Jan Kattein Architects

Today, The London Society hosted a tour of our Church Street Triangle project. Diana Grisales and Paul Simpson from Westminster City Council explained how the Church Street Masterplan will address endemic deprivation providing truely affordable and climate resillient homes, a new library, new public spaces and new retail units along one of London s oldest market streets. Hannah Ayres from Arbeit Studios introduced us to businesses at Triangle Studios, a new enterprise space for local start ups. Amazing to experience the creative energy at the studios and to learn about the outreach and engagement work that business owners are undertaking to create opportunities for local people. We learned about the work of WEPT (Women Empowerment Project & Training), a project providing opportunities for women in the fashion industry and about Haven Coffee who are supporting immigrant communities through advice, training and employment opportunities. In 2018 Jan Kattein Architects proposals for the Triangle secured nearly £1m in Good Growth funding for Westminster City Council from the Mayor of London. The funding was matched by WCC and led to a regeneration project which re made a public square, re opened the public toilets, created a new cafe, a pop up shop, 11 workspaces and implemented shopfront improvements to all businesses around the square. Masterplans can take years to implement and the Triangle Site provides an important place of stability in a changing neighbourhood. Here are some of the ingredients that have helped to make the project such a success: * meaningful and genuine engagement amplifies impact * a multi-lateral approach has greater transformational potential * providing affordable and accessible spaces can harness the creativity and social investment of local people and businesses * mixing things up creates an eco system of activity and enterprise * early activation can establish dialogue and create stability in the context of large, long term regeneration projects If you have not been, go and see for yourself what community powered regeneration can do.

Come and visit our buildings and see what meanwhile can do to reinvigorate a neighbourhood!

A nice problem to have. Each year I go to the Centre for Alternative Technology to run an architectural modelmaking workshop. CAT is a unique place. Situated inside an old slate quarry is a hotch potch of weird and wonderful buildings made from straw, earth and wood. Amongst them, the relics of three generations of environmental technologies, experiments gone wrong and innovations gone right. And all that surrounded by Welsh rainforest, streams, waterfalls and ponds. CAT also has a unique mindset. Here researchers, lecturers and students imagine a new relationship between humans and the natural environment, a relationship that s build on reciprocity. My modelmaking module embraces this ambition. We build with what we have: cardboard boxes reclaimed from the recycling bin, lichen harvested from tree branches, willow left over from a wickerwork project. Our photography studio is a disused shed and our photography background doubles up as an advertisement banner. In a world where everything can be bought at the click of a button, constraints like this school students to use their creativity to solve problems, leading to more inventive and sustainable design outcomes. And inventive they were. We built models of educational gardens, thatched roofs, inhabitable earth walls, timber grid shells and tiered dorms snuggling against the incline of their hilly site. To round off the day I also gave a lecture titled the architect-activist which reflected on the implications that a socially and environmentally regenerative practice has on the role of the architect. It was inspiring to hear Daisy Froud talk about her amazing work with communities in Hackney and Newham and great to catch up with Dr Carl Meddings, Gwyn Stacey and Zoe Quick. And brilliant to have John Challen s company on the train back and to learn about the CAT masterplan. All the very best for the 4th and 5th year students who are working towards their hand in. You will go far! If you haven t been to CAT, go visit, but please make sure you don t let the cheeky robin into the dining hall. That s a nice problem to have.

Join Jan and the The London Society for a tour of the Church Street Triangle on 27/03. Details below.

This morning our new children’s library opened to the public. The space forms part of Basil Spence’s iconic library building in Swiss Cottage. Children, parents, teachers, Councillors and library staff were all involved in shaping the design. But what really are the hallmarks of a contemporary children’s library? We learned quickly that all children and young people relate to the world around them through stories. Yet, not everyone associates stories with books. The overarching design principle for the library recognises that stories can be read and that they can also be acted, crafted, written and told. The new children’s library in Swiss Cottage provides for all that. We re-instated a storytelling stage, a feature that formed part of Basil Spence’s original plans. A metal wall with magnetic words and letters is designed to respond to the cravings of young wordsmiths. A listening pod is linked to a refurbished jukebox which has been loaded with audiobooks for those who want to listen to stories. A story-making area is kitted out with a big crafting table and a projector. Our work with teachers from Swiss Cottage School who work with children with special needs highlighted the importance of tactile engagement with the environment. In response, the material palette for the furniture includes a family of soft, rough, firm and smooth surfaces. And how do you deal with children that are growing out of being children? In the old library the area for teenage fiction was wedged uncomfortably in a transitional space between the children’s library and grown-up fiction. The new teenage space confidently occupies a corner of the main library, because we know that that’s where they want to be. A new sofa, tiered seats and study booths provide for both solitary and social story experiences. Welcome back to Swiss Cottage Library. Camden, you now have a library for story experiences that are as diverse as your people. And of course there are just as many books as there have always been. Congratulations to Sue Yen Chong, Chrysanthe Staikopoulou, Jan Kattein, London Borough of Camden, Oliver Jones, Fiona Tarn, Abul Kashim, Jean Aston, Chris Keys, Tracey Hamilton, Nick Durant, Tricia Lucas, Cuttle Construction Limited

'Not yet a groundswell. But in these uncertain times, it is heartening to see so many practitioners promoting a just transition. What was branded ‘Community Architecture’ in the 1990s has come full-circle. Hand-made slide shows may have been replaced by apps and Tiktok videos, but the thrust is similar. This time, I hope it is here to stay.' Wonderful to see our Paper Garden mentioned in Hattie Hartman HonFRIBA’s piece on engaged design practice.

Here's a lovely article in Architecture Today on our recently completed Church Street Triangle project. Impactful architecture does not need to be loud architecture. The Church Street Triangle project reaches deep into local communities, linking up the historic Church Street Market, a new cafe, a new micro enterprise mall and existing shops through careful activation and repair of physical and social relationships all around the three sides of a refurbished public square. Congratulations Westminster City Council, Mayor of London, Gareth Marriott, Jan Kattein Architects, Dale Thomson, Devrim Zarif, Diana Grisales, Nimrod Vardi, Cuttle Construction Limited and the Church Street traders and residents who have all contributed to making this happen. Thank you to Architecture Today and Jason Sayer for a brilliantly insightful article!

Nothing better on a grey February morning than a lovely look back by Building Design. with Jan Kattein on some of our most colourful urban interventions over the past years, leading right up to Gareth Marriott's joyful scheme for the Church Street Triangle. The project is a great example of everything we believe in, working with the people, buildings and materials which already make up a neighbourhood to propose a vivid future for the high street as the civic heart of a community. Read all about it: https://lnkd.in/emw86DqA Thanks to Mary Richardson for the lovely write-up! And congratulations to Devrim Zarif Anna B. Charlotte Healy Dale Thomson engineersHRW MDA Consulting and Arbeit Studios for their pivot roles on making the Church Street Triangle happen.

I am looking hugely forward to speaking at the amazing Urban Future conference again this year. Urban Future is the must attend event for all changemakers wanting to learn from some of the most inspired and creative city makers globally. Join us in beautiful Łódź from 21 - 23 May! Rumi Bose Andrew Catcheside Andrea Bugli Emma Wilcox Robyn Bennett Charles Landry Brendan Conway Rowan Conway Pippa Gueterbock Louise Duggan Emily Berwyn Eddie Bridgeman Elli Papacosta Jeffrey Lennon Paul Augarde Jon Alexander Clare Neilson Lerato Marema Stefanie D. Stefanie Weavers Andy Edwards Chris Paddock Gabi Spangenthal Jenny Dunn Gabi Abadi Joss Taylor Lisa Taylor Clare Richards Naomi Rubbra Freddie Broadhurst Clarissa Bromelle FRSA Sophie Trotman George Clarke Mathilde Lebreton Chris Paddock Kevin McGeough Simon Pitkeathley Yuanshi Li Chris Sands