The brick series was House of Jonn reaction to the ‘RAW’ theme imposed by the Royal Academy of Arts for this years summer exhibition.

We were rejected….

Without sounding like whinny losers this was the reaction we were expecting and in a way played up to. The architecture room was co-ordinated by David ‘vitality, risk taking and a necessary sense of adventure’ Chipperfield.

We could not help but prod a little fun at ourselves and the theme by creating 4 very impractical and improbable brick types to live upto the RAW theme.

These included the acrylic Banana brick, Cock Arch brick, Wizard of Oz brick and the Recession proof brick. All were produced as editions of 25.

Description of something on the brick.The above images show the Wizard of Oz brick depicting a scene from the story of Dorothy and Toto on the yellow Brick road.

Something entertainging here

Above is the banana brick and below is the cock arch brick.

House of Jonn have completed work with Tom Greenall and SCDLP Architects on the design and staging of Beethoven’s opera, Fidelio, in the grounds of a former Russian gulag. Performed in July by Perm State Opera and Ballet Theatre of Russia, the opera was created as a promenade piece, part set design, part site-specific installation, using architectural elements to connect the present-day site with the story of political imprisonment in Beethoven’s 200 year old work.

SOOOOOO since graduating from the Royal College of Art last year House of Jonn’s Jordan has been involved in a rather unique project known as ‘Fidelio in the Gulag’. which we briefly blogged about in a previous post. After a long long long long long year of hard work and many unknowns the project has finally come to fruition and I could not be more happy!

The project has been director Michael Hunt’s vision and has been realised by the SCDLP architects office who myself and Thomas Greenall have worked alongside to achieve this. Our role was to facilitate the performance of this site specific opera through the creation and installation of set design interventions that worked within context.

In July, 2010, Perm State Tchaikovsky Opera and Ballet Theatre will present a unique production of Beethoven’s only opera “Fidelio” on the territory of the former GULAG camp for political prisoners “Perm 36″, which is now a museum of the history of political repressions.

The production is conceived by the creators as a site-specific piece and not as traditional onstage performance. The epic number of cast members, inspired by the universal idea of love and freedom of Beethoven’s great opera, will bring the whole experience of the camp alive to the audience.

I’m really happy to have had this opportunity to share this project with you, I’ll make sure to post some additional images of the set in particular in the next posts.
Also we are currently in the process of making a short film of the project so I’ll get some clips up soon.

photos by Alex Gushin Salt

Over the past few months I (Jordan) have been conspiring and collaborating with the brilliantly talented Alain de Botton on his new literately project. Un-fortunately I really can’t go into too much detail about this project because it’s top secret but I can say it’s been a rather top notch experience.
It’s a challenging project but the subject matter has been fascinating and inspiring.

I have included some images below that did not make the final cut – but hopefully they give a little [cryptic] taster of what’s to come….

‘Welcome to your City’ has been a weird, wonderful and hugely informative experience. From untouched wilderness to high-rise metropolis, our installation played out a mini-drama of urbanisation on full view to London’s busiest street. We were amazed by the enthusiasm of the public response and tested by the sheer number of people lining up to have a place in Wonderville made in their honour. After overseeing a population explosion from 1 to 1000, we quickly evacuated the city before a brutal demolition de-install. Out of the window and back in the real world now, we have gained another perspective on our creative practice that we look forward to taking on into forthcoming projects.
Many thanks to everyone who contributed and made Welcome to your City possible.

Alex Shepherd looking through the wonder window….

Wonderville is evolving; the population is growing.

If you want to discover the architect creative process, you still have 3 days to go down to Oxford street and meet House of Jonn.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE INSTALLATION