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Before the work

Before the work

Before the work

Notes on reference, research, systems and the decisions that precede resolved form.

Before the work is SCA’s record of how architecture takes shape before it becomes visible. Each issue follows a reference, question or constraint into the decisions it shaped: structure, material, envelope, movement, fabrication, climate and public experience.

May 2, 2026

Issue 006: Curvature From Straight Lines

How SCA’s Guilin Exhibition Centre translates the city’s karst landscape into a buildable envelope using developable geometry and straight aluminium sections.

System

Jan 9, 2026

Issue 005: Making Orbit Buildable

How SCA’s UK Pavilion Dubai Expo 2020 proposal translated satellite science into a demountable pavilion of torus structure, spiral ramp and responsive umbrellas.

System

Nov 16, 2025

Issue 004: Making Silk Buildable

How SCA’s Sunac Guangzhou Grand Theatre turned silk and myth into a buildable theatre envelope through folded geometry, panel rationalisation and mapped artwork.

System

May 23, 2025

Issue 003: Building a Forest

How SCA’s Wuxi Taihu Show Theatre translates the bamboo forests of Yixing into a modern 2,000-seat venue through columns, canopy, shade and light.

System

Feb 28, 2025

Issue 002: When Craft Becomes Architecture

How SCA’s Puzzle Ball Theatre translates a Chinese craft object into a 2,000-seat venue through structure, porous cladding, layered thresholds and movement.

Reference

Nov 28, 2024

Issue 001: The Work Before the Work

Introducing how cultural reference, structure, material and site research shape architecture before form appears.

Method