The Architect Has Left The Building

What happens when new buildings open their doors? This dual-screen film installation weaves together moments of architectural joy and intimacy, drawn from the professional archives of renowned photographer and filmmaker Jim Stephenson. Commissioned by RIBA as a response to this year’s London Festival of Architecture theme, ‘In Common’, the installation offers a series of cinematic vignettes that subtly document the ways people use architecture when left to their own devices. Featuring recent projects by Henley Halebrown, Jamie Fobert Architects, Mae Architects and others, the films engage at different scales to quietly disrupt the traditionally ‘neat’ visions of these perhaps already familiar buildings, as usually presented to the public.