Richard Horden’s first work was Wildwood, a Courtyard House, built near Poole Harbour in 1972 followed by The Yacht House in the New Forest National Park in 1983. Later, he designed The House on Evening Hill overlooking Poole Harbour in 2001. He designed the International Competition Winning project for The Queens Stand at Epsom for Sir Evelyn de Rothschild and The Queen in 1993, won Second prize for Grand Buildings in Trafalgar Square and The Design Quest for a large, mixed-use building adjacent to Sydney Opera House in 1992.
At Foster Associates, from 1975-1985, he worked closely with now Lord Foster on The Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts, The Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank in Hong Kong, Stansted Airport, Nomos Furniture and initial designs for Foster House in Hampstead and the Carre D’Art Nimes. The furniture developed at Foster Associates later informed Richard’s designs for the all aluminium Aerospace Tables and Aeros door handle, Rita Light and, most recently, System 26, an all aluminium design for modular furniture for the TU Munich and for office use.
The Yacht House
The Courtyard House - Wildwood
The House on Evening Hill
Richard trained on aluminium Blanik gliders in 1970, his Uncle was a pilot in World War two flying Kittyhawks on 130 missions. These influences combined with many flights in the Jet Ranger ‘Whiskey Mike' helicopter with Norman Foster in the 70s and 80s, and detailed work on Stansted Airport installed a passion for flying and the deep cultural influence of aviation on mankind. He continued this into many micro architecture projects such as the Ski Haus and Point Lookout and his teaching at the TU Munich and in schools of Architecture worldwide. This culminated in a program of four product designs for the International Space Station. Leading his team of students with NASA at Building 9 at the Johnson Space Centre. Richard worked with astronauts and engineers to develop the product, a process which involved micro gravity test flights in the KC 135 from Ellington Field.
Aviation design as a culture informed the micro home and many other projects, more recently the Solar Cabin, developed with students, engineers and leading teams at Universities in Copenhagen, Greenland, Munich and at the ‘ETH’, Zurich University.
The Wing Tower, a millennium project for Glasgow, was won by Richard’s innovative aerodynamic design for a 126m tower for Glasgow Science Centre which was informed by Brancusi's sculpture 'Bird in Space'. Sadly to be reduced by local project managers in its reality to a poor relation to the original elegant competition design.
Astronaut Workstation
Ski Haus
Point Lookout Australia
Glasgow Science Centre Competition
Micro Compact Home Silvaplana Switzerland
An early visit, while a student at the AA, to the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1968 gave Richard a passion for the works of Kenneth Snelson and Elsworth Kelly. He was suprised that it took many years before the Art fashionistas in London could see the value of Elsworth Kelly. Richard, like many modern movement architects, loved the work of the Swiss artist Max Bill and the de Stijl movement, in particular Mondrian and Rietveld. Much later, Richard formed a team ‘Transparent Alliance' with Marijke de Goey, a highly respected artist and sculptor, in Amsterdam. He made early art bas relief studies, partly informed by Ben Nicholson, which were quickly bought by a diplomat in London in the 1970s.
Art and Architecture formed a key part of Richard’s books and teaching programmes as well as the weekly talks about architecture that he instituted at HCL Architects.
Key works that characterise this taught mix of art and architecture are:
- The Tensegrity Bridge Competition entry for the Tate Modern working with Kenneth Snelson, this competition was built later by Norman Foster working with Anthony Caro.
- The Reed Huis, a combination of work by Marijke and Richard using the micro home intended as a micro weekend house for the polder regions of the Netherlands.
- The Tulip Tower was also a close collaboration between the duo for upgrading an existing Communication Tower for KPN in Amsterdam.
Richard also created the Study Gallery for Poole College, financed by The Arts Council and their Millennium fund. This was supported by the Henry Moore Foundation and local artist Anthony Caro.
The art and architecture became art with work together with his daughter Poppy and later development of the stabiles.
Aluminium Sculpture
Acrylic and Aluminium Art
Reed House and The Tulip Tower Amsterdam
Tensegrity Bridge
The Study Gallery
Such an intimate design, working and flying relationship with Norman Foster engendered a passion for searching for a new relevance in architecture more tuned to the low energy material society that we see emerging today. The micro home is the result of this search which is essentially a subtle marriage of many social and technological coincidences at the time of its inception between 2001-5. Its main goal is to give young people an option to have a home of their own in the early stages of their careers before relationships and family pressures demand greater space. The micro home at its peak is a green micro urban home for young hard working professionals who spend most of their time working and socialising and little time alone at home.
Two projects designed in Westminster in London's West End, The Knightsbridge project and at Greencoat Place illustrate this clearly with the micro homes and sky level garden terrace spaces interspersed within a high density environment. This project and the equivalent for polar regions, the 'Solar Cabin', are a typical result of our large teams of engineers, architects and designers from different continents collaborating with a deep sense of a desire to research and produce a valuable new architectural product for our new and emerging low carbon society.
Micro Compact Home Vertical Village
The Solar Cabin
Micro Compact Home O2 Village
Micro Compact Home O2 Village
Micro Compact Home Lake Maggiore
Micro Compact Home Austria
Twisty Table
System 26 Furniture
Aerospace Table
Aerospace Table Detail
Aeros Door Handle
Rita Light
