whole thing is informed by geometry in shells. Her name is Ellinor and she lives near Crystal Palace Park – she’s a fantastic nature enthusiast but also all the while kept telling us about these dinosaur structures in Crystal Palace Park, which at the time sounded quite abstract. They’re made of concrete and are basically 1:1 models but apparently they are significant because they are Grade I listed structures.  

DT: Grade I! Wow!

Swing bridge in Crystal Palace Park

Anna: Yes, I know, amazing. Their historic significance lies in the fact that it was the Victorians democratising scientific knowledge – demonstrating physically and in model forms what something is. She called it ‘edu-entertainment’. All the while she kept telling Michael and myself that we need to build a bridge to these islands because the dinosaurs are in really poor state and there’s no access to it. The council erect temporary structures once or twice a year; so conservation work is needed but also she wanted to ensure that people can enjoy them. The planting is also a kind of demonstration project for prehistoric plants – so it’s a gardening project, a conservation project, but also kids absolutely love these dinosaurs. It became clear to us that it was important but she didn’t have any funds for it. But she’s very determined so got us to do a quick sketch proposal to submit for the mayor’s fund, from which she got I think £30,000 which wasn’t enough to build a bridge. So she then went to crowd funding and massively engaged the community. I think one of the singers from Guns and Roses lives nearby and donated a hat or something. People have this sentimental attachment to the dinosaurs. So after all this time she managed to get the money and we went back to the drawing board and looked at which was the right way forward. We really interrogated the design. It has to be super-economical and lightweight and beautifully fabricated – we got a lot of goodwill also from Arup – they’re engineering the project. And this company called Cake Industries which is a locally based fabricator – they’re excellent. They approached us to say they had seen the crowdfunding and were keen to build it. The reason I find it a poignant project is just when the lockdown happened the bridge was finished and went up to the galvanising tank up north and think has to stay for a while. We thought well, probably there’s a huge delay but there is so much goodwill and community determination in this project that they have no doubt that they want to keep going with it. All the while it’s been like that – the strength of the will of the community prevails, against all odds.

DT: Brilliant. Sounds fantastic!

Anna: I just love the way it came about. It was really quite unexpected. With the lockdown and going back to the essential things in life and what really matters what we’ve learned through the last three recessions is people you enjoy working with and collaborating with and people who care about what they do.

Sun Rain Rooms, Anna Liu's award-winning house

DT: So are you in your award-winning house, the Sun Rain Rooms? How is that to work in?

Anna: Well, it’s a bit empty at the moment. Normally on the weekend it goes back to house mode and we enjoy being in different parts of the house doing different things. It feels a bit strange not to have people coming in – we’re constantly making things and doing things together. 

DT: How many are you?

Anna: 12.

DT: …And to keep in touch and together I hear you’ve instigated a virtual drawing club; is that right?

Anna: Yes, that’s right. it’s something that we talked about before the lockdown, that we wanted to have these drawing lessons – drawing together, basically – because quite often we’re so busy doing our own projects that we don’t do things together enough. So yes, we’re going to do that – it hasn’t kicked in yet. A friend of Mike's who went to the RCA and draws beautifully is going to talk us through it and we’re all going to draw together. I guess we’ll be able to see what each of us is drawing and be able to bounce off ideas and do quick sketches. We did it a little bit at our Christmas lunch and we kind of uncovered people’s hidden talents! I think we need to do something together – to get a bit of joy from things that are not necessarily about just producing.

The Tonkin Liu team