In 2016 publiceerde het El Croquis het essay ‘On tolerance and precision’ over het werk van Sergison Bates Architects dat Jan Peter Wingender en ik schreven over de betekenis van het werk van dit engelse architectenbureau.
El Croquis 187 (December 2016) was gewijd aan het werk van Sergison Bates in de periode 2004-2016.

(…) ‘It is hard to imagine a world more remote from the tolerance that Sergison Bates architects (SBa) advocate in their writing than the contemporary construction industry. Guided by certification and risk management, building sites turn increasingly into assembly sites of guaranteed components. In this world, tolerance is understood as the unavoidable gap between such components, to be filled immediately with silicone sealant. The generic character of a globalising architecture that emerges from this world is by nature schematic and ignorant of localities. It is this ignorance that SBa oppose by placing the notion of tolerance at the centre of their architectural thinking – an open-minded engagement that resists instant silicon sealant solutions. And yet, in building their projects, their ideas of tolerance come up against the very logic of contemporary construction.(…)’