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Page 1: The Playful City— - Agnese Sanvito Playful City.… · Playful City Keywords London Location Network View All Add a comment 1 TweetTweet 24 4 RSS feed English or Italian or Spanish

ArchitectureSection

Tony MinichielloAuthor

06 Jul 2012Published

Andrew Burns, Architecture Foundation, DavidChipperfield, Exyzt, Gibbon's Rent, GrahamGussin, Haus-Rucker-Co, Jimenez Lai, LondonFestival of Architecture, London PleasureGardens, Manfred Ortner, Sarah Eberle, ThePlayful City

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Top and above: The London Pleasure Gardens. Photo Agnese Sanvito

Renewal at the micro-scale is also being tested at LFA 2012. Gibbon'sRent, near the soon to be completed Shard at London Bridge, used to beone of those neglected back alleys that people avoided. Architect AndrewBurns and landscape architect Sarah Eberle have turned it into a "theatreof the jungle", or at least the beginnings of one, as the winding garden hasbeen left incomplete to encourage local residents and businesses to takeownership of it and to develop it as they see fit. That bottom-up approachmay become a bigger factor in city planning: similarly inspired projectsare a feature of this year's festival.

Gibbon’s Rent, near the soon to becompleted Shard at London Bridge, used tobe one of those neglected back alleys thatpeople avoided. Architect Andrew Burnsand landscape architect Sarah Eberle haveturned it into a “theatre of the jungle”.Photo by Agnese Sanvito

In the same borough of Southwark, a larger-scale experiment is takingplace. An unused piece of land by some railway arches has been takenover by the Exyzt collective to create a "living installation", with mini-houses for rent, a cafe, sound-proof performance space, swimming pooland sauna. When I visited, the wooden terrace was almost complete, andthe arches had been turned into a workshop, sleeping quarters forvolunteers and a kitchen, with that British speciality, pork pies, on sale topassers-by. The project, titled the Reunion, will run until the end of July totest the economic sustainability of pop-ups and their influence onpermanent development.

"The bottom-up approach maybecome a bigger factor in cityplanning: similarly inspiredprojects are a feature of thisyear's festival."

Jimenez Lai / Bureau Spectacular, Three Little Worlds at the Architecture Foundation. Photo courtesy of Daniel Hewitt

Architecture festivals also, of course, celebrate the city, and many walksand cycle tours have been organised on themes such as brutalism, artdeco and docklands warehouses. LFA 2012 has also unearthed some lostgems. The WORK gallery in north London is hosting Inner World/InnenWelt, the UK's first major exhibition on the work of Haus-Rucker-Co, theViennese collective who disbanded 20 years ago, but whose "provisionalarchitecture" and dynamic, sometimes playful interventions in the publicrealm continue to influence emerging practices worldwide, including theLondon-based architects featured in Lucy Bullivant's recent book TheNew Arcadians. Haus-Rucker-Co member Manfred Ortner was present atthe exhibition, which featured drawings and models, and originalpublications, including Domus, that championed this groundbreakingpractice in the 1970s.

Andrew Burns and Sarah Eberle, Gibbon's Rent. Courtesy of Andrew Burns Architect

No architecture festival would be complete without some wider questionsbeing asked. Chicago-based architect Jimenez Lai writes comic strips totackle issues of architectural design. His stories lead to real-life buildingsand installations, three of which are to be found in the ArchitectureFoundation gallery, which will be his home for the duration of the festival,in full view of the passing public and visitors to the gallery. As Jimeneztold me while lounging in one of the installations: "There is room forperformance art in architecture. I do it to attain more knowledge aboutthe self. The whole point is to break that private-public boundary and tosee what comes out of it." During his residency, he will complete adrawing on the gallery walls— cave paintings to reflect his time there.Later, guests will take up residence and host film screenings, dinners,lectures and even a disco.

Haus-Ruckner-Co, Gelbes Herz ("Yellow heart"), 1968, at the WORK Gallery. Photo courtesy of Ortner & Ortner Baukunst

The festival has also offered more traditional formats for discussion anddebate, the most interesting perhaps being the talk held by artist GrahamGussin and internationally acclaimed architect David Chipperfield on theoverlaps between their work. Gussin shines powerful studio lights onforgotten parts of our cities, or non-places, as they are sometimesdescribed, and records the results in photographs. Chipperfield praisedtheir unexpected beauty and the surprising things that they revealedabout the urban context, but also took the opportunity to criticise currentplanning policy. "The city is a consequence of unconnected activities. Is itinherent that these type of spaces are always going to be bad?" he asked.His advice to overcome those challenges? "Architects have to besubversive and provide qualities that were not necessarily asked for."Tony Minichiello

Haus-Ruckner-Co, Gelbes Herz ("Yellow heart"), 1968, at the WORK Gallery. Photo courtesy of Ortner & Ortner Baukunst

The London Pleasure Gardens. Photo Agnese Sanvito

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WORK GalleryCheck it out! Inner World / Innen Welt in Domus as part of their rundown on the LondonFestival of Architecture 2012...

Reply · Like · July 9 at 4:01am

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The Playful City—This year's edition of the London Festival of Architecture invites architects, planners and the publicto reflect on whether cities do actually provide the best environment for people to improve theirquality of life. An report from by architecture London Tony Minichiello

More of the world's population than ever before are living in cities, andthe trend looks set to continue. Whether cities do actually provide thebest environment for people to improve their quality of life remainsuncertain, however. Holding an architecture festival over two weeks stillseems to be the best way to focus the attention of architects, planners andthe public on that crucial question, hence the continued validity of theLondon Festival of Architecture (LFA), which this year runs until 8 July.

If the festival has a headlining act, it is perhaps the London PleasureGardens, which present an unusual vision of urban renewal in the capital'sformer industrial heartland, dominated as it has been since the 1980s byspeculative housing and office development, at the expense of morecommunity-based enterprises. Inspired by the English pleasure garden,the 60,000 square metre site, surrounded by dilapidated industrial millsand landmarks such as the Dome and Canary Wharf, includes odditiessuch as a golf-ball-like concert hall, monopoly houses and an oyster barwith a grass roof that doubles as seating for the open-air cinema.

Although the gardens are still incomplete, the size of the crowds patientlywaiting for the site to open on its first day suggests that this mix ofindustrial heritage, Victorian-style entertainment and 21st century follieswill provide the variety that people have craved for decades in this part ofLondon.

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