RCA STUDIO, AMICUS
The first cut. Before the staircase, before the light, before the screens, just the sound of concrete being broken into sections small enough to winch away. Piece by piece, carted out of a building that had sat largely forgotten for over a century.
One of the most memorable points during the documentation phase was the arrival and installation of the staircase. One winter's day, the roof came off entirely. The sky opened above the building, and the staircase was hoisted in, slowly, carefully, through what felt like the heavens. Wind across the site, safety lines everywhere, every set of eyes fixed on the same point above.
Returning months later. Standing at the base of the void, facing the LED glass panel spanning three levels. The scale of it, images moving across the surface, impossible not to think of Rick Deckard in Blade Runner's Los Angeles 2049, where the city itself had become a screen. Then the realisation: the wall was transparent. Stand behind it and see straight through to the other side of the building, LED images floating in mid-air.
And then the staff room. Fish swimming overhead, animation filling every panel, floor to ceiling, sound rising and falling to match. Standing there felt submerged, completely at ease. Like being underwater and still able to breathe.
