if you’re up to date with your modernism, i’m sure you will have heard the news already about the heralded bernat klein studio by peter womersley. if you’re new, let me break it to you: it is up for auctionfor a guide price of just £18,000. camper vans are more expensive than that.
but this is a grade A lised building in the scottish borders, currently on scotland’s buildings at risk register - it was already in an awful state in 2016 when i first visited and i can only imagine the state it is in now. as sat derelict since the early 2000s and like so many modernist gems, it’s not only been neglected but overlooked. with its protected status, i do wonder about the real amount of funds required to restore it into anything structurally sound. but one can dream, right?
as many of you already know, i visited this building during my university days as part of a project exploring womersley’s work. it left a deep impression, the proportions, the materiality, the quiet authority of its modernist geometry while retaining the human scales and the airy, cantilevered forms that is such a signature style of womersley’s genius.
and so, naturally, as a modernism-obsessed textile designer, it feels like it’s my duty to fantasise about it a little. so i’ve been daydreaming and i’ve created a series of speculative interior visualisations using AI – don’t shoot me for using it, i know fine well these renders are a not a replacement for reality (some prints really do not resemble zitozza at all and don’t even get me started on the cat..), nor is this a serious, budgeted proposal. it’s just a little bit of fun to put some ideas out to the universe and help stimulate the imagination about the building’s future. (or as the kids would call it, “manifesting”…)
in this parallel universe, the studio is lovingly restored not into an airbnb or a “writer’s retreat” (sorry barnabas calder, love your books but we really can do better here.) so in my head i turned it back into a working textile studio instead. my vision is an idea that is only half-selfish, and it would also contribute to the economy and give back to the scottish borders. i’m obviously thinking about zitozza here, but also a space for creative jobs, education, apprenticeships, and professional development. it could be quite a serious place for the textile industry with not only a space for designing, printing and production but there could also be workshops, residencies and exhibitions – continuing the building’s original purpose and klein’s spirit of thoughtful and considered, sustainable design.
okay, yes, the millions required to make it happen are currently in the realm of fantasy… but hey, everyone tells you that to do well in business you need to dream big so that’s exactly what i’m doing.
so, here’s a (completely unbudgeted) proposal. we don't need more holiday houses – we need permanent homes for making and creativity. modernist ideas - egalitarian notions of simplicity, abstraction and rational proportions - need to make a comeback and become mainstream again. spaces where design isn’t just theorised and talked about but physically made to furnish real spaces. achitecture, at its best, can enable that.
these are my ai generated fantasies, but it’s also a bit of food for thought. and hey, if you don’t have the money but want to keep the dream alive you can always just buy a teatowel… but if you do happen to have a few million pounds to spare and a soft spot for brutalist textile utopias, well, you know where to find me!
aaaand we’re here! it’s only the 4th station of our tour of peter womersley’s buildings in the scottish borders, but arguably the most iconic one! we are visiting bernat klein’s old studio and house, near selkirk. it’s a famous, grade A listed and most revered building, yet in its fate still hangs in the balance as it has been neglected in a poor state since the 2000s and the more time passes, the more expensive it gets to restore it to its former glory.
the studio was built in 1972 for textile designer and personal friend of womersley’s, bernat klein (whose work is probably also worth its own blog post later) and it won a RIBA award in the following year. it is a separate building form the family house, high sunderland, which is a modernist masterpiece in itself (built earlier, in 1957), and it is still a private residence so this post is focusing on the studio, which has been abandoned since 2000s. so before we dive in, i’m going to do an unusual thing and this time, and i don’t really recommend to visit in its current state, or at least not to go too close to it. these photos are from 2016, and since then, i’m not sure how dangerous it has become to go close to - i know it’s tempting but i would strongly discourage you to do so. i didn’t either to be honest, most of the close-up work was done by my camera, and i hope it did a good job regardless and you’re able to see why this work is so masterful and why it needs to be preserved.
there are many details and elements that tell you just how much thought the architect put into the building. before i visited it, as a student at university, i attended a guest lecture by historic environment scotland about peter womersley, his life and his work and there was a good few minutes dedicated to an enthusiastic review of this building. a vivid description that got stuck with me was about the flashes of colours one would see through the amazing, huge, frameless glazing - that’s bernat klein using this amazing studio space to make amazing art. their friendship is a great symbol to me that textiles and architecture are really connected areas that can constantly inspire each-other which is really the whole reason of this blog.
my images are black and white so i’m not sure how much it comes through that it’s surrounded with leafy, lush greenery, with stairs leading up to a bridge to access the cantilevered second floor (he was such a master of gravity - see also his beautiful work of the netherdale roof.) i’m trying to show you on these images the imprint on the concrete - i heard that peter womersley would be mortified to be called brutalist today, and indeed, the concrete is not raw at all here but very much takes the shape of the timber it was formed with, adding an extra tactility to the structure.
so we hope you enjoyed this visit - i hope we can go back when it’s fully restored and the building is put to a great use. if you want to help the cause to preserve this studio, i recommend you check out and get in touch with preserving womersley, a group of dedicated enthusiasts whose aim is to keep the work of this genius architect standing.
if you enjoyed this, do stick around as we’ll stop at two more places at this tour - we’ll visit a the impressive scottish borders council in newton st boswells, and the boiler house of melrose district asylum. you can also subscribe to our newsletter to our forms below (you can get a free print with it) and the latest news about prints inspired by brilliant architecture. see you soon!
