A Room for London in UK by Living Architecture and Artangel

Article source: Living Architecture and Artangel

David Kohn Architects and artist Fiona Banner have been selected to design A Room for London, a temporary installation that will sit on top of the Queen Elizabeth Hall at Southbank Centre, London and be part of the London 2012 Festival.

Night View

• Architect: Living Architecture and Artangel
• Name of Project: A Room for London
• Location: London, UK
• Project manager: McLennan project management
• Quantity surveyor: Boyden Group LLP
• Structural Engineer: Price & Myers
• M&E: Max Fordham LLP
• Main contractor and fabricator: Millimetre Ltd

The design competition for A Room for London, which attracted entries from around 500 architects and artists from across the world, was instigated by Living Architecture, and Artangel, in association with Southbank Centre. The brief was to create a room on one of the most visible sites in the British capital, where up to two people at a time could spend a unique night in an exemplary architectural landmark.

David Kohn and Fiona Banner’s winning design is for a boat which, perched on the Queen Elizabeth Hall roof, will appear to have come to rest there, grounded, perhaps, from the retreating waters of the Thames below.  From the lower and upper ‘decks’ of this beautifully crafted timber structure, there will be extraordinary views of a London panorama that stretches from Big Ben to St Paul’s cathedral.

External View

A Room for London is a cultural collaboration between Living Architecture and Artangel, in association with Southbank Centre and the London 2012 Festival.

David Kohn Architects is a young London-based practice founded by David Kohn in 2007. The practice is known for its emphasis on collaboration and attention to detail. Recent completed projects include a rooftop pavilion for the Architecture Foundation, a temporary restaurant for the Royal Academy and a West End contemporary art gallery.  Awards include the 2009 Young Architect of the Year and the 2010 One-Off House Architect of the Year for a holiday home in Norfolk.

Fiona Banner is an artist. Her work repeatedly explores the themes of narrative and history. For her recent installation “Harrier and Jaguar” she placed two fighter planes in the central atrium of Tate Britain. She has explored the retelling of history through war movies, most notable through her book The Nam, which retells major Vietnam films in her own words.

A Room for London

Artangel commissions and produces exceptional projects by outstanding contemporary artists. Over the past two decades, the projects have materialised in a range of different sites and situations and in countless forms of media. Artangel is generously supported by Arts Council England, the Artangel International Circle, Special Angels and the Company of Angels.

Southbank Centre is the UK’s largest arts centre, occupying a 21-acre site that sits in the midst of London’s most vibrant cultural quarter on the South Bank of the Thames. The site has an extraordinary creative and architectural history stretching back to the 1951 Festival of Britain. Southbank Centre is home to the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and the Hayward Gallery as well as The Saison Poetry Library and the Arts Council Collection.

The London 2012 Cultural Olympiad is the largest cultural celebration in the history of the modern Olympic and Paralympic Movements.  Spread over four years, it is designed to give everyone in the UK a chance to be part of London 2012 and inspire creativity across all forms of culture, especially among young people.

The culmination of the Cultural Olympiad will be the London 2012 Festival, bringing leading artists from all over the world together from 21 June 2012 in this UK-wide festival – a chance for everyone to celebrate London 2012 through dance, music, theatre, the visual arts, film and digital innovation and leave a lasting legacy for the arts in this country.

Tags: London, UK

Category: Room

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