Kielder Art & Architecture

55/02 is located off the Lakeside Way on Kielder Water's north shore. The closest public parking is at Hawkhope car park on the north side of the dam and sign-posted from the C200. 55/02 lies approximately 2 3/4 miles along the track. Allow around 1 hour 15 minutes on foot and 20 minutes by bicycle.

A good way to explore all the artworks along the Lakeside Way is by cycle. Bikes should be to at least hybrid cycle grade with decent country tyres for the changing terrain of Kielder Water & Forest Park.

OS map ref: NY690883

55/02 is the result of a long term collaboration between Kielder Art & Architecture and sixteen*(makers), an experimental architectural practice interested in a process described as 'design through making'. For this practice, design and production are not seen as separate processes but indivisible, each informing and reliant on the other.

Sixteen*(makers) first worked at Kielder in 2004-05 on their 'Assembling Adaptations' project, so were already familiar with the landscape and history of the area when they were asked to create a new shelter for the Lakeside Way.

Evolving from their interest in an architecture that changed its form in response to the environment, 55/02 was conceived as a structure whose design development would be dictated by the broader and more subtle features of its surroundings, the material qualities of the steel it was to be made from, and by the possibilities offered by tools that would be used in its manufacture.

Initial visits to Kielder identified the key elements of the site and resulted in models that explored how these observations might be captured in a building that, although incorporating conventional features such as walls, roof, room, seats and a door, arranged these in relation to key sitelines, the direction of the prevailing wind, the track of the sun, and the location of existing trees, a set of parameters that were both intimate and inherent to the site.

This process then moved into a digital format that enabled the use of rapid prototyping to produce models that explored the three dimensional qualities of the evolving design and also allowed for design drawings to transfer directly to the computer controlled machines in Germany used to cut and form the steel of the actual shelter.

This dialogue between design and manufacture enabled alternative options to be explored at a 1:1 scale; the radii of the curves in the steel, differing qualities of welded seams, and the colour used for the final structure. In this way, design modifications were able to be implemented throughout the manufacturing process and in response to the evolving physical structure.

When fabrication was complete, the separate pieces were transported from Germany to Kielder, where the small team of German workers who had built it arrived to assemble it on site, assisted by a skilled local machine operator who used a modified digger to lift and place each piece into position.  

The shelter was completed in May 2009.  

All images: Bob Sheil, Nick Callicot, Peter Sharpe

Sixteen*(makers) is an experimental architectural practice with a particular interest in ‘design through making’, where the nature and properties of materials combine with a site’s environmental conditions to inform their design process and produce a ‘responsive architecture’.

Further information on sixteen*(makers) can be found at www.sixteenmakers.com

55/02 lies on the Lakeside Way betwen the Belvedere which can be seen 1 mile walking distance to the west in the direction of Kielder village, and Wave Chamber, 1.75 miles walking distance to the east on the other side of the Belling inlet.

Art & Architecture guide starting from Hawkhope car park