In 2015, following floods in Saffron Walden, Essex County Council identified three sites along the culverted River Slade in need of additional flood protection. In December 2020, the road connecting the village to nearby Audley End house was subsumed as the river Cam burst its banks. Located upstream of the village, on a river island in the grounds of Audley End, Unravelling the Anastamosing Slade occupies an area of the Cam floodplain with a view to integrating constructed and flood conditions. By reconciling discintions between the ever-changing environment and the occupation of built space, nature is allowed to encroach onto and into architecture, and engage with a repository for items relocated from the village nearby in anticipation of further flooding (floor tiles, sculpted mouldings, books collecting flower specimens, and carvings).
The architecture develops the material history of Saffron Walden. The chalk soils of Walden, which provided the ideal growing conditions for the saffron crocus, allowed the village to became the centre of Medieval saffron trade, providing yellow dye for the woolen industry. The non-native plant, originating in China, is re-introduced, in tandem with Ginseng fields which grow in cool, shady and damp climates. Both plants require delicate handling; saffron was stored in jade bowls, ginseng was cut with bamboo knives. A series of exhibition spaces develop similar architectures of material care, mediating between peoples, objects and environmental scales, unravelling the qualities of these two objects as spaces.
