The premiere of our new production Jesus ich wuensche mir Glueck beim Angeln is coming up this Saturday (25 02 12) at FFT in Duesseldorf, Germany. Anna Malunat’s new play is about the notion of home (or the lack of it) in the context of ubiquitus digital networks that dissolve geographic distances. Three characters embark on a road trip through a landscape of obsolete domestic technologies in search for permanence and stability. Go to the FFT website for times & ticket details.
Our town-centre regeneration project for Green Lanes was awarded £1,778,506 from Mayor Boris Johnson’s Outer London Fund earlier this week. The ambitious design proposal for a series of micro squares, shop front improvements and the Harringay Gateway was selected from 80 submissions in a competitive bid. The project will receive direct funding from Design for London. It will set an aspirational precedent for the community and begin to secure the wider regeneration of the area. See the Green Lanes project page for more details.
Jan Kattein & David Garcia’s Design Unit are exhibiting their work at the Bartlett School of Architecture Gallery. In November 2012 Unit 3 went on an expedition to the Pyrenees, a mountain range, 150 million years old, that has weathered a radical human transformation during the last 50. Dams and industries are re-forming the landscape to feed the ever-hungry metropolises in the lowlands. Traditional herding and rural activities are disappearing, abandoning villages and farmsteads over night to contest their own fate against the slow forces of weather, erosion and decay. All the while, extreme sports and high mountain tourism are festering. Along this mountainous border, out of sight from authority and on the edge of society, a new ecology is taking hold. In tune with the local environment and responsive to the needs of the group, a movement has established itself based on the principles of fair dealing and self-organisation. Abandoned ruins, reclaimed, transform into smallholdings; micro-industries rely on the mutual exchange of goods and services ensuring self-sufficiency. Communal activities generate the local infrastructure necessary for a civilized society while the internet provides a platform for global solidarity and skills exchange. 14 portable shelters made in the Bartlett workshop have served as tools for the study the climatic-, social-, geological- and ecological parameters of the site and also provided overnight accommodation during the expedition. The exhibition shows work by Ginny Chau, Melanie Cheng, Nicolas Chung, Deniz Varol, Max Friedlander, Karen Hu, Yolanda Heng In Leung, Martyna Marciniak, Isabel Ogden, Andra Tuna, Chengqi Wan, Henrietta Watkins, Vivian Wong, Tracey Xiao.
We have been commissioned to design the performance space for Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf to be shown at Kampnagel Theatrein Hamburg in May 2012. The production with new compositions by Meine Damen und Herren and former Tom Waits’ guitarist Marc Ribot will explore the notion of imprisonment and freedom and the difficulty to decide between two life-choices.
Our sub-terrain extension on Quarrendon Street in Fulham was given planning permission. We will now progress with detailed design and works on site will start in the spring 2012.
Phase 2 of the High Road Leyton Shop Fronts Improvement Scheme is now complete. Works included the installation of 6 new shop fronts and the refurbishment of 9 buildings across a complete terrace at the heart of the High Road. Works to the opposite terrace continue on site and are due for completion in the new year.
The first of our residential extensions for Camden Council has just been completed on site. The building in Reapers Close offers a bedroom apiece across two adjacent properties. Large colourful window openings have been used to increase the sense of light and space while a grass roof ensures that no green space is lost.
Jan Kattein Architects have submitted a bid for Harringay Green Lanes on behalf of the Harringay Traders Association and the London Borough of Haringey to the Outer London Fund – Round 2. The proposal is part of an ambitious plan to undertake lasting improvement works across all scales of the public realm. Funding allocation to be announced at the end of November. See the Green Lanes project page for more details.
Jan Kattein Architects are advising Haringey council and the Harringay Trader’s Association on their £2 million high street improvement project for Green Lanes. The project comprises interactive lighting displays, urban realm improvements and works to 50 shops.
Our production of Anna Malunat’s stage play Halt Dich am Zaun der Himmel ist hoch is showing at the Studiobuehne in Cologne and at the Theater im Ballsaal in Bonn. The production which is based on material collected during a road trip through Eastern Prussia will feature as the opening act of the West Off festival. For tickets and times check www.studiobuehne-koeln.de or www.theater-im-ballsaal.de.
