Interiors are usually stable entities, fixed to a site, with internal conditions of temperature and comfort expertly controlled. Equally access to interiors is selective – even when they appear to be open to the public. The Thames Boat Project seeks to challenge these notions, suggesting a nomadic interior that develops through a responsive relationship to its surroundings, dependant to the vagaries of the weather and open to use and appropriation by various groups and individuals.
The Thames Boat Project is a collaboration between Ben Judd, fellow of the Stanley Picker Gallery, and the Interior Design course at Kingston School of Art. The exhibition will showcase the students’ response to a brief that asks them to imagine and develop a proposal for an adaptable floating structure which will travel along Thames to provide a flexible space that can be adapted into a workshop space, a speaker’s platform, a performance space or a meeting place. Embracing Judd’s aim to “consider the importance of community within a large city and … facilitate meaningful exchanges between strangers, aiming to reconnect people both to each other and to their environment.”