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Tentsmuir Forest, Dundee photo © Thomas Deckker 2007
2 Beach House Projects
2020-21/

Thomas Deckker Architect: Standard House Types, Brasília
Standard House Types, Brasília
2020

Thomas Deckker Architect: 3 Tower House Projects
3 Tower House Projects
2018-20

Thomas Deckker Architect: Project for a Penthouse, London
Some Nice Ideas for a Penthouse
2015

Thomas Deckker Architect: Project for Private Houses and a Tenement, Dundee
Some Nice Ideas for Dundee
2013

Thomas Deckker Architect: Offices for a Brazilian Company, London
Offices for a Brazilian Company
London
2011-12

Thomas Deckker Architect: Duval Renovation, Brasília
Duval Apartment Renovation
Brasília, Brazil
2009-10

Thomas Deckker Architect: landscape urbanism, Abu Dhabi
Some Nice Ideas for Abu Dhabi
2010

Thomas Deckker Architect: 2 Development Studies, London
2 Development Studies
London
2004

Thomas Deckker: Magalhães House
Magalhães House
QL18, Brasília, Brazil
1997 - 2001

Thomas Deckker: Moore House Project
Moore House Project
Algarve, Portugal
1994-95

superquadra model
Superquadra Penthouse Project
Brasília, Brazil
1993 - 2001

Thomas Deckker: Clínica de Câncer, Brasília
Clínica de Câncer, Brasília
SHLS, Brasília, Brazil
1995

Thomas Deckker: Magalhães Project
Magalhães Project
QI26, Brasília, Brazil
1993-95

Thomas Deckker: Thompson House
Thompson House Project
Cambridge, England
1992

Thomas Deckker: Camara Municipal Competition Entry 1989
3 Competition Entries for Brazil
1989-90

Thomas Deckker Architect: 'Brasília' Table
'Brasília' Table
1990

Thomas Deckker: Soares Apartment Renovation
Soares Apartment Renovation
Brasília, Brazil
1987

Thomas Deckker: Moore House
Moore House
Gerrards Cross, England
1984-87

Thomas Deckker Architect: Stochastic Garden
Thomas Deckker Architect: Stochastic Garden
Design Sketch

Stochastic Garden

This work arose from many years thinking about what defined a landscape, in distinction to a work of architecture. It seemed to me that designing a 'natural' space implied a certain contradiction between landscape and architecture: that the fundamental characteristic of 'nature' was that it should not appear to be designed, or that its representation should not be of order. On the other hand, the use of order as a defining characteristic of architecture had always appealed to me, hence the very beautiful and rational planning in my design work in projects such as the Magalhães House and the Penthouse Project Project for a Penthouse, London.

The word 'stochastic', from Ancient Greek στόχος, stókhos, has 2 particularly attractive and relevant meanings:
  • the first is of 'conjecture', following work on probability by the Swiss mathematician Jakob Bernoulli in the mid-17th century.
  • the second lies within mathematical theory: a stochastic process is one in which a defined and rational process can give rise to to unpredictable outcomes, in distinction to a deterministic process in which the outcomes are always a result of the process itself. The distinction beween 'stochastic' and 'random' is particularly important, as 'random' does not imply any defined and rational process.
I had already explored these ideas in a Study Project with students from my Design Research Unit at the University of Dundee. I described the emergence of formal ideas of the representation of the 'natural' world in gardens in my publication Edzell Castle: Architectural Treatises in Late 16th Century Scotland.
Thomas Deckker Architect: Stochastic Field Patterns, Fife
Stochastic Field Patterns, Fife
photograph © Thomas Deckker 2014
I glimpsed this field with an arrangement of hay bales from a train window outside Dundee, which seemed to symbolise the relationship between 'architecture' and 'nature': the hay bales were the obvious outcome of a rational mechancial process, yet their arrangement on the field could not be predicted.
Thomas Deckker Architect: Stochastic Garden
Thomas Deckker Architect: Stochastic Garden
Thomas Deckker Architect: Stochastic Garden
Design Sketch
While the rationale of the garden may lie in mathematical theory, the physical reality lies in the sensuous world of form, space and material. The hedges are similar in form to the late-nineteenth-century yew hedges at Crathes Castle, Aberdeenshire. On the other hand the red colour comes from the plant 'photinia x fraseri', which has red, rather than evergreen, leaves.
Thomas Deckker Architect: Crathes Castle Garden, Aberdeenshire
Crathes Castle Garden, Aberdeenshire
photograph © Thomas Deckker 2016