Saturday Telegraph, Telegraph Magazine
‘Rescue Mission’ article, 1.12.01
Extract from article by Dinah Hall

‘When Adam Hills and Maria Speake are asked by snooty types what they are doing they delight in calling themselves scrap dealers.

‘Maria takes an almost evangelical pleasure in persuading architects to use what are essentially high quality affordable materials which, just because they may have come from an 80s eyesore, are not perceived to have any value. “The materials may have limitations, in that there is a finite quantity which comes in specific sizes, but often the challenge of working with these produces a better design.”

‘The Retrouvius warehouse off the Harrow Road in London is a temple to eclecticism: cast iron Edinburgh police boxes preside over slabs of granite. Upstairs it is more like a Clerkenwell design shop… stacked against the wall are a collection of silk screens, some by important 20th century artists such as Eduardo Paolozzi.’