London Festival of Architecture

by jordan | June 21, 2008 at 11:38 am | 260 views | 5 comments

London becomes a huge installation site as of this weekend, thanks to the London Festival of Architecture. Visitors can marvel, and residents can look at their city anew. lectures, demonstrations, installations, pavilions, and guided tours will combine to bring visitors up close and personal with London Town's past, present and future.

Themed “fresh,” this year’s festival aims to get locals and visitors to view the city with new eyes. Debates and discussions held on Fresh Flower, a mobile platform designed by the UK-based firm Tonkin Liu, will encourage “fresh thinking.” Student-designed installation pieces will display “fresh talent,” and guided walks and bike tours will give attendees the opportunity to take in some “fresh air.”

Highlights include a retrospective of Richard Rogers at the Design Museum; talks by Daniel Libeskind and David Chipperfield; a treasure hunt; a mass public picnic and architectural jelly banquet by artists Bompas & Parr; dance performances commissioned by Grimshaw Architects; and an exhibition space in the shape of a giant wardrobe by Berlin-based artist Simon Fujiwara. The festival, a re-branded version of the London Architecture Biennale, last held in 2006, will see the city divided into five hubs, each curated by a different organization, including the festival's central committee, the Royal Institute for British Architects, New London Architecture, the Architecture Foundation, and David Morley Architects.

The buzz of activity over the month of the Festival will move across five key 'Hubs', with large-scale public events taking place in a different Hub each weekend.

The Festival runs from 20 June – 20 July and includes street installations, exhibitions, guided walks, cycle rides, boat tours of the city's river and canals, parties, design workshops, debates, breakfast talks, and weekend street markets.