To celebrate 20 years of architectural practice, HS2 decided to make a book. I mined the archives and was astonished by the variety of styles, textures, materials, and building types. It was hard to believe it was the work of just one firm. The problem was how to tie it together into a cohesive narrative of a singular practice. And how to create visual difference and rhythm with professional photographs as the only strong source of material?

I proposed moving through the work in time by program, showing spaces for bathing, spaces for working, spaces for cooking, and so on. Each program was granted a full sheet: photos from the first decade on one half and photos from the second decade on the other. Folded in half, and nested, these pages become a book that proceeds chronologically. Interspersed are a conversation I “commissioned” from the partners, pull quotes from two decades of press, and a photo of all the press they’ve ever received in a massive pile, also commissioned by me. In the end, the story is about time and the incredibly heterogeneous body of work two principals executed together over that time.