Under Construction

Under Construction is an evolving collaborative architecture project, under construction at the Stanley Picker Gallery throughout September – December 2024.

The exhibition surveys more than a decade of ambitious live-build projects led by architect Takeshi Hayatsu, working with Kingston University Architecture and Landscape students and a growing cohort of participants and community partners. Since 2011, these projects have provided imaginative and highly resourceful responses to their chosen locations in collaboration with diverse communities around Kingston, Surbiton, Tolworth and beyond.

Under Construction presents a selection of these past projects through tactile materials, highlighting different craft techniques, scale models, and re-constructed structures built for the exhibition by 121 Collective, itself formed of alumni of Hayatsu. The women’s film collective w.in.c has created a short documentary focussing on Hayatsu’s approach to teaching through making, his community centred ethos, and the haptic methodologies of the various builds, whilst the publication provides a summary of each project to date.

Throughout the exhibition an entirely new live build will take place at the Stanley Picker Gallery, developed with the 2024-25 cohort of Unit 5 MArch students from the Department of Architecture and Landscape at Kingston School of Art, Kingston University. This will include a Shrine outside the entrance and a Sauna on the Gallery’s riverside terrace, both built using a rammed-earth technique. Throughout the exhibition a series of workshops and events encourage visitors to learn about the exhibition and get involved in the live build.

Find out more here.

Image credit: Temple (2014-15) designed and constructed by tutors Takeshi Hayatsu, Simon Jones and the third year architecture students at Kingston University for the garden of Dorich House Musuem.