LONDON, ENGLAND.- Eley Kishimoto and 6a Architects present their architectural collaboration Hairywood tower, a 6.3 metre high urban summer house, opening tomorrow14 July running until 31 August 2005 and launching The Architecture Foundation¹s new London gallery The Yard.

Merging pattern and architecture, Eley Kishimoto and 6a Architect¹s collaboration explores the impact each has on the other to invite questions about architecture, the city, and our relationship with them. The plywood tower, laser cut with Eley Kishimoto¹s pattern of Rapunzel¹s hair and sitting within a space overlaid with landscape print, playfully challenges the possibilities of public space from a new perspective.

A small space at the very top of the tower, lined with printed timber and upholstery, creates a private world opening itself onto the street and its views. Dappled light affects the interior space during the day, while at night the tower is lit from within, glowing like a giant lantern. Protected behind the tower, the printed deck provides a larger public space connected to the adjacent gallery, with printed benches. The physical qualities of the architecture are transformed by using pattern to vary the light, colour and texture, meeting pragmatic demands of shading on a south facing courtyard, as well as more romantic notions of privacy and enclosure.

Inspired by the 1958 film Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot by Jacques Tati, Eley Kishimoto and 6a Architects have combined architecture and pattern to temporarily transform this small urban site into a directly accessible public space and experience. Tati¹s beautiful heroine began every day by opening her hotel bedroom window and gazing out over the beach and sea. This juxtaposition of interior intimacy and public space was created in reality from a single immaculate bay window held high above the beach on a structural wooden tower. Hairywood reinterprets Tati¹s romantic image on Old Street; a small domestic beacon offering a new human interaction with the relentless traffic and urban environment.

Hairywood is sponsored by Arnold Foundation, Crispin Kelly, Baylight Properties and GAUDI.