Under Construction Takeshi Hayatsu & Collaborators

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.