The project 17 Love Lane began with an empty space underneath a railway arch on the northern outskirts of Liverpool. As an empty space, it already had its qualities, bringing to mind the words of Peter Brook, ‘I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of theatre to be engaged‘ (Brook, 1968) I am inclined to think of the inaugural performance there as being when I showed it to a friend. Its emptiness made our voices echo, and the space itself echoed with possibility. The imprint of this empty space could always be read in the subsequent stages of the project as I deliberately articulated any additions in such a way that they appeared somehow ‘detached’ from the surrounding space, never part of the building, like a gallery installation.