In June 2012 there was a strange, heady atmosphere in London. The Olympics were coming to town and there had been a long period of pessimism, suspicion and ridicule about the organisers’ ability to deliver. However, as we got closer it became apparent that it was going to be alright, things were coming together and a sort of fever was building towards a crescendo. In the midst of this heightened excitement, Peter Murray handed me a small pink badge with a pineapple on it and welcomed me to my first London Festival of Architecture. The theme back then was ‘The Playful City’ to reference the Olympic games but also to show that the architectural community could bring further public joy to a city already rapt in jubilation. I was so impressed with LFA’s breadth of events and the spirit of the participants that I vowed to get involved.
I’m pleased to say that as the festival grows in scope and ambition, so does its ability to suck me into exciting projects. This year I’ll be at the Royal Academy of Arts once again, watching over teams of architects desperately connecting thousands of bricks against the clock in the annual Lego Challenge. You’ll also see me checking people into the LFA’s first trade-show partner, Vision 2017, to watch a star-studded line-up of speakers usher in a bright future for the profession. Not only that but I’ll be supporting the organisers of a pop-up choir in an abandoned beer factory in the Royal Docks, as well as a fast-paced evening of discussion about Walthamstow (my own back yard) in a reconditioned arts house cinema.
But it won’t just be ‘work’ at the festival, I’ll be a keen spectator too and one of the highlights has got to be the Museum of Architecture’s 1:1 Sandcastles project taking place across the Royal Borough of South Kensington. Further south, another installation will take shape in the form of IF_DO’s After Image pavilion outside the Dulwich Picture Gallery. I will make sure I join one of the London Ambler’s intriguing city tours and architects We Made That will bring a mixture of politics and history to Bermondsey for the Unlimited Edition Live! In an ideal world, I would also make it to one of the talks by major international architects such as Kengo Kuma, Richard Rogers, Daniel Libeskind and David Adjaye. But even if I can’t see everything, there’s always time to stop and try a little cake at WATG’s Great Architectural Bake-off.
