Europe’s largest annual architecture event—The London Festival of Architecture (LFA)—is now open and running the largest program in the festival’s thirteen-year history.
The LFA, which runs until June 30, features a wide range of events centered on this year’s “memory” theme.
“London is the world’s architectural hub, and the London Festival of Architecture not only demonstrates London’s architectural talent but also allows people to have a say in how architects, developers and communities can work together to address change,” said Tamsie Thomson, Director of the LFA, in the press release by Goodfellow Communications.
One expected highlight of this year’s festival is the Dulwich Pavilion, a new event pavilion at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, located in the heart of Dulwich Village, that is the product of a competition organized by the LFA along with the Gallery and Almancantar property investment and development company. Supported by Arts Council England, the pavilion marks the gallery’s two-hundred year anniversary and will feature events including talks and performances.
Designed by IF_Do, an emerging London architecture practice which won the Gallery's competition earlier this year, the rectangular form of the pavilion is designed in response to the Gallery's existing building, which originally opened to the public in 1817. The timber roof of the pavilion and its surrounding “veil” create a canopy-like environment, while the lightness of the structure engages with the wider, minimal landscape. The shadows and reflections of shadows created by the structure and the use of mirrors, placed at various angles within the pavilion, are meant to add to a layering of images and the interplay of space, perception, and memory.
The project is a collaboration with StructureMode and Weber Industries, and will be on display until October 8.
Another highlight of the LFA is Entwine in Grosvenor Arch at Battsea Power Station—a timber three-dimensional structural framework built from curving plywood beams that forms an octahedral-shaped sculpture—by Lianne Clark, of Guy Holloway Architects, and Tim Hornsby, her partner who specializes in architectural ceramics. Guests can also visit the Cressingham Gardens Estate for the Sanctum Ephemeral outdoor photo installation, featuring a series of intimate portraits of residents by artist and resident Mark Aitken.
Other events include the Cody Dock Masterplan, Hoxton Hall Tours, Building Memories, The Great Architectural Bake-Of, Reusing Londons Lost Infrastructure, Conserving Spaces of Memory and Heritage, and Royal Albert Wharf Open Day, as well as talks by renowned architects Sir David Adjaye, Daniel Libeskind and Lord Richard Rogers.
