Edmund de Waal

Writing

Essay accompanying Edmund de Waal’s architectural intervention in America at the Schindler House in West Hollywood: a landmark of West Coast Modernism, built in 1922 by Viennese émigré architect, Rudolph Schindler.

‘a local history’ is an installation of three vitrines filled with porcelain, sunk below the paving outside the Alison Richard Building on the Sidgwick Site of Cambridge University. These vitrines are meant to be discovered, to be happened upon as you come and go across the site. This text was included in the accompanying pamphlet.

This text was written for ‘Quiet Spaces: William Smalley’, published in 2023. Smalley, known for his thoughtful and restrained approach to design, was the architect for the refurbishment of Kettle’s Yard, bringing sensitivity and clarity to one of Britain’s most loved modern art spaces.