What to see at London Festival of Architecture 2019

Above and Beyond – a new installation by Etcetera Studio

A new installation at RIBA Portland Place plays ‘on the notion of illusionary assemblies’ and provides ‘clues for the visitor and allowing them to imagine a space where alternative futures may be possible’ – it’s all very mysterious. The form designed an conceptualised by Etcetera Studio, the collaborative practice of architect Tom Parsons and artist Edward Crooks, lifts from Sir Edwin Lutyens’ Cenotaph, a war memorial on Whitehall in London unveiled 100 years ago to the public, which ‘traces the arc of a sphere 100m below the earth and tapers to a point 300m into the sky.’ Image courtesy of Etcetera Studio

3 June – 6 July
RIBA, 66 Portland Place, London W1B 1AD

Expanding Cultural Boundaries – a tour of Peckham with Carl Turner Architects

Exploring how cultural spaces in cities break down boundaries, Carl Turner Architects lead a tour of the creative neighbourhood of Peckham where they have been working on two projects designed as platforms for employment and education opportunities for local people. The architects will lead participants on a ‘backstage’ tour of Peckham Levels and the Mountview Academy telling the full story of how the projects began and their impact on the community.

26 June 2019, 4 – 6pm
Peckham Levels, Level 6, Peckham Town Centre Carpark, 95A Rye Lane, SE15 4ST

Blurring boundaries between inhabiting, designing, and making

A creative panel – Anthony Meacock, Assemble, Johanna Gibbons, landscape architect, Takeshi Hayatsu, architect, Jenny Dunn, artist, and Eric Guibert, gardener architect – will present a series of case studies that explore co-design and co-making. Each of the contributors have a practice that blurs the boundaries that our modern world has placed upon deisgn, making and living, which chair Kester Rattenbury will discuss the qualities and challenges of after the discussion. Image courtesy of Assemble

6 June, 6:30 – 9:15pm
University of Westminster – Marylebone Campus, 35 Marylebone Road, London, NW1 5LS

Whitechapel Bell Foundry

Architecture studio 31/44 is behind the redevelopment of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry and will host an exhibition, site tour and short talk illuminating the site’s history with drawings, images and large-scale models. Now its bell founding has been relocated outside of London, the opportunity arose to open up the storied site to the public and 31/44 have been hatching plans for its future use.

13 June, 4–8pm
Whitechapel Bell Foundry, Whitechapel E1 1EW

Manhattan Loft Corporation X SOM Talk

Harry Handelsman, founder and CEO of Manhattan Loft Corporation, and Kent Jackson, Design Partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), will discuss the ambitious vision of designing a vertical community and changing perceptions of high-rise living on the cantilevered 25th floor sky garden at The Stratford. Photography: Luke Hayes

18 June, 6:30 – 8:30pm
Manhattan Loft Gardens, 20 International Way Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London, E20 1GQ

Every Building on the Old Kent Road 2019

Anise Gallery and Matthew White curate a photographic documentation of the Old Kent Road as a homage to Ed Ruscha’s ‘Every Building on the Sunset Strip 1966’. Photographs will be taken from a moving truck, then stitched together in post-production and displayed as an elevation of the full 1.8 miles on either side of the road. The project will trace the Old Kent Road’s long-evolving cultural and architectural history. Image: Matthew White

3 – 14 June, 11am – 5pm
Anise Gallery, 13a Shad Thames London SE1 2PU

The Quintessential English Garden: what does it mean to be native?

In Cabot Square between the high-rise offices of Canary Wharf, Lily Jencks Studio hosts a pop-up garden based on the neo-classical gardens of Stourhead, a National Trust property in Wiltshire. Comparing people to plants, Jencks questions what it means to be global, transient and non-native. The playful garden juxtaposes the native with the exotic and the natural with the man-made through the concept of the English ‘picturesque’.

10 June – 12 July
Cabot Square, Canary Wharf, London E14 4QT

Graphic Content

SODA studio and learning network YCN explore the symbiotic relationship between architecture and graphic design in this evening of discussion and debate. Questions of how graphic identities are designed into buildings and how branding is often part of early concept discussions will be explored by speakers including Russell Potter, director, SODA, Joy Nazzari, dn&co, Martyn Evans, U+I and Morag Myerscough. Photography: Oneworks

11 June, 6 – 8pm
YCN Rivington Rooms, 58-60 Rivington St, Hackney, EC2A 3AU

House of Leave, House of Remain

Exploring the boundaries between people generated by the Brexit referendum debate, this installation, designed by Przemek Rylko, forces visitors to choose a ‘Leave’ or ‘Remain’ entrance to the space contained inside a domed rotunda. A twisting bench with a ‘Leave’ and a ‘Remain’ end asks visitors to become partners instead of opponents in the debate – instead of for or against, the installation is about establishing common ground – a first step towards transcending divsions. Image: Przemek Rylko

15 – 30 June, 10am – 6pm
UCL at Here East, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, E15 2GW

The Wooden Parliament

An open-air wooden pavilion by Spanish architects Cristina Díaz Moreno and Efrén Ga Grinda of the Madrid-based practice AMID.cero9 in collaboration with BAC ecg / evolve structural consultants will be popping up in Kings Cross. The 7m high structure is made with timber from Spanish timber company Finsa, which supported the project, in collaboration with Coal Drops Yard, with organisation by the Museum of Architecture. Conceived as an ‘immersive room wrapped with an ornamented dress’, is seeks to show the way architecture can serve as a mediator in public space. The Museum of Architecture will be hosting events in the pavilion for the duration of the LFA.

3 – 30 June
Granary Square, King’s Cross, London N1C 4AA