London Festival of ARchitecture History - 2006 - Change

A modular installation, made up of 140 boomerangs, this project activated West Smithfield in the City of London during June 2006 and rethought how the space used as a space of culture and joy. The installation could be assembled in various forms to create fluid, playful forms in response to site-specificities, one being the host of an exhibition of local school children’s work! 

A series of railings exhibitions set up along a route from Southwark to King's Cross, alongside a connected map allowed members of the public to navigate this mini exhibitions encouraged people to engage with the surrounding urban environment, encompassing both old and new buildings. The project was organised with the help of Lovejoy, MOLAS, Farrell and Partners and Benedict O'Looney, and explored how different spaces across the city could be activated and used to enhance our experience in the city - such as railings. 

The Big London Brainstorm, curated by Tom Dyckhoff, was a chance for anyone interested in London's built environment to come together and consider solutions for development and futureproofing. The exhibition, designed by Piercy Conner, took centre stage at the biennale hub, and, with a nod to good old-fashioned British nutty inventors such as Wallace (AND Gromit), Cedric Price, Heath Robinson, Joseph Bazalgette and Baldrick, and presented creative solutions for London's future.

This exhibition, installed across Millennium Bridge, explored the history of bridges in London - from mysterious ties to crime and unknown stories, to their royal significance. The exhibition was created by Peter Ackroyd, Bisset Adams, Wordsalad, Arup, Foster and Partners, City of London and 3M, and was so popular, it remained in situ for many weeks following the Festival!

The Student Festival involved students from architecture and urban environment and higher education courses across the UK working with children from schools in the biennale boroughs of Camden, Islington, the City of London and Southwark. Together they designed and built major interventions along the 5km LABo6 walking and cycling route. The impressive installations - permanent and temporary structures - added light, sound and colour and provided seating and shelter in public spaces along the route during the day and the night.

Internationally acclaimed Italian architect Renzo Piano gave a talk - or 'sermon' - at to kick off the 2006 Festival. Declaring his love for Southwark, Piano spoke about architecture as a struggle between practicality and spirituality, to a packed out Southwark Cathedral.

Following the success of the cattle drive that opened the 2004 Biennale, 6o sheep were driven between the bustling Borough food market and the reinstated historic St Bartholomew's Fair, across Millennium Bridge and led by Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano. The project aimed to highlight the rights that freemen of the city hold, to hoard sheep into the heart of the city of London. Although still very unknown, the delivery of the sheep drive brought hundreds of people to the heart of the city of London.

Following the iconic Sheep Drive across Millenium Bridge, Smithfield hosted a re-creation of the ancient St Bartholomew Fair, with the animals spending the day in their own architect-designed pen in the shadows of St Bartholomew's Hospital, Smithfield Market and the surrounding streets. The area was closed to traffic, with a backdrop of market stalls selling a variety of goods and bringing alive the spirit of the old fair and evoking the richly layered history of this important public space.

Two Passeggiatas were held on the closing weekend of the Festival. The two sold out tours included a gastronomic tour of the Biennale walk route: breakfast at Borough Market, lunch in Smithfield Market, ice cream at St John Square, biscotti and drinks at Exmouth Market and finally drinks in King's Cross. The tours were led by Ken Powell and Biennale director Peter Murray and attracted a very wide audience including foodies from Portsmouth who came to London exclusively for the tour!

During June 2006, the Festival team launched the 'Architecture film programme' at the Barbican, bringing Architecture to a wider, outside the industry audience. Now run by the Architecture Foundation, this was the first time architecture had been the focus of a programme like this, and opened up invited many new people into conversations around architecture and the city.