Blueprint-Public Works

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WITH THE WHITECHAPEL GIFTSHOP,ARCHITECTURE AND ART COLLECTIVE PUBLIC WORKS CREATED A HOME, A COMMUNITY ART PROJECT AND APERFORMANCE SPACE IN ONE. NOT CONTENT WITH CHALLENGING CONVENTIONALTYPOLOGY, THE FIRM ALSO QUESTIONS THE ROLE OF ARCHITECTURE ITSELF. OWEN PRITCHARD TAKES STOCK

PUBLICWORKS

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Its simple neon sign gives little indication ofwhat the WhitechapelGiftshop has in store Ω

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founded Public Works in 2004 to create‘socio-spatial and physical structures, publicevents and publications’. Lang and Bohm hadworked together on public art commissionssince 1998; Khonsari and Denicke-Polcherhad worked on masterplanning projects inthe public realm. (Denicke-Polcher later left).

Khonsari talks of freeing the architectfrom the subservient role of service providerthrough collaboration and dialogue, seekingto span the complicated relationships thatprevail in conventional practice. ‘Wecritically evaluate each step of the process,from the brief and the economics to thecollaborations with clients, public and artcommissioning bodies.’ says Khonsari, ‘Thatsaid, we haven’t managed to completely deal

as a collective of architects and artists whoseintention is to carry out projects that ‘workwithin and towards public space’.

The practice questions the roles that artand architecture play in each project. ‘Theyare extremely different disciplines and ittook us a long time to see how the culturalcontext could enter the architecturalcontext,’ says Khonsari. ‘Architects find ithard to understand it if you don’t think theyare artists but the language of architecturediffers from that of art.’ This aspect ofcritical practice has allowed Public Works todevelop the definition of its role at a timewhen the profession is in an identity crisis.

Andreas Lang, Kathryn Bohm, TorangeKhonsari and Sandra Denicke-Polcher

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Above: Floor Plan1 Master bedroom2 Secondary living space3 Study room4 Main bathroom5 Main circulation to allprivate rooms6 Bedroom7 Main living space8 Shop9 Gift exchange10 Kitchen

A Walnut crate from M Hall, Bexley – turnedinto soap holder andtap consoleB Makeup table from C Topan, Bucks – turnedinto washstandC Picture frame from LHardie, Sussex – turnedinto a light fixtureD Whiskey Crate from R Butler, York – turnedinto a drinks cabinetE A 19th-century mirrorfrom a boudoir in Sussex

Lurking in the shadow of the Royal LondonHospital, tucked behind a bar garishlypainted in tiger stripes, lies the WhitechapelGiftshop: part home, part community artproject, part performance space. Its humbleshop front, lit with in neon announcing ‘gift’,conceals a project that tests the typology ofthe home and presents an alternative to thetraditional role of the architect.

Public Works, the architect for thisproject ‘sought to challenge the programsand functions that we take for granted,’ saysTorange Khonsari, one of its founders. ‘Forexample: the challenge of using a privatespace as an avant-garde performance space’.

Public Works is a not-for-profit companyand operates out of a studio in east London

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with some of these issues. The WhitechapelGiftshop project was one of the first chanceswe had to test these ideas.’

Public Works said it would onlyundertake the project if some communityaspect were to be brought into the proposal.Taking inspiration from the 1983 book The Gift by Lewis Hyde, the clients, Peleand Pilar Cortizo-Burgess agreed to a series of residencies with each artist donating an item from their residency. As the shop’swebsite put it: ‘a person can only “buy” one of these gifts by leaving something inreturn that they’ve made themselves. Ourcurrency will be the gift’s story.’

The residencies were run by Pilar, whohas a background in advertising. It saw six

artists use the space over a five-monthperiod. It was a chance for the creativeprocesses she engaged with at work tobecome a part of her personal life.‘ As an idea it lives beyond the space,’ she says, ‘asit’s connected to what I do in my work, andwhat I also feel I’m here to do personally’.The output was diverse: Kamala Katbaanacreated Whitechapel is Sound, in which thethe sonic landscape of the surrounding areawas replayed in the shop; Verity Keefeoffered local people a skill exchange.

For the clients, it was a positive use ofthe space and a chance to engage with thecommunity they were building a home in.‘Public Works came with ideas, ideas thatthey and us were excited about,’ says

Cortizo-Burgess. ‘We saw it as the return ofthe property to the traditional live/work unitof the high street, where life would happenjust beyond the shop floor. The building wasalways a space between the public andprivate. We wanted that and more’.

Through a door and red velvet curtain at the back of the shop lies the privatedwelling. The building itself is a formersaw mill, which subsequently was used asa pottery. Visitors emerge into a top-lit,double-height living space. A mezzaninelevel above the kitchen houses a snug thatlooks down over the airy volume. Facingthe kitchen is a self-contained area thathouses the bedroom, bathroom and study.It has its own facade with a large window

Top left: The main livingspace is a semi-publicarea that serves the shopand the home

Top right: The entrance to the shop is covered bya curtain hung from thechasing of the adjacentfuse box

Above: Brothers Richardand Christopher Fairhead produced God’s Sketchbook, anexhibition of illustrations,during their residency

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//WE SAW IT AS A RETURN OF THEPROPERTY TO THE TRADITIONALLIVE/WORK UNIT OF THE HIGHSTREET. THE BUILDING WASALWAYS A SPACE BETWEEN THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE. WEWANTED THAT AND A LOT MORE//

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to the bedroom, and four-panel foldingdoors to the study. Essentially, it is a housewithin a house and the only truly privatedomain in the project. The living room isan intermediate territory between the shop and bedroom. Public Works has achieved an assured rationalisation of an awkwardspace. Rather than being a sterile modernhome, it strikes a balance betweenminimalist influences and the playfuleccentricities of the fixtures.

Working closely with the contractorGeoff Chance, the architect hasconsciously retained the integrity of thespace rather than providing a simple image of domesticity. ‘I’m a great believerin ‘Inside out’’, says Cortizo-Burgess. ‘The architect managed to pay homage tothe vintage of the space, whilst alsoproviding a modern home.’ In the livingspace, the guttering is exposed and theelectrical chasing meanders around the

wall unapologetically. There are moresurreal details too: a skylight in thebedroom floor peers straight down into the toilet below; the floor of the mezzanineis a steel grille that would traditionally be used externally; in the kitchen abeautiful polished concrete work surfacesits on scaffold poles.

The detailing in each room brings the space to life. Many of the fixtures andfittings were sourced off eBay. The handbasin, for example, is salvaged from theOrient Express and the drinks cabinet is anold whiskey crate mounted on the wall.

Khonsari archived information aboutwhere and who the items were sourced from, along with any anecdotal evidence.The house has an appropriated historyembedded in its material presence, an ideathat Public Works explored in its 2007project The Folk Float, a mobile museum for the town of Egremont in Cumbria. On

Below left and centre: MyClub (2009), a mobiletheatre was based on amilitary surplus truck

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a budget of just £15,000, the project was amobile archive that allowed the town tocreate a physical record of its collectivehistory through the donation of personalproperty as artefacts. The Folk Float provided display cabinets, whiteboards to record information later uploaded and stored digitally as an extension to this public archive.

The final part of this story takes the material of the house and, again, re-appropriates its story. Public Works andThirty Bird Productions collaborated on aproduction of a play called Plastic by writerMehrdad Seyf. The play saw an audience of 20 allowed access to the property, whichbecame an immersive setting for theperformance. The surreal, playful andeccentric features of the building becameprops and a set. ‘The performance challenged the nature of story telling intheatre,’ says Khonsari. ’But in the context

//THE LANGUAGE OFARCHITECTURE DIFFERS FROM THAT OF ART... WECRITICALLY EVALUATE EACH STEP OF THE PROCESS, FROM THE BRIEF AND THE ECONOMICSTO COLLABORATIONS WITHCLIENTS, PUBLIC AND ARTCOMMISSIONING BODIES//

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Below right: One of therecently completedresource centres built byPublic Works in westBengal, India

Bottom row: The FolkFloat (2007) created a mobile archive, an idea part-adopted at the Giftshop

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of the house, it was a balance between thereal and ethereal. People didn’t know whatwas a prop or part of the building.’

In 2009, the architect worked on amobile theatre called ‘My Club’ incollaboration with the theatre company.Together the reinterpreted a flat bed ex-army Bedford truck to carry a set andorganised a series of events that engaged the audience outside of the spectacle ofperformance. They continue to work on the project, when funds become available, to add more components, testing thepotential of each chosen typology, exploring the ways to encourage proactiveparticipation and of bringing people together through cultural intervention. It isarchitecture as prop and prop as architecturebut once the performance has finished, thearchitecture still has to perform.

Public works success comes from being continually self-critical and working

to evaluate the long-term impact of theiractions. The practice looks at the public asindividuals and uses each project to examinewhat specific conditions can reaffirmcommunity identity through built work and public interaction, in a sense it is a formof regeneration.

Khonsari is leading a project for PublicWorks in West Bengal, India. Working withNGO Baglanatak and London MetropolitanUniversity to identify and save traditionalcrafts. Public Works has provided resourcecentres that allow the communities tocontinue the traditions that were onceprevalent, and has helped document and mapthe origins and processes involved in thecrafts, so the knowledge can be shared andpassed on. ‘We see the public as experts’,says Khonsari. ‘And it’s learning from themwhat we can as architects and artists to helpthem retain a sense of identity and culturethrough our work that drives us.’ .


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