The Architecture of Landscape and the Landscape of Architecture

The London Festival of Architecture is increasingly at the heart of debates on landscape and placemaking as well as architecture. Its director reflects on its impact across London.

by Rosa Rogina

Year on year, the London Festival of Architecture stages a vibrant and diverse programme of public events and interventions across the capital. From lectures and debates to engage and stimulate professional and academic audiences to activities for children and their families. With a rich mix of installations, exhibitions, tours, talks, performances and public realm interventions, the Festival continues to enthuse and to engage with the public, test new ideas, and celebrate and support London’s architectural and design talent.

From a personal perspective, ever since joining the team in 2016, I have been struck by the Festival’s ability to impact everyday experiences of the city: something that’s going to be needed more than ever as London continues to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, and as we focus more keenly on the climate emergency.

Making of cities today should be a democratic act between the professionals and the public. A year ago, the Government made changes to its planning policy framework, including a range of measures which positioned inclusive placemaking, improvements to communities’ infrastructure and beauty at the heart of the planning system. And whilst I have some reservations around the use of the word “beauty”, as its meaning is more commonly associated with aesthetic appearance rather than quality, this announcement came as a timely reminder for the industry to drive up design standards and to create more inclusive spaces that reflect and are designed in collaboration with their final users.

Ever since the first edition of the London Festival of Architecture in 2004, then titled the Clerkenwell Architecture Biennale, the Festival aims to democratise discussions around architecture and find new ways to look at familiar places. In 2004, the Festival staged a cattle drive down St Johns Street to Smithfield Market, simulating the historical market route, while two years later 15,000 people went to see Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano driving 60 sheep across the Millennium Bridge, making use of the historic droving rights of the Freemen of the City of London.

Back in 2008, the Festival stretched its ambitions further, with Exhibition Road closed to traffic for the first time to showcase new work and future possibilities. Activated with popup installations by practices including Foster + Partners and 6a Architects, food stalls and performances, the road closure served as part of the public consultation on the long-term improvements to the public realm on one of London’s key routes. The event was followed by the implementation of Dixon Jones’ pioneering shared spaces scheme ahead of the 2012 London Olympics, a pivotal moment of turning a piece of pop-up tactical urbanism into a permanent public good.

Building on the Festival’s rich legacy of urban experimentation and innovation, in recent years we have been collaborating with a variety of organisations, including leading cultural organisations, local authorities, business improvement districts and private organisations on a number of design competitions.

Exhibition Road 2008

© London Festival of Architecture

Home Away from Hive by Mizzi Studio

© Luke O’Donovan

Algae Meadow by Wayward and Seyi Adelekun

© Luke O’Donovan

From temporary seating and pocket parks to more permanent public realm interventions, these projects aim to showcase value of good design and make a demonstrable impact to the urban environment for people who live, work, and visit London. Our mission has always been to support emerging talent and showcase the difference that even a very small-scale intervention can make to our city. To coincide with the 10th anniversary of Dixon Jones’ shared space works and in the run-up to the UK hosting the COP26 Summit in November 2021, last summer we returned to Exhibition Road to collaborate with Discover South Kensington, the V&A, Science Museum and Goethe-Institut on a design competition seeking a series of temporary greening interventions that explored greater greening and biodiversity for the road. An algae factory, a timber mound, and pieces of decommissioned wind turbine blades were introduced for a period of three months, also informing longer-term thinking about further improvements to the area’s public realm and ecology. The after-effects of COVID-19 have made us test unknown models of using the city in many ways relatable to the urban conditions that a festival can create; from pop-up bike lanes and new pedestrian walkways to al fresco dining. And although there is a growing list of good practice examples, the last two years served as a reminder to us all that a shift to a more adequate and equal provision of access to urban space has been far too slow.

In this context, London Festival of Architecture’s 2022 theme of ‘Act’ feels particularly relevant. After such as long period of enforced passivity, the imperative to act is felt by so many of us, whether we are architects or not, while the pandemic has exposed a vast number of things that need to be challenged. One thing is certain – we need to act now. For the Festival, we have collaborated with a number of London Boroughs on the delivery of engaging public realm interventions as part of our competitions, including Somers Town Acts with Camden Council and Pews and Perches with the Royal Docks.

Both projects take into account the imperative to act. Somers Town Acts project involved developing a creative temporary installation along Phoenix Road, which is planned to be transformed as part of the Greening Phoenix Road project. Design proposals took into consideration aspirations that have emerged through community engagement, including creating a space that moves from grey to green, safe and accessible for all, sociable, well-connected, and that reflects the unique character of Somers Town.

Happy Street Rail by Yinka Ilori

© Luke O’Donovan

Pews and Perches invited architecture, design students, and recent graduates, to deliver five playful benches that celebrate and transform the Royal Docks as a place to sit, rest and play. Now in its third year, the project highlights the transformative impact of small-scale interventions in the public realm and showcases design solutions that reflect on how architecture should act in the face of climate emergency, social injustice, and the needs of a changing society. Due to their temporary nature, festivals can often be distanced from the life of the cities in which they are held. Yet, it is precisely their temporal dimension that can offer opportunities for festival producers and participants to experiment, test ideas and negotiate change.

Rosa Rogina is an architect, researcher and curator currently working as Director at London Festival of Architecture, leading on development, curation and delivery of the Festival’s annual programme. She has previously worked for MVRDV, Grimshaw Architects and Farshid Moussavi Architecture. Rosa has co-curated the Montenegrin Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Biennale and has been curator in residence at Vienna Design Week 2020.