Sybarite at ‘Beyond the Blueprint’ in Nine Elms

When there is no client, no brief and no problem waiting to be solved, what do architects create?

‘Beyond the Blueprint’, now open at The Fifty-Six in London’s Nine Elms, explores the creative pursuits that extend beyond conventional architectural practice. Bringing together architects and designers from the UK and China, the exhibition offers an insight into personal observations and unrealised ambitions, revealing the ideas that take shape alongside commissioned work.

Sybarite’s contribution spans almost three decades, bringing works by Co-Founder Torquil McIntosh into conversation with projects from the studio. The sculptural forms of the Orb Lamp and Ear Stool sit alongside Torquil’s life drawings, tracing an interest in form that moves between the observed body and the designed object.

The collection also includes conceptual proposals for Hammersmith Bridge and the Apeiron tower, alongside an architectural model of SKP Chengdu’s subterranean masterplan. Across these different scales, drawing and model-making become ways of testing possibilities: from the intimate study of a figure to the imagined transformation of a city.

Together, the works offer a glimpse into the creative curiosities that inform Sybarite’s approach to design. Boundaries between disciplines remain deliberately open, allowing ideas to move between artistic enquiry and architectural practice. What emerges is a portrait of continual experimentation, sustained by a desire to create that reaches beyond the requirements of a brief.

Our thanks to exhibition initiator Zhixiong Guan, curator Cybil Chiu of Debut Studio, and exhibition project manager Ruoxin Chen for bringing this collection together.

‘Beyond the Blueprint’
29 October 2026 – 31 January 2027
The Fifty-Six, 1 Nine Elms Lane, London SW8 5HD

Photography: Gabriel Popa