‘Every element of its construction speaks for itself alone.’ So wrote Gottfried Semper of the Caribbean hut he had seen in the Crystal Palace, and which he used to describe the four elements of architecture.

Paxton’s patent drawings and text describe a fragment of the roof that sheltered Semper, the hut and the Great Exhibition. This is an elemental architecture, light and beautiful in profile, its language arising from a precise consideration of rainwater, light and gravity. A description of nature in action.

We continued these considerations, including in our thinking the necessary layered thickness of contemporary construction.

– Clancy Moore Architects