Takeshi Hayatsu & Collaborators Under Construction

Warning
Allergen Notice – This exhibition contains barley straw.

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 guided by architect Takeshi Hayatsu, working with Kingston University Architecture and Landscape students and a growing cohort of participants and community partners (including The Community Brain, Citizen Zoo, 121 Collective and more). 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 accumulative 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 temporary rammed earth Shrine outside the entrance and a Sauna on the Gallery’s riverside terrace.

Past projects such as the Bridge (2011-12), a replica of 17th century Japanese wooden Kintaikyo bridge or Woodland Chapel (2013-14), a structure made for a local St John’s Primary School both made entirely from donated and recycled materials are exemplary of the economy of means and the ethos of DIY builds. Temple (2014-15) and Seminar House Pavilion (2015-16) were created for the garden of Dorich House Museum, each championing special techniques such as elaborate carpentry or yakisugi, a Japanese method for scorching timber. The following year, the Barbican Tea House (2016-17) was a burnt timber cladded tea house specially commissioned for the exhibition ‘The Japanese House: Architecture and Life After 1945’ at the Barbican Centre London, as a collaboration between architect Terunobu Fujimori, Takeshi Hayatsu and architecture and product design students from Kingston University.

SHEDx was a community engagement programme initiated by The Community Brain. As part of the project, The Heritage Shed (2017-18) housed a display of allotment culture. Like many other builds, this shed travelled to various contexts including the V&A, RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival and the Garden Museum. Hayatsu’s idea of democratising crafts have continued to unfold through recent collaborations such as the Green Shed (2018-19) and Hide (2019-21), which involved schoolchildren decorating individual wooden panels with locally sourced clay paint, as well as public engagement elements of the Surbiton Yatai (2017-18) and the Lantern (2023) launched with public processions.

A series of workshops and events encourage visitors to learn about the exhibition and get involved in the live build. See all public event at the bottom of this page.