On invitation by Rochus Hinkel and Helene Frichot, we're invited to a round table to dicuss relational participation. It's part of a three day programme and on the 8th the schedule is following

1.30 to 5.00 pm a the Architecture Design Innovation Program (ADIP) at the TU Berlin, Strasse des 17. Juni.

"relationship between people and places (narrative)"

Presenters:

Kathrin Böhm
public works
London and Hoefen

Birgit Klauck
Architecture Design Innovation Program (ADIP), Technical University (TU) Berlin
and Thomas Arnold
workspheres / Oxford Brooks

Doina Petrescu and Constatin Petcou
atelier architecture autogérée (aaa) Paris / University of Sheffield

Andreas Rumpfhuber
Architecture Research (AR)
Vienna

Gabi Schillig
Institute for Transmedia Design,
University of the Arts (UDK) Berlin

Mathias Heyden
ISPARA - Institut für Strategien partizipativer
Architektur und räumlicher

Moderators
Rochus Urban Hinkel, Urban Interior
Hélène Frichot, Architecture + Philosophy
School of Architecture and Design and
Design Research Institute

Posted July 3, 2011 19:31 by Kathrin Böhm

30 Bird Productions is performing "Chodzenie - Siberia" on a truck revamped in close collaboration with the theatre team by Torange from public works. Dates are 30.06. - 02.07. on the High Street in Watford. The performance was first developed for the Polish festival in Southend in 2009 and refers to the large number of Polish refugees who came to Iran from Siberian workcamps. Between 1942 and 1945, Iran played host to almost 150,000 men, women and children of the "Polish Exodus from Russia". The majority of the children ended up in Isfahan.

Posted June 30, 2011 20:16 by Kathrin Böhm

We've just got a laser cutter for the studio - mainly to produce bespoke items for the FEAST one-off dinner. It's exiting to have tools for DIY manufacturing around, like the hand press we assembled for making seed bombs. High on the wish list is a 3D printer and Kathrin is currenlty seaking a canning machine. And scissors and glue for good old cut-and-paste won't fall out of favour - promised.

Posted June 29, 2011 08:17 by Kathrin Böhm

Since May 2011 we have been researching, together with Khalid Mezaina and Karima al Shomely, how shopping centres - from Arab souks to British street markets, from Dubai Mall to Westfield London Shopping Centre - serve as alternative communal spaces and critical points of exchange.

It's part of a new project called Feast and we've been engaging with shoppers and shopkeepers to collect personal narratives and to document micro-communities and invisible 'networks' that exist in the mall. These narratives will be re-imagined as short animations or illustrations and used as the conceptual design for a series of unusual, yet practical 'products'.
 
Like the narratives that inspired them, each of these newly-designed products will complement each other; and together, set the stage for a communal feast: a table, chairs, cutlery, food. The resultant exhibition will feature an installation of the innovative products, video documentation of the feast with Shopopolis' participants, and short animations of the stories that inspired the products in The Village's main display window at Westfield London.
 
Feast is part of Shopopolis, an initiative by the Delfina Foundation that explores the notion of shopping centres as social spaces through reciprocal residencies and workshops in the UAE and the UK.
 
Shopopolis is produced by the Delfina Foundation's artist-in-residence programme for Shubbak: A window on Arab Culture, with the support of the Emirates Foundation, Westfield London, British Council, and Tashkeel.

Posted June 22, 2011 10:33 by Kathrin Böhm

public works' works appear in a few recently published books and magazines.

Check out the July issue of Blueprint for a feature of the Whitechapel Gift Shop, with plenty of photos and an insight into the way we work.

The South London Gallery has just launched The Cat Came as a Tomato, which includes an essay by us on the idea of slowly growing extensions.

The TRANS LOCAL ACT book is still circulating the european Rhyzom network of all partners involved in this collaborative research project. 

The Ein-Zu-Mit Decken project for the Kunststation Triemli in Zürich is documented in a small fold out brochure, and public works' involvement in the International Village Shop appears in "Raumpioniere im ländlichen Raum" (space pioneers in the rural) book by Bauhaus Dessau.

Torange is publishing a number of fanzines for her West Bromwich project " The Committee of lost Memories", and some to act as manuals for the different craft groups who have moved into the newly constructed Cultural Centres in West Bengal, designed by public works.

Numerous slogans in poster format have been produced for the Hackney Wick Curiosity Shop Spring Outing, and have later been shown in an exhibition on public art in Graz, organised by Rotor.

Posted June 10, 2011 07:33 by Kathrin Böhm

public works has contributed to the new MAKING PLAY publication, referring to the "everyday extensions" project from 2009, which was to map the different spatial extensions the SLG outreach programme uses and creates on an everyday basis.

Posted June 4, 2011 18:39 by Kathrin Böhm

Projects that have recently started include

FEAST with onsite production towards a collective dinner with employees from the Westfield Shopping Centre.

The continuation and seasonal start of 30 Bird's "Betsy the Bedford Truck" designed by public works which is prepared at the Elstree Film Studios for Chodzenie-Siberia, 30 Bird's outdoor performance piece at the Imagine Festival.

A three year long collaboration on collective sustainable urban efforts, called Life+, with aaa as the main partner in Paris and us in Hackney Wick.

Posted June 1, 2011 09:32 by Kathrin Böhm

The object as output is not our emphasis, but we output objects, and here is a list of some of the things that are results from recent collaborative times:

The Rose Garden Caravan Pot, developed with the Forever Young Pensioner's group from Ballykinlar for the International Village Shop.

The DROP seed bomb which is a result from a product development workshop during Rhyzom at Abbey Gardens. 

Three Cultural Centres built and programmed with local materials and skills in three small villages in West Bengal, India. Our involvement continues, with the aim to enable the centres to communicate, strenghten, reproduce and develop local culture.

A number of objects have come out of collaboratiosn with local groups on the Colchester Inn project, such as a massive cake stand, a tool to adjust the time zone, a clay ofen for baking cakes in public by Peter Jones, and a Knick Knack Clowd for collecting and telling the stories of personal - well - knick knack.

Posted June 1, 2011 08:53 by Kathrin Böhm

Launching a new product, the "Rose Garden" Caravan Pot, together with The "Forever Young Pensioners" group, during the Village Fair in Ballykinlar, on Saturday 28th May from 1 - 4 pm.

To see the pot in development click here.

For more information about the shop click here.

Posted May 18, 2011 09:11 by Kathrin Böhm

Andreas has been invited by the "Lines of Flight" research group at Sheffield University to lead a seminar on the "politics of gesture". For more information click here.

12th May 2011, 13h00.  Seminar Room 3, School of Architecture, Crookesmoor Building, Sheffield.

Posted May 9, 2011 21:52 by Kathrin Böhm