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Awards: Round One, November 2004: Chatham Place Development

Project Update, 11 July 2005

My workÖ is about public things ñ about the social, the general, what is common, what is shared.
I make art as a focus, a condenser, a complicator of social feeling.

Marion Coutts

Marion Coutts has given the title Mirror Mirror to her proposals for Chatham Place, Reading. She will present some of her ideas for the project and discuss her earlier work at a free public event at 6 pm on 14 July at Reading Town Hall. Contact Kerry Duggan at Artists in the City on 0118 939 0913 for further information and to reserve a place at the talk. A public exhibition of designs for the Chatham Place development can be seen at the Renaissance Hotel, Reading from 20 ñ 23 July 2005.

Mirror Mirror outlines the theme of reflection and repetition and indicates many ways in which this might be interpreted throughout the site. Drawing on Reading's history, topography and economic development, Coutts identifies distinctive visual motifs that contribute to the town's identity. There are currently two strands to Coutts' working method. The first grows out of an ongoing dialogue with the design team and results in subtle contributions to many aspects of the site design. The second is developing proposals for integrating an artwork into the plans for the public realm. These proposals are currently under consideration and will be developed in full detail during the summer and early autumn.

The Chatham Place development will incorporate apartments for key workers, shared equity housing, private flats, retail units and other public facilities. Marion Coutts' involvement with the design team is supported by Amec Developments and managed by Artists in the City ñ a public art programme delivered through Reading Borough Council's arts service. The development of Marion Coutts' contribution to the project can be followed on www.artistsinthecity.org.uk

Project Proposal

Chatham Place Development, Reading
Reading, Berkshire

Client
AMEC Developments Ltd.

Artist
Marion Coutts

Project partners
Charlie Fulford, Regeneration Director, AMEC Developments Ltd.
Cartwright Pickard, architects
Townshends, landscape architects
Tammy Bedford, Arts Manager, Reading Borough Council

PROJECT Award
Team-Building Award £10,000

Value of design phase
£20,000

Estimated value of construction phase
£4.5 million

Project description
The six acre Chatham Street Regeneration Area is being redeveloped by AMEC in partnership with Reading Borough Council for residential, commercial, retail and leisure use. It will extend the heart of the town centre to the west and create the first physical link in the town between the two sides of the Inner Distribution Road.

The PROJECT award will fund an artist to join the multidisciplinary team working on the design and construction of a development which will incorporate 96 apartments for key workers and shared equity housing, 200 private flats, a car park, A3 retail units and a new public square.