Millswood Moderne | Marshall Studio and Nat Penney

In a collaboration Marshall Studio and Nat Penney, two distinct elements within Millswood Moderne extend beyond restoration. Instead, they are a deliberate cross-disciplinary partnership that reconnects architecture with craft. 

As architect and custodian of the Streamline Moderne building, it was important to initiate a dialogue that brought independent creative practice into equal authorship as other works I was undertaking. I wanted to dissolve the hierarchy between designer and maker, and through a loose brief and inspiration touch-points, allow the maker to do what they do best; make. 

Together, the process interrogated archival material, researched fabrication techniques and the formal language of late Art Deco geometries to reinstate two lost threshold elements: the building name and a geometric screen door. The result is not nostalgia, but reinstatement – a disciplined collaboration that restores and prioritises character, honours heritage and reinforces the responsibility of custodianship through craft.