Jan Kattein Architects completes bio-based community garden in King's Cross

Jan Kattein Architects has opened a community garden on a triangular plot in King's Cross, London, serving as a permanent home for educational charity Global Generation. The site features three small buildings—a classroom, office, and community kitchen—arranged around a central courtyard, all built primarily from bio-based materials including handmade bricks, wooden shakes, and a cob wall made from locally-sourced waste earth. Construction took two years through a community build programme involving a team of on-site architects, builders, trainees, and 3,000 volunteers. The largest volume, the community kitchen, is clad with 12,000 handmade shakes and topped with pyramidal roofs. The classroom has a low-lying rectilinear form with a spinal cob wall and a large circular skylight. The office is an angular structure with 2,000 handmade bricks inscribed by their makers and a green roof. The garden includes an edible forest, rubble garden, polytunnel, and pond. Studio founder Jan Kattein stated that the unconventional construction process prioritized volunteer engagement over speed.