London Festival of Architecture 2015
London Festival of Architecture (LFA) is in full swing. We bring you the highlights of the festival so far as well as our picks for upcoming events.
The first few weeks of LFA saw a series of talks centred on community engagement. Among these was a talk on Placemaking and Technology, which explored works performed by various agencies that are enriching the city through pop-ups, public engagement, and research relating to improving the use of the city and current technology to make more of such projects viable.
As part of a remarkable installation titled Giant Dolls House Project – SHOEBOX for SHELTER in the Shelter café in Old Street, London, children from local schools and architects were invited to make an individual dollhouse room, in an empty shoebox. The completed boxes were assembled onto a large black canvas and combined through ramps, ropes and ladders to form an extensive series of spaces. The installation reflects the way in which communities grow, highlighting the need for housing as an integral part of work life. The collection of spaces that grew during the exhibition resembles the idea of a work in progress by illustrating the way in which individual homes and workspaces are linked to one another to form a larger community. The installation is part of an ongoing initiative that engages local communities and raises money for the homeless charity Shelter.
A debate titled Cultivating Creative Cities led by Munira Mirza, Deputy Mayor of London for Education and Culture and Will Alsop, Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire and Royal Academian, explored how creative places in the city of London can thrive. The debate explored the idea of whether creativity can be planned for through policy and design or whether it has its own ‘natural’ lifecycle.
A different and ongoing initiative forming part of the festival is the online exhibition ARCHade LDN taking place on Twitter, which follows 30 emerging architects across the 30 days of the festival. The exhibition centres on how their current work is inspired by London while on a general level it explores how architecture is finding inspiration and information in social media.
The London Festival of Architecture promises to keep the high standard of talks, debates, installations and exhibitions across the remainder of the festival. We offer our picks for the final weeks.
Innovative ideas in workspace design will be presented at a talk titled Is Work Killing Us? which will focus on key elements and new options for workspace design. Among the issues addressed are elements leading to work satisfaction, the use of open spaces versus cubicles, and spaces designed to increase informal encounters leading to new ideas and innovation. The talk will be held on Wednesday 17 June 2015 at 6.30 pm (BST) at Roca Gallery in London.
An interactive exhibition titled The Future of Work by Google and Cloud Arch Studio will explore what workplaces might look like in 2020 based on the result of dynamic forces in technology, architecture, culture and the urban environment. Key elements of the exhibition will be previewed at London’s Google Campus from Monday 22 June 2015.
Another noteworthy talk, Reinventing the Arts Centre, will address London’s arts infrastructure, exploring ways in which the post-war model of arts centres are being challenged by new forms of art production. The talk will be held on Monday 29 June 2015 at 7.00 pm (BST) at the Barbican Centre in London.
London Festival of Architecture will continue until Tuesday 30 June 2015. Stay tuned to fluoro for further highlights from the festival.
www.londonfestivalofarchitecture.org
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