Architecture

We have a colourful portfolio with work in housing, mixed use, small scale commercial, works to existing buildings and new-built and clients including developers, housing associations, local authorities and private individuals. Our design process is a collaborative undertaking that takes account of the constraints of each site and the sometimes disparate views of residents, clients, planners, contractors and specialist consultants. Through careful and site-responsive planning and innovative materials and construction methods we have evolved a specialty in unlocking complex urban sites to create bright spacious and flexible spaces. Sustainability is a major concern for us. We reject the notion of a fixed design-life-expectancy common in contemporary construction. For us sustainable architecture can accommodate the changing needs of its occupants, is adaptable, upgradeable and repairable.

Planning

Life in the city is about carefully mediating between private and public space, individual ambitions and communal interests. An urban strategy needs to recognise its context and build upon forces that are already advancing urban renewal. Cities are living entities. A sustainable urban strategy provides opportunities for customisation, adaptation and creative intervention so that the city has time to accommodate the changing needs of its inhabitants. Our experience working at the intersection of theory and practice helps us to devise strategy documents and masterplans where innovative urban thinking is just as important as staged implementation on the ground. Thinking across scales ensures that urbanism is not merely a strategic exercise, but a powerful and all-encompassing undertaking that sets into motion a process of urban renewal which continues for many years to come. During the last 5 years we have prepared urban strategies for key sites in Eastbourne, Stratford, Waltham Forest and Blackpool. Often our work helps to secure external funding for major urban regeneration projects.

High Streets

Mary Portas’s Review of British High Streets spells out the crisis point that Britain’s town centres have reached and the urgency by which we have to act if this social and cultural asset is to be protected from irreparable decline. JKA are one of the country’s foremost experts in community-based high street regeneration. We are advising local authorities and community groups nationwide.  At the moment we are working on regeneration strategies for 16 high streets across London and the South East.

The high street is a fluctuant entity. Shops change ownership, vendors change business models, new services are offered and old lines of trade discontinued. A sustainable regeneration strategy needs to be able to accommodate change. The high street is the lifeblood of the neighborhood. It is not just a place to shop. It’s where local people find work, meet friends and engage in cultural activity.

Every high street is different. Our work with stakeholders, local authorities, private investors and traders- and residents associations aims to strengthen the local identity of each site, celebrate it’s specifies, contradictions and idiosyncrasies.  A design strategy that is well-embedded in the community can act as a catalyst to encourage private sector investment and also instill a sense of civic pride.

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Theatre

Jan Kattein Architects have been designing award-winning performance spaces across Germany for the last decade. Since winning the 2005 Ring Award venues have included the Staatstheater Saarbruecken, the Prinzregententheatre Munich, the Sophiensaaele Berlin, Kampnagel Hamburg, Fetspielhaus Hellerau, Opera Cottbus and the FFT Duesseldorf. Our background in architecture brings about performance spaces that are immersive experiences. Distinct from a lot of contemporary productions, we do not see the need to abandon the traditional theatre space, instead we transform it. Our magical landscapes are inhabited by audience and performers alike. One critic likened the audience experience to that of a road movie, immersive, restless and adventurous.

Research

Architecture is commonly seen as a product. Accepting it as a practice reveals the discipline as a collaborative process involving clients, stakeholders, planners, other consultants, contractors, makers and users. A close professional association with the Bartlett School of Architecture that goes back some 12 year has introduced a research culture to the practice that helps us to actively contribute to an intellectual discourse about the discipline. Jan Kattein’s PhD thesis, The Architecture Chronicle – Diary of an Architectural Practice was short-listed for an RIBA Research Award and will be published by Ashgate as part of their Design Research in Architecture series in April 2014.

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